A survey of the sexual behaviour and sexual health of Australian prisoners

澳大利亚健康和关系研究电话调查最近报告了1.9万多名澳大利亚人的性态度、性知识、性健康和性行为。调查中被遗漏的群体之一是囚犯。然而，囚犯是性健康不良的高危群体。囚犯大多来自社会上最弱势的群体：他们更有可能失业，与其他澳大利亚人相比，他们的教育程度和收入都较低，而且许多人患有轻微的智力残疾和-或精神疾病。这项针对澳大利亚监狱囚犯的拟议调查将填补这一缺失的数据。在许多国家，囚犯是被遗忘的人群。只对囚犯的健康状况进行了几次调查。海外有一些针对特定监狱性行为的调查，尽管大多数调查集中在艾滋病毒风险上，并没有像美国、英国和法国针对监狱外囚犯的主要全国性调查那样，探索囚犯的性生活。监狱本身就是一个危害人们性健康的地方。在监狱里，发生的许多性行为都不是自愿的。监狱中的性侵犯可能导致严重的身体伤害以及包括艾滋病毒-艾滋病在内的性传播疾病的风险。尽管其中一些伤害可能严重到需要手术，但只有一小部分人报告给了当局。较年轻的囚犯(18-25岁)和那些身材矮小、身材瘦小或同性恋的人被攻击的风险更高。这项研究将探索监狱中性侵犯的相关因素，并提出预防建议。

The Australian Study of Health and Relationships telephone survey recently reported on the sexual attitudes, knowledge, health and behaviour of over 19,000 Australians. One of the groups that was omitted from that survey was prisoners. Yet prisoners are a high-risk group for sexual ill health. Prisoners are mostly drawn from the most disadvantaged groups in society: they are more likely to be unemployed, they have less education and lower incomes than other Australians, and many suffer from minor intellectual disabilities and-or mental illness. This proposed survey of inmates in Australian prisons will fill in this missing data. Prisoners are the forgotten population in many countries. Only a few surveys of prisoners' health have been performed. There are some surveys of sexual behaviour in particular prisons overseas, though most of them concentrate on HIV risks and do not explore the sexual lives of prisoners in the same way as the major national sex surveys in the US, the UK and France did for people living outside prison. Prison is itself a dangerous place for people's sexual health. In prison, much of the sex that occurs is not voluntary. Sexual assault in prisons can lead to serious physical injury as well as risk of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV-AIDS. Although some of these injuries can be sufficiently serious to require surgery, only a small proportion are reported to the authorities. Younger prisoners (aged 18-25) and those who are small, slightly built or gay, are at higher risk of being assaulted. This study will explore the factors surrounding sexual assault in prison and make recommendations for preventing it.