NOTA News Newsletter July 2018 1

The particular conditions of custody
do little to foster positive sexual or
relational development. The boys
are locked in single cells and have
limited opportunities to socialise.
Officers often open their cell doors,
or the viewing flaps in them, without
warning, and boys comment that
despite being confined alone,
they have lost the right to privacy.
They can telephone approved
numbers, but calls are expensive,
time-limited and monitored. They
attend education classes (including
PSHE) in groups, but can rarely
talk about sexual matters without
creating discomfort for education or
prison staff and eliciting restrictive
responses.
Sexual banter is common between
the boys (shouting between the
windows of their cells), and is
typically of an aggressive and
necessarily public nature. Partners
and friends over the age of 16 are
able to visit, if approved by the
prison and the Youth Offending
Team (YOT), but interaction takes
place in a busy public room and
family members are often also
present. As a recent Howard
League briefing paper (2016)
pointed out, being in custody
precludes healthy adolescent
sexual expression or development.
The referrals we receive for
problematic sexual behaviour,
then, must be conceptualised in
the context of this abnormal and
dysfunctional environment.
Exhibitionism is thought to have a
prevalence rate of around 3% in the
general population (Långström and
Seto, 2006), which is not markedly
different from the rate seen in the
YOI at any given time. Researchers
have struggled to pinpoint any
specific aetiological factors beyond
those found more widely in sexual
offending, although Lee et al.
(2002) found that exhibitionists
endorsed a measure of childhood
emotional abuse/family dysfunction
significantly more often than
others who had committed sexual
offences. They were also more likely
to have shown signs of childhood
externalising problems such as
conduct disorder and ADHD.
Exhibitionism has been
conceptualised as a distortion
of an early phase of sexual
courtship (Freund and Watson,
1990), and, related to this, as a
misguided or profoundly clumsy
invitation to sex. It has also been
understood to act, for some, as
a substitute for ‘normal’ sexual
intercourse, as a direct means
of sexual relief, and as a sign of
a more general ‘hypersexuality’.
A number of studies, such as
Kafka and Hennen (2003), have
suggested that exhibitionists
are more likely to show other
compulsive, unconventional and
excessive sexual behaviour, and
that exhibitionism is often found
alongside, or preceding, other more
serious sexual offending.
A dynamic among exhibitionists
that seems particularly relevant in
our setting is a wish to be ‘seen’,
both perhaps in the existential
sense, and more explicitly, as
a sexual being, alongside the
awareness of the likelihood of
discovery and punishment. This
is clearly the case in a custodial
setting, where all individuals are
known and easily identifiable to
all staff. The behaviour therefore
carries with it a high risk of shame.
This seems to be both a perverse
driver for the behaviour and a
feature that inhibits the individual
from seeking help or admitting
difficulty, as is evident in the case
described below.
Case Example
NB: This case is a composite
of a series of those we
have worked with and all
identifying details have been
removed or altered.
Alex was a 17-year-old boy
serving a long sentence for
a serious non-sexual violent
offence. He had strained
relationships with family
members and had been
behaving violently in the home
and stealing his mother’s
property over several years.
He had not been in touch
with his father since the age
of eight, and had become
involved in a gang from about
the age of eleven.
A female prison officer
reported that Alex had called
her to his cell door to ask
for an application form, and
when she returned with it,
she opened his cell door
to find him naked from the
waist down, with an erection.
She left the form and did not
comment. After reviewing the
records and interviewing the
female officer, a member of
our service met with Alex, with
a senior male prison officer.
Alex stated that there had
been a ‘misunderstanding’
and declined further sessions.
Two weeks later, another
female officer reported that
Alex had asked her if his
penis was a normal size and
whether he could show it to
her. She had told him this was
not an appropriate question
and to talk to healthcare staff
if he was concerned. On a
third occasion, approximately
a week later, another female
prison officer reported that
Alex had asked her to bring
him his weekly newspaper
and when she had brought
it, she found him naked and
exposing his erect penis.
Our team member returned to
speak to Alex, who was angry
when the issues were raised,
refused to discuss them and
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