Every week there seems to be another story in the newspapers about the prosecution of a female prison officer or employee. It is always around sexual misconduct with a male prisoner - they usually claim 'Love made me do it!'. These incidents are not really about a bit of hanky panky in a damp Victorian cell, but the smuggling of mobile phones, drugs and other contraband.
Why would a professional officer do such a thing? It seems to be mainly a female officer problem. Females accounted for 42% of all prison staff. According to government figures, in the last three years, 36 prison officers have been sacked for inappropriate relationships with prisoners: 31 female, 5 male.
I had a pint with a newly qualified prison guard a few years ago. He told me that this issue is rife in the prison service and everyone knows it. He had only been doing the job a few weeks and some officers had told him to be watchful of his female colleagues for they are a weak point in security.
For the record, let me state that male prison guards also smuggle in contraband. But these incidents are nearly always a business opportunity to make money and no bodily fluids are exchanged.
The first question that pops into my mind is why are women working in male prisons?
Women are too weak to control men if they do not wish to be controlled. It makes sense to me to have prison guards made up of the sex of the prisoners. I do not want a man guarding female prisoners for obvious reasons. But it seems that diversity and box ticking strike again!
Women falling in love with criminals is not a new phenomenon, in fact, it is so common that we have a name for it: Hybristophilia.
This word is derived from the Greek word hubrizein meaning ‘to commit an outrage against someone’, and philo, meaning ‘having a strong affinity/preference for’.
Hybristophilia is categorised as a paraphilia. It sits alongside paedophilia, autogynephilia (being aroused by looking like a woman) and many other mental health conditions that involve sexual interest in 'the wrong' subject matter. Such sexual attraction mistakes are called Erotic Target Location Errors.
Let us look at some recent press headlines involving female prison staff:
- March 2023, Daily Mail: Eighteen female guards at 'Britain's cushiest jail' have been fired for having illicit affairs with inmates
- January 2023, Mirror: Prisoner 'had inappropriate relationships with TWO female jail staff'
- December 2022, Manchester Evening News: Prison officer sobs as she's jailed after falling in love with inmate and sending 'sexually explicit' videos
Many high-profile criminals, especially those who have committed the most serious crimes, receive bags of fan mail that would make pop stars envious. Letters are nearly always from females and many delve into sexually explicit language with tales of fantasies if they were ever to meet. Some of these women go on to marry the prisoner even though they can never be together.
Katherine Ramsland, a professor of forensic psychology at DeSales University, has spoken to many such women to try to gain an understanding of why they do what they do. She reports the following reasons:
- low self-esteem and the lack of a father figure
- to change the man for the better
- they see the little boy he once was and wish to nurture him
- to generate media attention and make money
- to have the perfect boyfriend that cannot cheat and is devoted to her alone
Some mental health practitioners think these women are simply insecure and cannot find a partner through conventional means so settle for a real-life pretend boyfriend. Others think it is a love-avoidance strategy for the relationship can never be consummated and they can never be hurt.
Psychologist Leon F. Seltzer has a different explanation. He thinks that high-profile criminals are seen as alpha males by these women and this triggers sexual attraction based on evolutionary psychology. Historically speaking, women could not survive on their own and needed a strong man for protection. Incarcerated men are perceived as dangerous and therefore capable of fulfilling such a role.
We all know some women are attracted to dangerous men. They go from one bad relationship to another and keep picking the bad boys. Decades ago we had a name for women who dated dangerous criminals - Gangster's Molls. Remember Nancy from the book Oliver Twist?
Most novels aimed at women are centred around a dominant dangerous man. Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and Christian Grey in 50 Shades Of Grey. Many fantasy novels contain vampires or pirates as the dangerous love interest.
Two famous examples of hybristophilia:
- Ted Bundy murdered over 30 women. He received hundreds of love letters from women whilst in prison. He married Carole Ann Boone after proposing to her in the middle of his court case whilst she was on the witness stand.
- Jeffrey Dahmer murdered at least 17 males. He had sex with their dead bodies and even ate parts of them. Even as a gay cannibal serial killer, he still attracted many letters from women who sent him money and gifts.
If hybristophilia is a psychological trait within women then should we be placing them in positions where it may manifest itself to the detriment of society? Is this another example of why we developed sex-based roles in society?
In all jobs throughout society, but especially in the public sector for we pay for them, we need to get back to hiring purely on merit. The best person for the job gets the job. We spent decades doing exactly this until the diversity & inclusion clowns got their way.
If a private business wants to hire the wrong person for the job then I wish them well, as long as they do not expect a bailout from the government. But tax-funded services need to hire the best available. At the moment, they do not and have not for a long time. Is there a link to the current failure of our public services?
Should women be prison guards? Absolutely. We have female-only prisons.
Should women be prison guards in male-only prisons? No.
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Extremely well considered and written again Nick. In this crazy woke society that we live in, you're very brave for stating the obvious - Generally women are weaker than men physically, and are not suited to certain roles in society. In particular at the tax payers expense.
Women don't have 'weaker' minds than men, they just have 'different' minds. As a woman, I can not understand and grasp why any decent woman would ever even choose to be a prison guard in an all male prison!
Prison staff maybe, health care, admin, but to GUARD male criminals? Cuckoo!