Body cavity search

It is far more invasive than the standard strip search that is typically performed on individuals taken into custody, either upon police arrest or incarceration at a jail, prison, or psychiatric hospital.

Illegal drugs are often found in condoms and temporarily stowed in the colon, and cylinders such as cigar tubes are used to hide money, intravenous syringes, and knives.

In a thorough visual body cavity search, a flashlight is used to illuminate common bodily areas, including the nostrils, ears, mouth, navel, penis (urethra and foreskin) or vulva, and buttocks.

The circumstances in which these inspections may be done are often restricted, such as on individuals refusing to offer to consent to a visual body cavity search for reasons other than anxiety or in situations where there is a strong evidence to suspect the presence of contraband, and require a court order.

As cavity searches have proven as an ineffective strategy in the total prevention of smuggling objects as it cannot detect objects in the intestines or stomach, as well as taking into consideration the intrusive nature and inherently humiliating or degrading procedure, it has become fairly normal for authorities to instead isolate individuals in a monitored environment until they pass excreta and/or x-ray the individual's pelvic area as it is less invasive and psychologically damaging.

[4] The body cavity search is frequently used as a joke in comedies such as the movies Beavis and Butt-head Do America, Rush Hour 3, and Wayne’s World, and the American sitcom television series Seinfeld, due to its humiliating, uncomfortable, and invasive nature.