Research

Title: HIV and AIDs Risk Behaviors Among Female Detainees: Implications for Public Health Policy

Author: Gary Michael McClelland, Linda A. Teplin, Karen M. Abram, Naomi Jacobs

Source: American Journal of Public Health 92 no5 818-25 May 2002

This article was a correlational article. The purpose of this article was to explore the injection drug use associated with HIV and AIDs risk behavior taking place among female jail detainees. Also, to identify the main groups of female jail detainees who are at a high risk of contracting HIV or AIDs.

The hypothesis tested in this article was that HIV and AIDs risk behaviors are common among women in jail. There are specific markers for the ones that are at a higher risk of contracting the viruses. Some of these markers include the use of injection drug and sex.

The sample for this article came from the Cook County Department of Corrections in Chicago. It consisted of 1,272 female criminals that were taken from pretrial arraignment between the years of 1991 and 1993.

The independent variable in this article is the female criminals. I believe that this is the independent variable because this was the part of the experiment that the experimenter was in control of. The dependent variables were sex and drugs. I believe that these were the dependent variables because they depended on the independent variables. These dependent variables were measured by interviews, the detainee's charge type and surveys.

The outcome of the article was that these women that are incarcerated have high HIV and AIDs risk behaviors. They also have distinct markers, such as, non-Hispanic White women are at a higher risk than others for sexually and injection drug use transmitted HIV and AIDs. Older women are at a higher risk than others for contracting these viruses through injection drug use. Women that were arrested for misdemeanors had about the same risk rates for sexually and injection drug use transmitted HIV and AIDs as non-Hispanic White women. This study also suggests that women should get the proper education and/or HIV awareness programs while incarcerated could reduce the AIDs epidemic in the outside world. This is so because these women don't stay in jail forever, they eventually released and will return to their communities. If they receive the proper education