Structural and social contexts of HIV risk Among African Americans.

Abstract

HIV continues to be transmitted at unacceptably high rates among African Americans, and most HIV-prevention interventions have focused on behavioral change. To theorize additional approaches to HIV prevention among African Americans, we discuss how sexual networks and drug-injection networks are as important as behavior for HIV transmission. We also describe how higher-order social structures and processes, such as residential racial segregation and racialized policing, may help shape risk networks and behaviors. We then discuss 3 themes in African American culture-survival, propriety, and struggle-that also help shape networks and behaviors. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of how these perspectives might help reduce HIV transmission among African Americans.