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.
Structural and social contexts of HIV risk among African Americans
American Journal of Public Health, 99 (6), 1002-1008. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.140327. PMCID: PMC2679787.