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Sexual and injecting behaviours in prisons: from disciplinary problem to public health conundrum
Author(s) -
STRANG JOHN
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
criminal behaviour and mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1471-2857
pISSN - 0957-9664
DOI - 10.1002/cbm.1993.3.4.393
Subject(s) - imprisonment , prison , context (archaeology) , perspective (graphical) , criminology , discipline , nothing , psychology , public health , political science , control (management) , social psychology , public relations , medicine , law , economics , geography , nursing , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology , management , artificial intelligence , computer science
Since the emergence of AIDS it is indefensible to regard the sexual and drug taking behaviours of people in institutions from a simplistic moral perspective. They are now matters for research and planning in a public health context, and well beyond even traditional institutional control systems. This paper focuses on probably the largest institutional group to be at risk themselves, and subsequently also to increase risk for the wider community. The relationship between imprisonment and risk in this context, however, is poorly understood, and neither the will nor the skills to intervene effectively can therefore be developed. Conditions in closed institutions seem particularly likely to increase the spread of such infections, and yet prison (or other institutions), even if they provide nothing else, could provide an opportunity for breaking destructive cycles in these behaviours. There is, indeed, even the possiblilty that imprisonment — by virtue of behaviours leading to it — is to some extent a`symptom’ of significant change in risk taking in sexual or drug activities. Current estimates of the size of the problem are presented together with guidance on where more knowledge is urgently needed.