Men who have been
incarcerated experience substantial changes in their sexual behavior after
release from jail and prison, and high rates of incarceration may change sexual
relationship patterns at a community level. Few studies, however, address how
rates of incarceration affect community patterns of sexual behavior, and the
implications of those patterns for HIV and STD risk.
We describe a "proof
of principle" computational model that tests whether rates of male
incarceration could, in part, explain observed population-level differences in
patterns of sexual behavior between communities with high rates of
incarceration and those without. This validated agent-based model of sexual
partnership among 20-25 year old heterosexual urban residents in the United
States uses an algorithm that incarcerates male agents and then releases them
back into the agent community.
The results from these model experiments suggest
that at rates of incarceration similar to those observed for urban African
American men, incarceration can cause an increase in the number of partners at
the community level.
The results suggest that reducing incarceration and
creating a more open criminal justice system that supports the maintenance of
inmates' relationships to reduce instability of partnerships for men who are
incarcerated may have important sexual health and public health implications.
Incarceration is one of many social forces that affect sexual decision-making,
and incarceration rates may have substantial effects on community-level HIV and
STD risks.
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By:
- 1Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; University of Michigan Medical School, 1137 Catherine Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: aknittel@umich.edu.
- 2Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: rsnow@unfpa.org.
- 3Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan, 1085 S. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: rlriolo@umich.edu.
- 4Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: derek.griffith@vanderbilt.edu.
- 5Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, 500 S State St #3001, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: morenoff@isr.umich.edu.
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