AIDS, VIOLENCE AND BEHAVIORAL-CODING - INFORMATION-THEORY, RISK BEHAVIOR AND DYNAMIC PROCESS ON CORE-GROUP SOCIOGEOGRAPHIC NETWORKS

Elsewhere we have presented a traveling-wave analysis of HIV transmiss ion on a tightly self-interactive, geographically-focused core group s ocial network (Wallace R. Soc. Sci. Med. 32, 847, 1991; Soc. Sci. Med. 33, 1155, 1991; Environ. Plan. A. 26, 767, 1994; Wallace R. and Fulli love M. Environ. Plan. A. 23, 1701 1991). Here we reanalyze the proble m in probability space and recover a close analog of the Shannon Codin g Theorem of information theory. Subsequent direct application of info rmation-theoretic methods provides striking insight regarding the spre ad of disease along the sociogeographic networks of marginalized subgr oups, suggesting that 'risk behaviors' for infection may constitute es sential components of a behavioral code for the transmission of inform ation within the noisy channel of a marginalized community's social ne tworks. The code's form, including the incorporation of risk behaviors , arises as a direct consequence of the external oppressive forces whi ch structure marginalization. This viewpoint suggests an explanation o f the sometime-observed rapid transmission of both infection and of co ntrol strategies for infection along the same network, but suggests fu rther that if risk behaviors are indeed parts of a behavioral code for the transmission of group norms, statements of individual worth or re source sharing, then high rates of relapse are inevitable, given the p ersistence of the external oppression which gives those behaviors symb olic value. We suggest that violent acts in particular may emerge as k ey behavioral symbols for 'sending a message' in socially disorganized communities, implying that school-based or other individual-oriented harm reduction strategies for violence prevention, in the absence of a comprehensive, multifactorial reform program, cannot significantly re verse the effects of continuing economic and social constraints or of public policies of planned shrinkage and benign neglect, factors prima rily responsible for the disorganization of urban minority communities within the United States. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd