HIV-RELATED RISK PRACTICES AMONG GLASGOW MALE PROSTITUTES - REFRAMINGCONCEPTS OF RISK BEHAVIOR

Based on ethnographic data on relations between 32 male prostitutes an d their clients, this article examines variability in HIV-related risk practices. It is argued that risk behavior should be seen as a situat ed product, emergent from the immediate situation of the sexual encoun ter. A minority of the prostitutes engaged in unsafe sex with at least some of their clients. Unsafe sex and violence were both associated w ith client control-with sexual encounters of such covertness and ambig uity that the client was allowed maximum discretion to decide terms an d conditions. Safer sex was associated with countervailing prostitute techniques of power. This situated view of risk behavior sits unhappil y with conventional psychosocial and sociocultural models of risk beha vior. An alternative heuristic framework, based on Schutz's (1970) wor k on ''systems of relevance,'' is suggested.