A night with Venus: partner assessments and high-risk sexual encounters

This study examined partner assessments and high-risk sexual encounters amo ng STD clinic patients. Participants were 42 English-speaking attendees of a public STD clinic in Southern California with ages ranging between 18 and 60. Twelve focus groups were conducted Qualitative data from the focus gro ups were analyzed using grounded theory. The analysis resulted in delineati ng five temporally-ordered stages of casual sexual encounters. Participants reported that they did not use condoms when they perceived new sexual part ners as being safe. Instead of directly addressing their partner's sexual h istory, they relied heavily on both visual and verbal cues to judge if thei r partner was clean, or disease-free. This assessment process reflects an e rror in judgement, particularly because most of the participants had alread y contracted a STD. Suggestions are provided for incorporating the informat ion about the partner assessment process into AIDS educational programmes.