Toward an understanding of the perception of HIV/AIDS-related risk among prison officers

One consequence of the drug war has been the incarceration of many offender s who pose a health risk to staff This article presents an analytical frame work to examine the factors that influence staffs' perceptions of the threa t of infection. Four risk domains influence an officer's self-rated threat of exposure: (1) psychosocial factors, (2) HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, (3) perception. of risk in the prison environment, and (4) risk reduction effor ts. Officer;s with lower levels of education, those who worked with medium and maximum custody inmates, and those who had more high-risk encounters wi th inmates rated their chances for infection as high. Findings are discusse d in light of:their practical and theoretical applications. (C) 1999 Elsevi er Science Ltd. All rights reserved.