AIDS and criminal justice

This article reviews scholarship at the intersection of anthropology, crimi nal justice, and AIDS. Street ethnography is presented in a political and h istorical context, focusing on the distinctive ways that anthropologists ha ve contributed to discussions of illegal drug and sex markets in poor urban neighborhoods. The review also considers subjects that may be explored by anthropologists in the future, including imprisonment as an institutional H IV risk factor that intensifies individual behavioral risk and the criminal ization of intentional HIV transmission. This research area raises critical questions about how culture and law shape viral risk.