Assessing the relationship between child sexual abuse and marginal living conditions on HIV/AIDS-related risk behavior among women prisoners

OBJECTIVE: There were two aims in this research. First, to examine the relationships between childhood sexual abuse and HIV drug and sexual risk taking behaviors among female prisoners, and second, to examine the relationship between a marginal adult living context and HIV drug and sexual risk taking behavior among female prisoners. METHOD: The data were collected through face-to-face interviews with a random sample of 500 women at admission to prison in 1994. Differences between women who were sexually abused while growing up (n = 130) were compared to women who reported no sexual abuse (n = 370) along various demographic, and HIV drug and sexual risk taking dimensions. RESULTS: A history of sexual abuse while growing up was associated with increased sexual risk taking behaviors in adulthood. A marginal adult living situation also emerged as an important factor increasing the risk for HIV infection. Examining the co-occurrence of both childhood sexual abuse and adult marginal living context revealed a strong relationship between these two factors and HIV risk taking activities. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that childhood sexual abuse may be a predictor for HIV sexual risk taking behaviors among incarcerated women. The marginal and chaotic adult living style of these women was also associated the extent of their HIV drug and sexual risk taking behaviors. Our research suggests that the co-occurrence of sexual victimization and marginality is a stronger predictor of HIV risk than each variable alone.     

Breaking in: Gaining entry to prisons and other hard-to-access criminal justice organizations

There exists a large body of literature on doing research with hard-to-access populations such as the mentally ill, gang members, prison inmates, correctional officers, and wardens. There is little discussion, however, on getting access to criminal justice organizations in the first place. This article offers several practical suggestions for “breaking in” to prisons and other criminal justice organizations. This article emphasizes getting access to agency-collected data.     

广枣提取液对小鼠免疫功能和运动耐力的影响

观察了广枣提取液对小鼠免疫功能、运动耐力的影响。结果表明：广枣提取液可明显增加小鼠耐缺氧时间，延长小鼠负重游泳时间，降低运动后小鼠血乳酸水平，显著提高其心肌组织中SOD活力；同时明显增加小鼠脾脏／体重、胸腺／体重比值，增强小鼠对巨噬细胞的吞噬能力．提高小鼠的细胞免疫、体液免疫功能。提示广枣提取液具有显著促进小鼠免疫功能及显著提高小鼠运动耐力的功效。