Publication year: 2011
Source: Social Science & Medicine, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 17 June 2011
Susan G., Sherman , Pamela, Lilleston , Jacqueline, Reuben
Women who exchange sex for money, drugs, or goods are disproportionately infected with HIV and have high rates of illicit drug use. A growing body of research has underscored the primacy of environmental factors in shaping individual behaviors. HIV/STI rates among sex workers are influenced by environmental factors such as the physical (e.g., brothel) and economic (e.g., increased pay for unsafe sex) context in which sex work occurs. Exotic dance clubs (EDCs) could be a risk environment that is epidemiologically significant to the transmission of HIV/STIs among vulnerable women, but it is a context that has received scant research attention….
Highlights: ► Focuses on exotic dance clubs, an HIV risk environment that has received limited attention. ► Analyses environmental factors facilitating HIV risk and identifies potential targets for intervention. ► Positions drug use as a coping response to intense psychological and physical demands of stripping. ► Transactional sex is inevitable for many dancers in clubs as a result of environmental and financial pressures.