Epidemiological Criminology

Abstract

Worldwide, women are increasingly being incarcerated. One unintended consequence is the increase in unhealthy female offenders. Among the more serious health concerns are HIV and AIDS. Challenges associated with caring for women with HIV/AIDS impacts not only disease management and infection control within correctional facilities but also the prisoners' home communities where they will need health care, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, housing assistance, and employment opportunities. No bridging theory has been presented that links prison and community health concerns with criminal justice policy. This article not only presents recommendations for effective HIV/AIDS policy but also suggests epidemiological criminology as a means of explicit merging of health with justice issues and consequently provides a bridging framework.

Replicating MISTERS

“…As the 1990s advanced so too did our effort at slowly evolving the epidemiological criminology model (Akers & Potter, 1999, 2003). When we leap forward a decade, we see that readers of this journal have been exposed to another variant of the epidemiological criminology framework as it applies to drug use among African American gang members (Lanier, Pack, & Akers, 2010) and other scientific venues (Akers, 2008, 2009; Akers & Lanier, 2009; Lanier, 2010; Lanier, Lucken, & Akers, 2009; Lanier & Lutya, 2009; Potter, 2008; among others), illustrating this convergence between criminal behavior and health. The purpose of incorporating the epidemiological criminology model into this analysis is to address how easily it may be generalized to other research and application.…”