A Systematic Review of HIV Prevention Interventions Targeting Women with Criminal Justice Involvement

Anyone working with female offenders should read this systematic review of 13 studies from 1980 to 2014. It provides a very good look at effective HIV prevention interventions for justice-involved women. "As compared with interventions without an explicit theoretical orientation, interventions using a social cognitive theory or motivational interviewing orientation were more efficacious. Interventions delivered fully or partially in the community setting were also more efficacious than those delivered only within a correctional facility. We conclude that extant behavioral interventions do not adequately consider contextual and social factors that influence women’s sexual behavior, but rather focus on individual deficits in knowledge and skills. Findings underscore the need for continued development of theoretically based HIV prevention interventions that follow women with criminal justice involvement from correctional settings to the community, explicitly acknowledging the role of social and contextual determinants of HIV risk" (p. 253).