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(More customer reviews)David J Bellis, PhD is professor of public administration and chairman of that department at California State University in San Bernadino, but he is also a former heroin addict. He has been very active over the last 30 years as an academic, as a researcher, as a politician, as a reformer and as a program developer on the issue of drug addition and its treatment and management.
This book has six chapters: introduction to the study, etiology of HIV transmission, heroin and commercial sex work, study methods, comparing Mexican and San Bernardino sex workers, summary with an appendix where you can find the survey questionnaire and an excellent index.
The book is the result of two research projects. One interview study in San Bernadino with 72 female sex workers (FSW) in 1988 and in Mexico (Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Ciudad Victoria, Cuernavaca) during 1996-1999 with 102 FSW. In both studies the interview was on site, where the FSW worked and the interview included 48 questions on demographics, types of sexual behavior, types of clients and number served per day, history of STD and HIV infection, condom use and client attitudes towards condoms, alcohol and other drug dependence, criminal history, knowledge and attitudes towards AIDS.
This study showed marked differences between Mexican and American FSW with a much better situation for FSW in Mexico. The women in Mexico have more monthly medical checkups, have been tested monthly for STD as a legal requirement, have been tested for HIV, have sex with fewer clients and mainly with own race or ethnic group, reported that most customers used condoms and wanted that protection, have condoms in their possession, have dependent children and very little intravenous drug abuse. From the study the author recommend for Mexico to reduce or eliminate prostitute health license fees in order to maximize health surveillence, to educate in schools about STD and AIDS and legalize prostitution in controlled settings. For the United States he recommends better HIV/AIDS/STD prevention and treatment programs, free methadone maintenance for heroin addicts, free needle and syringe exchange programs, decriminalize heroin and reform prostitution laws and legalize prostitution.
This is indeed a very interesting book with a healthy and concerned approach to the "oldest trade" in town, which policy makers and administrators should take seriously.
Professor Joav Merrick, MD
Director, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Medical director, Division for Mental Retardation, Box 1260, IL-91012 Jerusalem, Israel, email: jmerrick@internet-zahav.net
Mohammed Morad, MD
Family physician, Division for Community Health, Ben Gurion University, Box 653, IL-84105 Beer-Sheva, Israel, email: morad-62@barak-online.net
Click Here to see more reviews about: Hotel Ritz--Comparing Mexican and U.S. Street Prostitutes: Factors in HIV/Aids Transmission (Haworth Psychosocial Issues of HIV/AIDS)
Explore ways to reduce the rate of HIV infection in street prostitutes--and the inescapable connection between the heroin trade, prostitution, and HIV!This unique book draws on face-to-face interviews that the author conducted on the streets, with heroin-addicted street prostitutes in Southern California and their counterparts in four large Mexican cities. Author David James Bellis illustrates the significant--and surprising--differences in the risk of exposure to HIV and other STDs that exist between street prostitutes in the two countries arising from national differences in the legality, sociology, and economics of sex work. He points out that Mexican prostitutes, for whom sex work is a simple means of livelihood, are "choir girls” compared with their beaten-up, drug-addicted sisters north of the border who perform sex for drug money and are at much greater risk of HIV and other diseases, like Hepatitis C. This book explores those differences, suggesting new directions for United States prostitution and heroin-control policies--laws currently so interwoven that they reinforce each other, accounting for a deadly circle of crime and disease. In addition to the fascinating results of the author's interviews with 72 female street prostitutes in San Bernardino, California, and 102 more in Tijuana, Cd. Juárez, Cd. Victória, and Cuernavaca regarding their personal sexual, drug, and health practices, and their criminal histories, Hotel Ritz-Comparing Mexican and U.S. Street Prostitutes: Factors in HIV/AIDS Transmission explores:
the licensing process for legal prostitutes in Mexico
the medical testing that Mexico requires prostitutes to undergo
the differences in what United States and Mexican prostitutes know about HIV transmission
the difference in condom use between United States and Mexican prostitutes
the potential benefits of reforming prostitution and drug laws in both countries
the benefits of making methadone maintenence and syringes—and heroin—free for heroin-addicted prostitutes
the proportion of United States/Mexican prostitutes who would quit the trade if they learned they had AIDS
how the social support system in the United States (housing subsidies, TANF/AFDC money, food stamps, etc.) leads to a greater proportion of drug-addicted prostitutes than are found in Mexico
Hotel Ritz-Comparing Mexican and U.S. Street Prostitutes: Factors in HIV/AIDS Transmission also provides you with a look at the hierarchy of female sex workers, an explanation of the etiology of AIDS transmission, and a concise history of heroin and prostitution. Helpful tables and an appendix containing the author's survey questions make the data in this well-referenced book easily understandable.
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