Nexus of Risk: Incarceration and Injecting Drug Use among Latina Women who have Sex with Women and Men

• In Event: Emergent Issues in the Study of Racial and Gender Disparities in the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

We examine how women’s multiple and intersecting marginalized identities, including their ethnicity and sexual orientation/identity, shape their lived experiences contributing to negative health conditions. Data are from an ongoing 15-year follow-up study aimed at identifying and determining how drug use and intimate partner violence victimization (IPV) trajectories that emerge in adolescence contribute to detrimental physical and mental health outcomes in young adulthood among Latinas in San Antonio, Texas. Just under one-third of the sample has reported having a same sex sexual encounter, including long-term romantic relationships, and these women have distinct health risks. We find increased drug use among Latina Women who have Sex with Women and Men (LWSWM), with higher rates of injecting drug use (IDU), overall, in the past year, and daily IDU and tobacco use. LWSWM also test positive at significantly higher rates for select substances during urinalysis: THC, opiates, and PCP. Almost all LWSWM have been incarcerated at least once compared to about half of LWSM. When examining differences of total exposure time to correctional institutions, LWSWM have spent 2 years longer behind bars and have more incarcerations lasting 30 days or longer than LWSM. This nexus of risk places LWSWM in a vulnerable health state.

Authors

• Alice Cepeda, University of Southern California

• Kathryn M Nowotny, University of Miami

• Jessica Frankeberger, University of Southern California

• Esme Ramirez, University of Southern California

• Avelardo Valdez, University of Southern California