ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses recent findings about the networks of drug injectors and how these are related to the HIV epidemic. Social networks and risk networks are smaller social structures that also affect both drug injectors' behavior and the probability that high-risk behavior will lead to becoming infected. Among drug injectors in New York, at least, HIV seroprevalence has been higher among African-Americans and Latinos than among whites for many years, and it appears as if the (partial) segregation of risk networks may be one contributor to maintaining this racial/ethnic differential. In order to detect sociometric network structures, UCINET software was used to detect connected components-groups of subjects who are either linked to each other directly or who are linked to one or more other subjects who are directly or indirectly linked.
