The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/7/09 Section: News

CORNWELL

It's not raining men in some black communities, one University professor's research shows.

"The question is to think hard about what it means when the boys aren't here - when there are too few men," said economics professor Christopher M. Cornwell to a large audience of faculty and students at the Classic Center.

Cornwell, a professor from the Terry College of Business, presented his research, which is titled "Where The Boys Aren't: Sex-Ratio Imbalances and Risky Sexual Behavior" Monday.

He gave the lecture at the 2009 Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities Symposium.

Cornwell's research was not always focused on the effect of the absence of men, however. This phase of his research began with what he considered to be a startling single fact - the leading cause of death for black women ages 25 to 34 is HIV/AIDS, according to the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

When the economics professor heard this statistic in 2004, he was determined to delve into the reasons why.

His research therefore focused on an exploration of black sexual networks from adolescence to adulthood.

According to U.S. Census data, by the time blacks reach their late twenties, there are about 128 black women for every 100 black men. Cornwell's research suggests that this imbalanced ratio leads to more concurrency in black sexual networks, thus increasing the risk for STI transmission.

Sexual concurrency, Cornwell said, can be defined as an individual having more than one sexual partner at a time over a period of a few days or weeks.

So, where have the men gone in these communities?

The professor explained that the shortage of black males is largely due to U.S. incarceration and drug policies that have been enacted in the somewhat recent past.

"Where these boys aren't is in the community. Where they are, unfortunately, is in prison," he said.

Because incarceration does not affect sex ratios until early adulthood, Cornwell focused on males from the adolescent period to adulthood.

His evidence suggests that this imbalanced gender ratio causes black men to have up to two additional partners each year more than the national average.

His findings led to the creation of generalized hypotheses about the roles black men and women serve in sexual relationships with each other.

"These imbalances create changes in terms of prospective sexual partners. Obviously, in an environment where there are more [men] than [women], it's going to change things," Cornwell said. "When you are scarce, you have an advantage in the relationship."

Cornwell ended his discussion at the CURO Symposium by relating his findings to a college setting.

"Where the boys aren't is increasingly not in college," he said.

At the University, there are approximately 168 female students to 100 male students - a ratio of 1.681- according to the freshmen class data from the fall.

"I didn't know the ratio [here] was that high," said Alexander Orellana, a sophomore from Suwanee. "I don't really notice - it hasn't been as if girls have been clawing at me."

Although the consequences of an increasingly female student population here at the University remain unclear, Cornwell encouraged young scholars to study the effects of gender imbalances.

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