Results indicated that lifetime experience of violence, including childhood parental or caretaker violence, sexual violence, and intimate partner violence, was a predictor of subsequent STD risk. A strong relationship between sexual abuse during childhood and youth, and subsequent adult sexual and social behavior was emphasized because the majority of sexual violence was experienced during childhood and teen years. A significant finding was that women in the sample that were at higher risk for STDs related to current or past sexual violence expressed a strong interest in receiving education and counseling that could help them address their risk. Anecdotal reports from numerous women during the course of the interviews indicated that the women had never discussed current or past violence with anyone else. Women included in the assessment indicated a strong desire for education regarding STDs and violence while in prison and stated that counseling was the most important service that would help them succeed when they left prison. Women with a history of childhood sexual abuse reported higher levels of anxiety regarding partner’s negative reaction to suggestions of using condoms. In addition, depression associated with a history of childhood abuse may contribute to difficulty in coping with an STD diagnoses, particularly HIV infection. The experience of both sexual and physical violence in childhood may affect adult health-related behavior more strongly than social variables such as family disruption, spousal abuse, parental incarceration, mental illness, and poverty. Patients with STD infections were more likely to suffer from multiple and interactive forms of child mistreatment than those in the general community. Participants came from a convenience sample of 214 incarcerated women attending a prison-based STD clinic in Massachusetts who were either awaiting trial or already sentenced. Tables, references