The author presents "analyses and excerpts from interviews conducted in Paris and throughout the country with a diverse sample." The research was carried out with the support of ANRS and highlights perceptions of AIDS-related risk at three levels: catastrophe, social threat, and physical threat, as well as the associated protective measures. Risk management strategies (which vary according to socioeconomic factors, age, and gender) are based on personal reference points: body image, perception of the disease, feelings regarding AIDS (vulnerability, safety, efficacy), sexuality, risk perception, and ethical orientations. Risk management strategies, which thus stem from this complex set of factors, take shape either through condom use or in other forms: abstinence, partner selection, or a combination of both. The sense of security does not depend on the strategies chosen. Together, these elements constitute a dynamic system whose analysis enables an understanding of the various possible behaviors in the face of AIDS.