HIV Prosecutions Focus
posted: 11/01/2010
HIV prosecutions and criminalisation in different countries is the focus of the latest issue of 'Reproductive Health Matters'.
One article looks at how gay men living with HIV in England and Wales have responded to prosecutions. This follows work by Sigma Research in its 2009 report ‘Relative Safety 2'.
Does prosecution in an epidemic make public health better or worse?
42 HIV positive gay men, including some men using services at George House Trust, were asked what they knew about HIV prosecutions and how it may have changed their behaviour.
Only one in three are right about the law
There is considerable confusion among these gay men about the law and mistakes about whether their behaviour is legal or not. 1 in 3 of the men living with HIV were broadly right about how the law affects them. Most of the men were mistaken about the law.
Some of the men have changed their behaviour because of the law and reduced the risk of transmission, by telling partners their HIV status before sex, or in other ways.
Prosecutions have made HIV transmission more likely for most HIV positive men
But for most of the men, the law has made transmission more likely. Some of the men have felt pushed towards more anonymous sex, and are now less likely to tell partners they have HIV: HIV stigma is reinforced by prosecutions.
Other men felt that they were already being safe and so the law would not really matter because they wouldn’t pass on HIV anyway. But many of the men are making mistakes in their judgements about the risks so the likelihood of transmission rises.
A small number of other men are not able or willing to reduce their transmission risks despite the possibility of prosecution.
Public health harm outweighs the good
The aim of the criminal justice system is to provide justice, not to improve public health. But using the criminal law in an epidemic has few public health benefits and these are outweighed by the public health harms. Most of the men believe they are doing enough to prevent HIV transmission and that they are on the right side of the law. Most of them are mistaken about both.
The law is complicated and it doesn't fit the complex reality of living with HIV - the strong force of HIV stigma, the difficulties of accurately judging transmission risks in different situations, the impossibility of providing plain and simple advice, and the complexities of some men's lives, all make HIV transmission more likely.
Involving the law has bad unintended public health consequences. George House Trust has always argued that prosecutions for HIV transmission do more public health harm than good. The evidence is here.
Source Responses to criminal prosecutions for HIV transmission among gay men with HIV in England and Wales Catherine Dodds, Adam Bourne, Matthew Weait
This is based on research for Relative Safety 2 - Sigma Research 2009
Reproductive Health Matters Volume 17, Issue 34, Pages 4-224 (November 2009) €21 / US$28 for the single issue
Articles on HIV criminalisation in this journal
- Criminalising HIV transmission: punishment without protection
- Protecting HIV-positive women's human rights: recommendations for the United States National HIV/AIDS Strategy
- Responses to criminal prosecutions for HIV transmission among gay men with HIV in England and Wales
- Advocating prevention over punishment: the risks of HIV criminalization in Burkina Faso
- Vertical HIV transmission should be excluded from criminal prosecution
- Ten reasons to oppose the criminalization of HIV exposure or transmission
- International consultation on the criminalization of HIV transmission: 31 October – 2 November 2007, Geneva, Switzerland Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS),
- Round Up: HIV and AIDS
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