Principle #9: Stop participating in or supporting prosecution in cases of transmission of infectious diseases, including HIV
SUBSECTIONS
Why
Invitation / Action
Read More
Reflection Questions
Reflect
Research
Practice
Imagine
Return to 13 Principles
Why
HIV criminalization laws criminalizing people living with HIV were initially passed in many states tied to federal funding for prevention and treatment
Health care workers are under pressure to share documentation of private conversations with patients and to disclose HIV-related medical records to support prosecution
HIV criminalization discourages testing - if you know your status but don’t end up disclosing, you could be criminalized
HIV criminalization disproportionately affects queer Black communities
Invitation / Action
Do not support prosecution of HIV criminalization cases
Support colleagues who get penalized for not reporting
Change laws around HIV criminalization (see the work of The Center for HIV Law and Policy - Positive Justice Project)
Read More
HIV Criminalization and Ending the HIV Epidemic in the US - CDC
HIV Criminalization in the United States: A Sourcebook on State and Federal HIV Criminal Law and Practice - The Center for HIV Law and Policy
Ten Reasons to Oppose the Criminalization of HIV Exposure or Transmission - OSF
Watch Steven Thrasher’s ‘Pandemic Politics and the Viral Underclass’
Don’t Criminalize COVID-19 - Slate magazine
Read more about how xenophobia, racism and criminalization have always been intertwined in order to maintain oppressive hierarchies through the work of Samuel Kelton Roberts (and how it is resonant in these times), Nayan Shah and Natalia Molina.
Reflection Questions
Reflect
In an ideal world, how do you think transmission of infectious diseases should be addressed? Does it change based on what kind of disease you are thinking of? Who is perceived to be most likely to contract it?
What are the consequences of criminalizing the transmission of infectious disease?
Research
Which health conditions have historically been criminalized in your area? Which ones are currently criminalized? Why?
Which health conditions have traditionally been a bar to entry into the U.S.? Which ones still are? Are they treatable?
Is HIV criminalized in the state in which you live? Check here.
Review the Healing Histories Project Timeline of the Medical Industrial Complex to understand the ways that medicine and public health have pathologized people of color for transmitting infectious diseases
Watch these videos about HIV criminalization:
Practice
Think about information you collect or share that could contribute to criminalization of people with a communicable condition. Discuss the rationale for collecting that information with a colleague. What are the harms?
Imagine
How can we imagine a different approach to infectious disease?
What other ways can you imagine to achieve the goals criminalization purports to address - preventing transmission, violence, etc. through care vs. criminalization.