Toolkits

The National HIV Criminalization Study increases our understanding of the views and
experiences of people living with HIV on laws that criminalize HIV transmission, exposure, and
nondisclosure of HIV status.

For the past three decades, legislative approaches to prevent HIV transmission have been used at the national, state, and local levels. One punitive legislative approach has been enactment of laws that criminalize behaviors associated with HIV exposure (HIV-specific...

In Canada, people living with HIV can be charged and prosecuted for not disclosing their HIV-positive status to their sexual partners (a phenomenon referred to in this short report as “HIV criminalization”). In 1998, in R. v. Cuerrier, the Supreme Court of Canada...

Ignorance is one of the main drivers of HIV criminalization. You should not only understand the legal aspects of HIV criminalization, but also the basic facts about HIV. Effective advocacy depends on knowing your audience and tailoring your presentation or outreach to...

This review focuses on stigma as an impediment to health and specifies HIV characteristics among all medical conditions. The impact is detailed according to impacted sphere: public health priority (screening, adherence) psychosocial vulnerabilities (comorbidities) and...

Currently, many states have criminal laws that only apply to people with HIV. Basically theselaws mean that if someone with HIV doesn’t inform their sex partner prior to having sex, theycan be prosecuted and jailed – even if they use condoms or do not do anything that...

Know the FACTS about Criminalization Reform progress - From 2013 to 2015, at least 104 prosecutions took place in the US under HIV criminalization laws. The US is 2nd in the world in prosecutions; prosecuting more people under HIV criminalization laws than any country...

To meet the National HIV/AIDS Strategy’s goals of reducing and preventing HIV transmission, understanding factors that shape HIV-positive persons’ care-seeking behaviors is critical. Accordingly, this study examined factors that affect HIV care linkage and engagement....

Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, policymakers and politicians have been tempted to punish those of us with, and at risk of, HIV. Sometimes propelled by public opinion, sometimes themselves noxiously propelling public opinion, they have tried to find in...

Despite the widespread support for decriminalizing sex work amongst public health and harm-reduction activists, there has been little work done to disentangle the complicated way that the criminal law operates to marginalize and disenfranchise sex workers living with...

HIV criminalisation is a growing, global phenomenon with profound negative effects on public health as well as human rights. HIV criminalisation represents a serious barrier to scaling up the HIV response; and yet the practice is rarely given the attention and...

HIV Criminalization is the use of one’s HIV positive status in a criminal prosecution, either under HIV-specific criminal statutes that apply only to people living with HIV, or under general criminal statutes where charges or punishments are initiated or heightened...

In 2014 the South Australian (SA) and Western Australian (WA) parliaments passed legislation providing for forced testing for blood borne viruses (BBVs) of people who are considered to have potentially exposed police, hospital staff or emergency workers to a BBV. In...

HIV criminalization is a term used to describe statutes that either criminalize otherwise legal conduct or that increase the penalties for illegal conduct based upon a person’s HIV-positive status. While only one HIV criminalization law can be found in federal law,...

The push to apply criminal law to HIV exposure and transmission is often driven by the wish to respond to serious concerns about the ongoing rapid spread of HIV in many countries, coupled by what is perceived to be a failure of existing HIV prevention efforts. These...

HIV is a reportable communicable disease in North America; however, some nurses are confused about the extent of their professional obligations regarding a duty to protect population health. Nurses’ uncertainties can be related to whether they have a “duty to warn”...

Recently, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) organizations have made a push to either repeal or amend laws criminalizing the transmission of HIV. Certain AIDS organizations argue that if a law exists criminalizing HIV transmission, it should be limited solely...