Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T14:57:12.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

HIV Positive People’s Perspectives on Canadian Criminal Law and Non-Disclosure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2016

Barry D. Adam ,
Jason Globerman ,
Richard Elliott ,
Patrice Corriveau ,
Ken English  and
Sean Rourke
Barry D. Adam
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada and Ontario HIV Treatment Network, Toronto, Ontario, [email protected]
Jason Globerman
Affiliation:
Ontario HIV Treatment Network Toronto, Ontario, [email protected]
Richard Elliott
Affiliation:
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network Toronto, Ontario, [email protected]
Patrice Corriveau
Affiliation:
Department of Criminology University of Ottawa Ottawa, Ontario, [email protected]
Ken English
Affiliation:
AIDS Bureau Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care Toronto, Ontario, [email protected]
Sean Rourke
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario Canada and Ontario HIV Treatment Network Toronto, Ontario, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The largest survey to date of people living with HIV regarding attitudes toward criminalization of HIV non-disclosure, this study investigates: sources of legal information available to HIV-positive people; perceptions of how criminal prosecutions and media coverage affect understanding of rights and responsibilities of self and others; and where HIV-positive people themselves stand on the role the criminal justice system should play. While mainstream media constructions of criminal iconography do affect PHA views, those who have higher levels of formal education, are active in the dating scene, and have been living longer with HIV hold less punitive views than those who do not. While the overall pattern of agreement on where to draw the line in criminal prosecution holds regardless of demographic characteristics, there is some statistically significant variation in degree of punitiveness according to sexual orientation and gender as well.

Résumé

Cette étude représente le plus important sondage à ce jour auprès de personnes séropositives sur leur attitude par rapport à la criminalisation de la non-divulgation. L’auteur y étudie: les sources d’information juridique offertes aux personnes atteintes du VIH; les perceptions sur la façon par laquelle les poursuites criminelles et le battage médiatique connexe influent sur la compréhension des droits et responsabilités de soi-même et des autres; et l’opinion des personnes séropositives sur le rôle que devrait jouer l’appareil de justice pénale. Les points de vue semblent être infléchis sur quatre rapports: (1) les constructions d’iconographie criminelle des grands médias, (2) le niveau d’instruction des répondants, (3) la fréquentation, par les répondants, des milieux de rencontres, et (4) la transition du statut de plaignant potentiel (peu après la contraction du virus) au statut d’accusé potentiel (au terme d’un certain délai après l’infection au VIH). Bien que tous les répondants semblent convenir de l’opportunité de poursuites criminelles, et ce, toutes caractéristiques démographiques confondues, il existe des variations statistiques importantes, selon l’orientation sexuelle et le sexe, quant à la sévérité des sanctions à imposer.

Keywords

HIVAIDScriminalization of HIVpeople living with HIVCanadanon-disclosureprosecutioncriminalisation du VIHpersonnes atteintes du VIHattitude à l’égard de la loiCanadaVIHSIDAnon-divulgation
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , April 2016 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association / Association Canadienne Droit et Société 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Adam, Barry D., Corriveau, Patrice, Elliott, Richard, Globerman, Jason, English, Ken, and Rourke, Sean. 2014. HIV disclosure as practice and public policy. Critical Public Health 25 (4): 386–97.Google Scholar
Adam, Barry D., Elliott, Richard, Corriveau, Patrice, and English, Ken. 2014. Impacts of criminalization on the everyday lives of people living in with HIV in Canada. Sexuality Research and Social Policy 11: 39–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adam, Barry D., Elliott, Richard, Husbands, Winston, Murray, James and Maxwell, John. 2008. Effects of the criminalization of HIV transmission in Cuerrier on men reporting unprotected sex with men. Canadian Journal of Law and Society 23 (1–2): 143–59.Google Scholar
Adam, Barry D., and Sears, Alan. 1996. Experiencing HIV. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan 2015. When is HIV a crime? Sexuality, gender and consent. Minnesota Law Review 99: 1231–42.Google Scholar
Caldwell, B. 2013. Culprit still shrugs off blame for HIV sexual assault crimes. Waterloo Record, April 8. http://www.therecord.com/news-story/2626669-culprit-still-shrugs-off-blame-for-hiv-sexual-assault-crimes/.Google Scholar
Calzavara, Liviana, Allman, Dan, Worthington, Catherine, Tyndall, Mark, and Adrien, Alix. 2012. HIV and AIDS in Canada: A National Survey. http://www.srchiv.ca/NationalSurvey/the-knowledge-bank/publications/.Google Scholar
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. 2012a. Positive Women: Exposing Injustice. http://www.positivewomenthemovie.org.Google Scholar
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario, Coalition des organismes communautaires québécois de lutte contre le sida, Positive Living Society of British Columbia, Canadian AIDS Society, Toronto People with AIDS Foundation, Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention, et al. 2012b. Unjust Supreme Court Ruling on Criminalization of HIV Major Step Backwards for Public Health and Human Rights. News release: Toronto, October 5.Google Scholar
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. 2012c. HIV non-disclosure and the criminal law: An analysis of two recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada. http://www.aidslaw.ca/site/hiv-non-disclosure-and-the-criminal-law-an-analysis-of-two-recent-decisions-of-the-supreme-court-of-canada/. Toronto, October 29.Google Scholar
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, AIDS ACTION NOW! and International Community of Women Living with HIV (Global). 2013. Courthouse protestors condemn ‘witch-hunt’ by Crown prosecutors against people living with HIV, call for action by Attorney General. News release: Toronto, July 8.Google Scholar
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. 2015. Consent: HIV non-disclosure and sexual assault law. http://www.consentfilm.org.Google Scholar
Clarke, Juanne. 2006. Homophobia out of the closet in the media portrayal of HIV/AIDS 1991, 1996 and 2001. Critical Public Health 16 (4): 317–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodds, C., and Keogh, P.. 2006. Criminal prosecutions for HIV transmission: people living with HIV respond. International Journal of STD & AIDS 17: 315–18.Google Scholar
Dodds, C., Bourne, A., and Weait, M.. 2009. Responses to criminal prosecutions for HIV transmission among gay men with HIV in England and Wales. Reproductive Health Matters 17 (34): 135–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Galletly, Carol, Glasman, Laura, Pinkerton, Steven, and DiFrancisco, Wayne. 2012. New Jersey’s HIV Exposure Law and the HIV-Related Attitudes, Beliefs, and Sexual and Seropositive Status Disclosure Behaviors of Persons Living with HIV. American Journal of Public Health 102 (11): 2135–40.Google Scholar
Grant, Isabel. 2011. The prosecution of non-disclosure of HIV in Canada: time to rethink Cuerrier. McGill Journal of Law and Health 5 (1): 7–59.Google Scholar
Grant, Isabel. 2013. The over-criminalization of persons with HIV. University of Toronto Law Journal 63: 475–84.Google Scholar
Hoppe, Trevor. 2014. From sickness to badness: The criminalization of HIV in Michigan. Social Science and Medicine 101: 139–47.Google Scholar
Horvath, Keith, Weinmeyer, Richard, and Rosser, Simon. 2010. Should it be illegal for HIV-positive persons to have unprotected sex without disclosure? AIDS Care 22 (10): 1221–28.Google Scholar
Jiwani, Yasmin. 2014. Rape and race in the Canadian press. Arts and Social Sciences Journal S1–009. doi: 10.4172/2151-6200.S1-009.Google Scholar
Kirkup, Kyle. 2015. Releasing stigma: Police, journalists and crimes of HIV non-disclosure. Ottawa Law Review 46 (1): 129–60.Google Scholar
Klitzman, Robert, Kirshenbaum, Sheri, Kittel, Lauren, Morin, Stephen, Daya, Shaira, Mastrogiacomo, Maddalena, and Rotheram-Borus, Mary Jane. 2004. Naming names. Sexuality Research & Social Policy 1 (3): 38–57.Google Scholar
Loutfy, Mona, Tyndall, Mark, Baril, Jean-Guy, Montaner, Julio SG, Kaul, Rupert, Hankins, Catherine. 2014. Canadian Consensus Statement on HIV and its transmission in the context of the criminal law. Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases & Medical Microbiology 25 (3): 135–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mathen, Carissima, and Plaxton, Michael. 2011. HIV, consent and criminal wrongs. Criminal Law Quarterly 57: 464–85.Google Scholar
Miller, James. 2005. African immigrant damnation syndrome. Sexuality Research & Social Policy 2 (2): 31–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, Ted, Allman, Dan, Adam, Barry D., Alexander, Stephen, Blais, Martin, Calzavara, Liviana, Remis, Robert, Marchand, Rick, and Maxwell, John. 2013. Male Call Canada Technical Report. http://www.malecall.ca/technical-report/.Google Scholar
Mykhalovskiy, Eric, and Betteridge, Glenn. 2012. Who? What? Where? When? And with what consequences? An analysis of criminal cases of HIV non-disclosure in Canada. Canadian Journal of Law and Society 27 (1): 31–53.Google Scholar
Persson, Asha, and Newman, Christy. 2008. Making monsters: Heterosexuality, crime and race in recent western media coverage of HIV. Sociology of Health and Illness 30 (4): 632–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rangel, J. Cristian, and Adam, Barry D.. 2014. Everyday moral reasoning in the governmentality of HIV risk. Sociology of Health and Illness 36 (1): 60–74.Google Scholar
Shaffer, Martha. 2013. Sex, lies and HIV: Mabior and the concept of sexual fraud. University of Toronto Law Journal 63: 466–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Symington, Alison. 2013. Injustice amplified by HIV non-disclosure ruling. University of Toronto Law Journal 63: 485–95.Google Scholar
Weait, Matthew. 2007. Intimacy and Responsibility. New York: Routledge-Cavendish.Google Scholar
R. v Cuerrier, [1998] 2 SCR 371Google Scholar
R. v Mabior, 2012 SCC 47Google Scholar
R. v D.C., 2012 SCC 48Google Scholar
R. v J.T.C., 2013 NSPC 88Google Scholar
R. v J.T.C., 2013 NSPC 105Google Scholar
Criminal Code RSC 1985, c. C-46.Google Scholar
R. v Cuerrier, [1998] 2 SCR 371Google Scholar
R. v Mabior, 2012 SCC 47Google Scholar
R. v D.C., 2012 SCC 48Google Scholar
R. v J.T.C., 2013 NSPC 88Google Scholar
R. v J.T.C., 2013 NSPC 105Google Scholar
Criminal Code RSC 1985, c. C-46.Google Scholar