HIV treatment as prevention: Not an argument for continuing criminalisation of HIV transmission

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Publication Type pre-print
School or College College of Social & Behavioral Science
Department Political Science
Creator Francis, John G.
Other Author Francis, Leslie P.
Title HIV treatment as prevention: Not an argument for continuing criminalisation of HIV transmission
Date 2013-01-01
Description HIV prevention and treatment are undergoing impressive technological and practice changes. In-home rapid testing, prophylaxis before risky sex, and treatment as prevention give cause for remarkable optimism and suggest the possibility of an AIDS-free generation. These changes in HIV prevention and treatment might affect HIV policy in several different directions. One direction would be further entrenchment of the currently prevailing punitive approach. A different direction would be a shift away from use of the criminal law as a method for discouraging risky behaviour and towards a strategy aimed to encourage the use of the new treatment and prevention possibilities. When such abrupt technological changes are accompanied by sharp changes in regulatory regimes, they are identified in the public policy literature as a punctuated equilibrium '. A shift away from criminalisation in HIV policy, if sufficiently widespread and transformative, could reach the level of a punctuated equilibrium. This paper presents a critical assessment of the implications of the changes in available forms of treatment and prevention for the continued appeal of criminalisation as an approach to HIV policy. We conclude that criminalisation is less justifiable in the light of what might be circumstances ripe for a punctuated equilibrium.
Type Text
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Volume 9
Issue 4
First Page 520
Last Page 534
Language eng
Bibliographic Citation Francis, J. G., & Francis, L. P. (2013). HIV treatment as prevention: Not an argument for continuing criminalisation of HIV transmission. International Journal of Law in Context, 9(4), 520-34.
Rights Management (c) Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/ Permission granted by Cambridge University Press for non-commercial, personal use only.
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 270,800 bytes
Identifier uspace,19142
ARK ark:/87278/s67q27mn
Setname ir_uspace
ID 713344
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s67q27mn
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