HIV Criminalization

5 Things to Know About HIV Criminalization in Louisiana

Criminal laws are meant to protect people from harm. Laws that make it a crime to live with a chronic, treatable health condition do not protect anyone.

HIV health and risk are public health concerns. HIV CRIMINALIZATION is the unreasonable use of the criminal law to address an HIV-related matter, which should be dealt with as a public health issue. HIV criminalization laws: 

- Target people living with HIV for prosecution and excessive punishment 

- Seek to make people with HIV solely responsible for the sexual conduct of others

- Under Louisiana law (LA 14:43.5), a person living with HIV engaged in consensual activities, who had no intent to harm anyone, and/or whose actions posed virtually no risk of HIV transmission, could be sent to prison as a felon and registered as a sex offender for 10 years. 

Other things you should know about HIV criminalization:

HIV criminalization laws DON’T work as intended

Not a single study or peer-reviewed paper—nor any credentialed public health expert—asserts HIV criminalization has actually reduced HIV transmission in any jurisdiction where it exists.  

HIV criminalization laws DO work against public health

● Punish those who protect their health by being tested for HIV, and privileges those who remain ignorant of their HIV status.  

● Create mistrust of health professionals, making people who test HIV positive less likely to cooperate with partner notification, treatment adherence and other forms of prevention.  

HIV criminalization laws DON’T align with current science

The risk of HIV transmission has changed drastically since the beginning of the epidemic. 

● Today, a person on effective HIV treatment (which means having an undetectable viral load) is incapable of transmitting HIV. 

● An HIV-negative person who engages in activities that may transmit HIV can take medications to dramatically reduce their chances of acquiring the virus.

The harm of HIV acquisition has also changed dramatically. 

● A person newly diagnosed and provided with treatment can expect to live a lifespan basically equal to a person who is not living with HIV.

HIV criminalization laws DO increase stigma & discrimination

Experts agree that HIV stigma is among the biggest obstacles to ending the HIV epidemic. 

● Laws criminalizing HIV status exacerbate the already overwhelming social stigma that accompanies an HIV diagnosis. 

● Forced disclosure of one’s HIV-positive status carries significant risks -- including potential intimate partner violence, loss of housing or custody of one’s children, and other forms of discrimination.

● Most strongly affect communities that are already disenfranchised, who comprise a disproportionate portion of people living with HIV.

HIV criminalization laws DON’T make sense for our justice system

Incarcerating individuals whose conduct is best addressed via a public health approach comes at a significant cost to the state. That's why advocates in Louisiana join more than a dozen states, including Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and others, in actively working to change these discriminatory laws.

The American Medical Association, American Nursing Association, National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, HIV Medicine Association, Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy, Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, U.S. Conference of Mayors, American Psychological Association, the U.S. Department of Justice, and many other public health, legal and public policy organizations have called for an end to HIV criminalization.

You care about HIV criminalization; you just don’t know it yet.  HIV is NOT a crime.

Louisiana Coalition on Criminalization and Health