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Historical and Current Trends in HIV Criminalization in South Carolina: Implications for the Southern HIV Epidemic

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Abstract

In the 1980s, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) criminalization laws became widespread across the United States. Today, such laws continue to be used to prosecute people living with HIV for a variety of behaviors though there is limited evidence that doing so curbs HIV transmission. HIV criminalization remains understudied, especially in the Deep South. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to trace the emergence, maintenance, and enforcement of HIV criminalization laws in South Carolina—a Southern state disproportionately burdened by HIV. Specifically, Nexis Uni and other criminology databases were used to identify HIV-related laws and criminal cases in South Carolina. Results indicate that the state’s criminalization laws have remained nearly unchanged for over 30 years and continue to be used to prosecute individuals, a majority of whom are African–American. Findings support the need to reconsider HIV-related laws and devote more efforts to studying the impact of HIV criminalization on the Southern epidemic.

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Notes

  1. To protect privacy, all names have been changed.

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Funding

This research was funded in part by the South Carolina SmartState Program® and the South Carolina SmartState Center for Healthcare Quality Junior Scholar Program. This research was also supported by the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number K01MH118073. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the South Carolina SmartState Program® or the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice and SC SmartState Center for Healthcare Quality, Currell College, University of South Carolina, 1305 Greene Street, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Deanna Cann

  2. Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, 915 Greene Street, Discovery I, Office #413, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Sayward E. Harrison & Shan Qiao

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  1. Deanna Cann
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Correspondence to Sayward E. Harrison.

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Cann, D., Harrison, S.E. & Qiao, S. Historical and Current Trends in HIV Criminalization in South Carolina: Implications for the Southern HIV Epidemic. AIDS Behav 23 (Suppl 3), 233–241 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-019-02599-1

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