Criminalization of HIV non-disclosure: Narratives from young men living in vancouver, Canada

Rod Knight, Andrea Krüsi, Anna Carson, Danya Fast, Kate Shannon, Jean Shoveller

Résultat de recherche: Articleexamen par les pairs

7 Citations (Scopus)

Résumé

Background Previous research has identified the impacts of legal frameworks that criminalize HIV nondisclosure among people living with HIV (e.g., elevated stigma and violence). However, far less is known about the perspectives or experiences of people–particularly, men–who are HIV-seronegative or who are unaware of their status. The objective of this paper is to describe the health and social risks that young men perceive to be associated with an HIV diagnosis in the context of Canada’s current legal framework pertaining to HIV nondisclosure. Methods We analyzed data from 100 in-depth interviews (2013–2016) conducted with 85 young men ages 18–30 in Vancouver on the topic of the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure. Results Our analysis revealed two dominant narratives in relation to HIV criminalization: (a) interrogation and (b) justification. An interrogation narrative problematized the moral permissibility of criminalizing HIV non-disclosure. In this narrative, Canada’s HIV non-disclosure legal framework was characterized as creating unjust barriers to HIV testing uptake, as well as impeding access to and reducing retention in care for those living with HIV. Conversely, a justification narrative featured a surprising number of references to HIV as a “death sentence”, despite effective treatments being universally available in Canada. However, most of those who presented the justification narrative asserted that the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure was morally justified in light of the perceived negative stigma-related impacts of HIV (e.g., discrimination; being ostracized from sex or romantic partners, friends, family). The justification narrative often reflected a belief that the legal framework provides both punishment and deterrence, which were perceived to supersede any barriers to care for both HIV-positive and -negative individuals. Conclusion Public education regarding contemporary medical advances in HIV may help contest lay understandings of HIV as a “death sentence”, which is particularly relevant to destabilizing justification narratives. However, significant strengthening of HIV stigma-reduction efforts will be needed to move society away from narratives that attempt to justify Canada’s current HIV non-disclosure legal framework.

Langue d'origineEnglish
Numéro d'articlee0201110
JournalPLoS One
Volume13
Numéro de publication7
DOI
Statut de publicationPublished - juill. 2018
Publié à l'externeOui

Note bibliographique

Funding Information:
This study was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) (PJT-148818, HHP-123778 and EPP-122906) (JS) and the US National Institutes of Health (1R01DA043408). Knight and Fast are supported by Scholar Awards from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). Krüsi holds Post-Doctoral Fellowships from CIHR and MSFHR. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Knight et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
  • General

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