Tracing the “Infectious Criminal”: A Genealogy of HIV Criminalization and Infectious Injustice in Finland
This article examines the junction of state healthcare and punishment through HIV criminalization. By problematizing the application of criminal law to HIV in Finland, the study locates a genealogy of the “infectious criminal” – a figure at the cusp of these two forms of state power. The article traces how this figure, evoked in official debates from the early 20th century onwards, justified punitive measures to control marginalized people, from poor merchants to prisoners-of-war, sex workers, vagrants, and later, migrants. Drawing on parliamentary archives, the article asks how punishment and existing social injustices are narrated, maintained, and connected. Revealing a continuum of punishment and healthcare, HIV criminalization – especially within a nation deemed exceptionally non-punitive and welfare-oriented – is a crucial point from which to examine the connections of social injustice and criminal justice.
Risks, Rights & Health – Supplement
This Supplement highlights developments since 2012 in science, technology, law, geopolitics, and funding that affect people living with or at risk from HIV and its coinfections. The recommendations add to and amplify those of the Commission’s 2012 report Risks, Rights & Health, which remain as relevant as they were six years ago.
Zaburoni v The Queen
Clarifies that recklessness regarding HIV transmission risk is not the same as intention to transmit HIV. This ruling means that if people are convicted of having sex without disclosing their HIV status, they will be convicted of lesser charges with lower penalty.
Sexual transmission of HIV and the law: an Australian medical consensus statement
Provides current scientific evidence to facilitate just outcomes in Australian criminal cases involving HIV. Argues that careful attention should be paid to the best scientific evidence on HIV risk and harms, with consideration of alternatives to prosecution, including public health management. Authored by leading Australian HIV clinicians and scientists.