RegNet PhD scholar on regulating HIV transmission

RegNet PhD scholar Daniel Reeders has presented at the Risky Business forum on HIV criminalisation convened by Queensland Positive People and funded by the HIV Foundation Queensland on regulating HIV transmission.

His blog post on Bad Blood summarises his recent presentation. In this post, Daniel argues that HIV criminalisation has been framed solely as a medical issue and one that should be managed by public health rather than via criminal prosecution. This view, he says, ‘obscures the way public health and criminal law interact as part of a system for the regulation of HIV transmission.’

‘The five stage National Guidelines for managing people who place others at risk of HIV infection demonstrate the articulation of public health management and criminal sanctions as part of a system of responsive regulation (Ayres & Braithwaite, 1992).’

‘Public health and criminal law form two corners of a regulatory triangle around HIV, the third consisting of the cultures of protected sex and safe injecting in communities affected by HIV, as well as the community-based health promotion that shapes these cultures: what I’m calling, after Mitchell Dean, the social governance of HIV transmission.’