Criminal Intimacies

Criminal Intimacies? Issues of Risk, Responsibility and Stigma in the Criminalisation of ‘reckless’ Hiv Transmission in England and Wales

Olivia Marie Caroline Chausson, from the University of Cambridge, made a contribution to the 2012 Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, in the category “Traditional and New Forms of Crime and Deviance,” under the title “Criminal Intimacies? Issues of Risk, Responsibility and Stigma in the Criminalisation of ‘reckless’ Hiv Transmission in England and Wales”. Here is the abstract: The procedure of criminalising ‘reckless’ HIV transmission is strongly criticised by HIV charities, non-governmental organizations and international civil society alike. It raises pressing questions pertaining to its objectives, its effectiveness (in terms of maintaining ‘security’) and its justification (with regard to inalienable human rights). Moreover, it highlights the complexities inherent in state policing of intimate practices. This study investigates the perceptions of young women (aged 16-34) on the criminalisation of ‘reckless’ HIV transmission in England and Wales. Interviewees are drawn from two subgroups: people living with HIV, and people not directly affected by HIV. Specific attention is paid to intra and inter-group similarities and differences in interview narratives. The analysis of recurrent themes is conducted against the backdrop of ‘risk society’ and feminist paradigms. HIV criminalisation practices in other European jurisdictions such as Germany, France and Sweden are also examined.[rtbs name=”criminology”]

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Further Reading

• “Criminal Intimacies? Issues of Risk, Responsibility and Stigma in the Criminalisation of ‘reckless’ Hiv Transmission in England and Wales”, by Olivia Marie Caroline Chausson (Proceedings)