David M. Halperin is W. H. Auden Distinguished University Professor of the History and Theory of Sexuality in the English Department at the University of Michigan and the author, most recently, of
Trevor Hoppe is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and author of
David M. Halperin is W. H. Auden Distinguished University Professor of the History and Theory of Sexuality in the English Department at the University of Michigan and the author, most recently, of
Trevor Hoppe is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and author of
HIV Monsters: Gay Men, Criminal Law, and the New Political Economy of HIV
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Published:March 2017
Criminal prosecutions for HIV exposure, transmission, and nondisclosure have been steadily increasing worldwide for the past two decades. This chapter provides a brief overview of HIV criminalization and offers an extended critique of the progressive turn in HIV jurisprudence that singles out intentional infection as unquestionably criminal in nature. In particular, it analyzes a sensational case of intentional HIV infection that made its way through the Dutch legal system between 2007 and 2012 involving three HIV-positive men arrested for sodomizing other men they met in Internet chat rooms and then injecting them with HIV-infected blood. By challenging the hard line drawn around cases of intentional infection, the essay offers an alternative explanation for the emergence of today’s so-called “HIV Monsters,” arguing that changes in HIV policy and jurisprudence have fundamentally altered the very meaning of HIV itself, leading to new, symbolic incarnations of HIV in the domain of political economy.
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