From the very beginning of the epidemic, AIDS was linked to punishment. Calls to punish people living with HIV—mostly stigmatized minorities—began before doctors had even settled on a name for the disease.
Punishing Disease looks at how HIV was transformed from sickness to badness under the criminal law and investigates the consequences of inflicting penalties on people living with disease. Now that the door to criminalizing sickness is open, what other ailments will follow? With moves in state legislatures to extend HIV-specific criminal laws to include diseases such as hepatitis and meningitis, the question is more than academic.
Table of Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Punishment: AIDS in the Shadow of an American Institution
Part One: Punitive Disease Control
1. Controlling Typhoid Mary
2. “HIV Stops with Me”
3. The Public Health Police
Part Two: The Criminalization of Sickness
4. Making HIV a Crime
5. HIV on Trial
6. Victim Impact
Conclusion. Punishing Disease
Appendix 1. Methods: On Analyzing the Anatomy of a Social Problem
Appendix 2. State HIV Bills
Notes
Index
About the author
Trevor Hoppe is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and a coeditor of The War on Sex.
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