Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of The Criminalization Of Hiv Transmission In Cuerrier On Men Reporting Unprotected Sex With Men, Barry D. Adam, Richard Elliott, Winston Husbands, James Murray, John Maxwell

Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology Publications

This paper reports on the perceptions and practices of men who have frequent unprotected sex with men in a socio-legal environment defined by the 1998 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Cuerrier. HIV-positive people are increasingly finding themselves in court since Cuerrier and many are trying to take account of legal reasoning in their own conduct. The judicial construction of behaviour likely to transmit HIV relies on a set of presumptions concerning individual responsibility, rational and contractual interaction, and consenting adults that raise a series of ambiguities and uncertainties among HIV-positive people attempting to implement …