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Law And Politics, An Emerging Epidemic: A Call For Evidence-Based Public Health Law, Michael Ulrich
Law And Politics, An Emerging Epidemic: A Call For Evidence-Based Public Health Law, Michael Ulrich
Faculty Scholarship
As Jacobson v. Massachusetts recognized in 1905, the basis of public health law, and its ability to limit constitutional rights, is the use of scientific data and empirical evidence. Far too often, this important fact is lost. Fear, misinformation, and politics frequently take center stage and drive the implementation of public health law. In the recent Ebola scare, political leaders passed unnecessary and unconstitutional quarantine measures that defied scientific understanding of the disease and caused many to have their rights needlessly constrained. Looking at HIV criminalization and exemptions to childhood vaccine requirements, it becomes clear that the blame cannot be …
Adjudicating Risk: Aids, Crime, And Culpability, Aziza Ahmed
Adjudicating Risk: Aids, Crime, And Culpability, Aziza Ahmed
Faculty Scholarship
The AIDS epidemic continues to pose significant public health challenges, especially given that the spread of the virus outpaces the AIDS response.1 Importantly, HIV continues to disproportionately impact socially and economically marginalized communities. In countries with concentrated epidemics,2 it is racial minorities, sex workers, men who have sex with men, and drug users who face the brunt of the epidemic.3 In the United States, the data is startling4 : 44% of new infections were among African-Americans, and among African-Americans contracting HIV, 57% were among gay and bisexual men.5 In 2016, the CDC found that one …
Criminal Laws On Sex Work And Hiv Transmission: Mapping The Laws, Considering The Consequence, Aziza Ahmed, Sienna Baskin, Anna Forbes
Criminal Laws On Sex Work And Hiv Transmission: Mapping The Laws, Considering The Consequence, Aziza Ahmed, Sienna Baskin, Anna Forbes
Faculty Scholarship
Lawmakers historically justify the mobilization of criminal laws on prostitution and HIV as a means of controlling the spread of disease. Over time, however, public health research has conclusively demonstrated that criminal laws on prostitution and HIV significantly impede the ability of sex workers to access services and to live without the stigma and blame associated with being a transmitter of HIV. In turn, mainstream public health approaches to sex work and HIV emphasize decriminalization as a way to improve the lives of sex workers in need of care, treatment, and services. Our current legal system, which criminalizes both prostitution …