Washington and Lee Law Review Volume 78 Issue 1 Article 4 Winter 2021 Sex, Crime, and Serostatus Courtney K. Cross University of Alabama School of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr Part of the Criminal Law Commons, and the Health Law and Policy Commons Recommended Citation Courtney K. Cross, Sex, Crime, and Serostatus, 78 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 71 (), https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/vol78/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington and Lee Law Review at Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington and Lee Law Review by an authorized editor of Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Sex, Crime, and Serostatus Courtney K. Cross* Abstract The HIV crisis in the United States is far from over. The confluence of widespread opioid usage, high rates of HIV infection, and rapidly shrinking rural medical infrastructure has created a public health powder keg across the American South. Yet few states have responded to this grim reality by expanding social and medical services. Instead, criminalizing the behavior of people with HIV remains an overused and counterproductive tool for addressing this crisis—especially in the South, where HIV-specific criminal laws are enforced with the most frequency. People living with HIV are subject to arrest, prosecution, and lengthy prison sentences if they fail to disclose their HIV-positive serostatus before engaging in sexual or needle-sharing activities.