Disparate risks of conviction under Michigan’s felony HIV disclosure law: An observational analysis of convictions and HIV diagnoses, 1992–2010

Abstract

Recent public debates on race and crime have reignited an interest in the criminology literature on the effect of victim characteristics on criminal justice outcomes. This article examines whether defendant and complaining witness demographic characteristics are associated with disparate outcomes under Michigan’s felony HIV disclosure statute, which makes it a crime for HIV-positive individuals to have sex without first disclosing their HIV-status. Despite indications nationwide that the number of defendants charged under HIV-specific criminal statutes (HSCS) is increasing, few empirical studies have examined their application. This study of HSCS convictions ( N = 51) retrospectively observes and compares the risks of conviction under Michigan’s HSCS for particular HIV-positive subpopulations between 1992 and 2010. Overall, a comparatively greater risk of conviction was observed for black men with female partners and white women overall. Contrary to expectations, a comparatively low risk of conviction was observed for men with male partners as compared to men with female partners. While the observational methodology employed in this analysis cannot identify the causal mechanisms driving the observed disparities, the findings nonetheless suggest an uneven application of Michigan’s HIV disclosure law deserving of further inquiry.

Punishing Sex: Sex Offenders and the Missing Punitive Turn in Sexuality Studies

“…Beyond the conceptual, this analysis builds on the long tradition in sociolegal studies of analyzing disparate criminal justice outcomes between racial minorities and whites. Approaches for evaluating discrimination under the law vary, ranging from analyses of racial bias in criminal sentencing (see, e.g., Crawford, Chiricos, and Kleck 2006; Kautt 2009; Doerner and Demuth 2010) to the disparate impact of the war on drugs on racial minorities (for a review, see Provine 2011) to the contextual factors such as victim race and gender that moderate the increased burden faced by racial minorities under the criminal justice enterprise (see, e.g., Baldus, Pulaski, and Woodworth 1983; Holcomb, Williams, and Demuth 2004; Hoppe 2015). Collectively, sociolegal scholars argue that these factors contribute to a system of mass incarceration that helps maintain and exacerbate racial inequality in the United States (Garland 1990,2001; Alexander 2010; Wacquant 2010; Rios 2011; Pettit 2012).…”

“…While Leon (2011) argues that there are two tracks for white and nonwhite sex offenders, with harsher punishment being meted out for sex offenders of color, less is known about broader patterns in enforcement. In the longstanding tradition of law and social inquiry into racial disparities of those incarcerated or otherwise controlled by the carceral state (see, e.g., Baldus, Pulaski, and Woodworth 1983; Holcomb, Williams, and Demuth 2004; Hoppe 2015), I compare US Census demographic data against a unique cross-sectional dataset of currently registered sex offenders in forty-nine states to examine racial disparities in sex offender registration rates.…”

Cruel Intentions? HIV Prevalence and Criminalization During an Age of Mass Incarceration, U.S. 1999 to 2012

“…One study shows that HIV-positive heterosexual Black men are more likely to have been convicted under the Michigan nondisclosure law as compared to their White counterparts. 47 Contrary to expectations, however, HIV-positive gay men in the state were much less likely to have faced conviction as compared to their heterosexual counterparts. These findings echo those of other work, 4 which shows that 80% of arrestees under Tennessee's HIV-specific criminal law, who were subsequently tried in Nashville courts between 2000 and 2010, involved men or women with opposite-gendered partners.…”