Criminalization and capture strategies in the HIV/AIDS assemblage

• Date: 17 August 2020
• Pages: 359-372
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-04-2019-0024
• Published date: 17 August 2020
• Subject Matter: Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Prisoner health,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Public policy & environmental management,Policing,Criminal justice
• Author: Jen Rinaldi,Olga Marques

Criminalization and capture strategies in

the HIV/AIDS assemblage

Jen Rinaldi and Olga Marques

Abstract

Purpose –This study aims to ask howHIV/AIDS is arranged as a public threat in and through Canadian

law, particularly in relation to transmission, and how strategies of capture extend the affective force of

criminalizationleading to poor health outcomesfor persons living with HIV/AIDS.

Design/methodology/approach –This is a conceptual paper with a focus on applying affect theorist

Jasbir Puar’s work onassemblage and debility. The authors use Puar’s work to framethe conditions that

personswith HIV/AIDS experience in the Canadiancriminal justice context as debilitating.

Findings –The authors found that while HIV transmission is not itself a criminal act in the Canadian

criminal justice context, activities where transmission is prevalent or possible have been criminalized,

particularlyin relation to nondisclosure of health status, sexwork and substance use. Further, the authors

found that when the activities associated with HIV transmission are criminalized, strategies of capture

extend the affective force of criminalization first in the inadequate provisionof health-care and pharma-

care services, second in state resistance to implement harm reduction measure and third in punitive

populationmanagement strategies.

Originality/value –Persons livingwith HIV/AIDS have historically experiencedstigmatization, especially

intersecting with neoliberal, white supremacist and heteropatriarchal axes of power. This paper uses

assemblage theory to shore up how these relations operate in ways that close off possibilities, by

constitutingthe HIV/AIDS assemblage as a criminal–rather than a health phenomenon. This paper, thus,

holds Canada to account for debilitating a historically disadvantaged and multiplying marginalized

population.

Keywords Health in prison, Prisoners, Risk management, HIV/AIDS, Sexual health, Harm reduction

Paper type Conceptual paper

Introduction

Longstanding stigma against HIV/AIDS is entrenched in Canadian criminal and carceral

mechanisms that close off possibilities for persons living with the condition. HIV –a

condition transmitted through contact with mucus and blood that impairs immune response

and can cause AIDS through immune cell depletion –operates in the Canadian criminal

justice context as an assemblage –aDeleuze and Guattari (1987) term describing identity

as an event that brings together unstable affectiveconnections. This particular assemblage

gathers along lines of race, class and queerness. Neoliberal, settler colonial, white

supremacist and heteropatriarchal axes of power flow through criminal justice responses;

what could be constituted as a health condition is structured as a public threat. While HIV

transmission is not itself criminalized in Canada, activities where transmissionis prevalent or

possible are routinely criminalized. Specifically, persons living with HIV/AIDS encounter

criminalization for nondisclosure of their health status under aggravated sexual assault law;

sex work continues to be criminalized despite constitutional challenge and substance use

and trafficking are policed. These threekinds of acts share in common their encounters with

the affective force of the Canadian criminal justice system. Law carries affective force when

Jen Rinaldi is based at the

Department of Legal

Studies, Ontario Tech

University, Oshawa,

Canada. Olga Marques is

based at the Department of

Criminology, Ontario Tech

University, Oshawa,

Canada.

Received 10 April 2019

Revised 31 January 2020

9 March 2020

Accepted 9 March 2020

DOI 10.1108/IJPH-04-2019-0024 VOL. 16 NO. 4 2020, pp. 359-372, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1744-9200 jINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRISONER HEALTH jPAGE 359