Men Who have Sex with Men Who Believe that Their State has a HIV Criminal Law Report Higher Condomless Anal Sex than Those Who are Unsure of the Law in Their State

Keith J Horvath,B R Simon Rosser,Craig Meyer

doi:10.1007/s10461-016-1286-0

Abstract

We assessed the effects of beliefs about state HIV criminal law on condomless anal sex (CAS<3months) among men who have sex with men (MSM) residing in 16 US states (n=2013; M=36years old; 75% White; 82% HIV-negative) completing an online survey in 2010 and stratified by residency in a state with any or sex-specific HIV criminal law(s) or where a HIV-related arrest, prosecution, or sentence enhancement (APSE) had occurred. Three-quarters of MSM reported that they were unsure of the law in their state. Men who believed there was a HIV law in their state but lived in states without any or a sex-specific HIV criminal law(s) had higher probabilities of CAS compared to those who were unsure of their state's law; men who believed there was a HIV law in their state and lived in a state where an APSE had occurred had higher probabilities of CAS compared to those who were unsure of their state's law. Correct knowledge of state law was not associated with CAS. Findings suggest that HIV criminal laws have little or counter-productive effects on MSM's risk behavior.

Highlights

An enabling policy environment which ensures human rights and facilitates access to HIV prevention, treatment and care services has been identified as central to an S52AIDS Behav (2017) 21:S51–S61 effective AIDS response [1]
The purpose of the National Commitments and Policy Instrument (NCPI) has evolved since 2004, when it only asked about the existence of national-level AIDS policies and strategies [10]
Ten years of NCPI experience have demonstrated the importance of the NCPI in describing the political, policy and legal environments for national HIV responses, for programmatic reviews and to stimulate dialogue among stakeholders

Summary

Introduction

An enabling policy environment which ensures human rights and facilitates access to HIV prevention, treatment and care services has been identified as central to an S52AIDS Behav (2017) 21:S51–S61 effective AIDS response [1]. Monitoring of laws, policies and regulations is key to understanding how structural factors impact people’s risk of acquiring HIV, as well as their access to, and use of, services. Such monitoring can provide an assessment of how policy and legal barriers and gaps should be addressed, as well as measure progress towards more enabling policy and legal environments [2]. Through the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) 2001 Declaration of Commitment, countries agreed to conduct periodic reviews of progress towards their commitments, with civil society involvement, develop monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, and ‘‘by 2003, establish or strengthen effective monitoring systems... The 2006, 2011 and 2016 Political Declarations on HIV/AIDS [5,6,7] reaffirmed UNAIDS’ mandate to support monitoring and reporting on commitments

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