AEGiS-APPJ: Driving the Epidemic Underground? A New Look at Law and the Social Risk of HIV Testing

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Driving the Epidemic Underground? A New Look at Law and the Social Risk of HIV Testing

AIDS & Public Policy Journal 12, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 66-78
S. Burris

This article is concerned with social policy as embodied in law--social policy that has been shaped in large part in response to the threat of discrimination and breach of privacy. The United States has heavily invested in and relied upon law to overcome resistance regarding HIV testing. Despite that reliance, today we know very little about how people at risk of HIV perceive the social risk of testing, or about how the law might be used to help reduce those fears. What we do know suggests that testing policies have not yet addressed the social fears of poor people, people alienated from the legal system, and people whose social risk often comes from the law itself (such as sex workers and drug users). The time has come to take a fresh look at HIV testing and the problem of social risk.
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APPJ97120202

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