HIV criminalization means using laws and policies to punish people living with HIV for non-disclosure of status, perceived exposure to HIV, or transmission of the virus. Laws vary by state. Some punish oral, anal, or vaginal sex; exposure to saliva or blood; sharing needles; and donating organs, semen, blood, or breast milk of people living with HIV.1

HIV criminalization hurts people living with HIV, increases HIV stigma, undermines public health efforts, and is rooted in anti-Black racism. Many of the acts that are criminalized, like having sex with an undetectable viral load, spitting, or biting, don’t actually transmit HIV.2 To learn more, see this factsheet.

These laws don’t stand alone. They connect to other systems that hurt women: intimate partner violence (IPV), the criminalization of sex work and poverty, prison, and immigration enforcement. Together, these systems hit women of color, transgender women, and low-income women the hardest.3

  • 55% of women living with HIV have survived intimate partner violence.4
  • Black women make up about 52% of new HIV diagnoses among women but only about 13% of their gender in the U.S.5 Black and transgender women face some of the harshest enforcement under HIV criminalization laws.6

Sex workers, homeless people, and people who use drugs are targeted by law enforcement and the criminal legal system more often than their peers.7 This pushes marginalized women into the system, where their HIV status becomes another weapon against them.8

Where Are We Now? Disclosure, Violence, and the Law

For women living with HIV, disclosure isn’t just a health choice, it’s a safety calculation. Abusers use the threat of “outing” a partner’s HIV status, or HIV criminalization laws themselves, to control, threaten, and silence survivors.

By The Numbers

  • Nearly 1 in 4 women living with HIV experience violence as a direct result of disclosing their status. 
  • More than half of women living with HIV experience intimate partner violence (IPV), and 54% of trans and gender-diverse people living with HIV experience IPV.9  
  • HIV criminalization makes this worse. 32 states still punish people for HIV exposure or transmission and 28 states hand down harsher sentences because of HIV status alone.10

A Member's Story

Lashanda Salinas, a Tennessee member of Positive Women’s Network (PWN), experienced HIV criminalization after her former partner alleged that she had not disclosed her HIV status, despite her stating that she had. The allegation led to her arrest.

You can listen to her story below. 

What Can Be Done?

Disclosure and Protecting Yourself

*Disclaimer: This is Not Legal Advice

  • Know the science: If your viral load is undetectable, you cannot transmit HIV. Many acts—such as oral sex, sex with a condom, spitting, biting—have zero or near-zero possibility of transmission.
  • Document disclosure. Get a written text or email acknowledging your status from your partner. Disclose with a witness present. Or keep your own dated notes.
  • Talking to the police? Don’t share your HIV status. Don’t give a sample of your bodily fluid (saliva, blood, etc.)  or sign anything. Don’t say more than you have to. Stay quiet and ask for a lawyer.
  • If you’re charged: Don’t contact your accuser. Give your medical and disclosure records only to your lawyer. Don’t talk about your case online, with cellmates, or with family.
  1. Support federal legislation to end HIV discrimination and incentivize states to repeal or modernize HIV criminalization laws.
  2. Fund housing for survivors. Support transitional housing assistance for women living with HIV who are survivors of IPV, sexual assault, or stalking, so no one has to choose between safety and shelter.
  3. Protect and fully fund VOCA,12 including funding for Native American Tribes,13 and FVPSA.14 These programs support survivors of IPV, sexual assault, stalking, and other violent crimes by funding shelters, survivor support and legal services, and prevention programs. They fund projects like the National Network to End Domestic Violence’s Positively Safe program, which trains domestic violence and HIV service providers to work together so survivors get the best care, providing community-based support rather than relying on carceral systems.15,16
  1. Make trauma-informed IPV screening standard in HIV care. Routine intimate partner violence screening and trauma-informed care in women’s HIV services can break the cycle of violence, trauma, and HIV.17
  2. Repeal or modernize state HIV criminalization laws. Removing or updating these outdated laws—which fuel stigma and undermine testing, treatment, and prevention—to align with modern science and human rights. A recent law change in Louisiana proves that HIV modernization is possible!18 
  3. Decriminalize sex work. Criminalizing sex work puts women living with HIV at greater risk of violence, stigma, and barriers to healthcare. Decriminalization can make it safer for women to protect their health, report abuse, and access HIV care without fear of arrest or punishment.

Resources

Special Thanks To Our Contributors!

  • Bee (Brandi) Velasquez
  • LaDawn Tate
  • Melanie A. Reese
  • Kneeshe Parkinson
  • Valerie Pinkston
  • Brooke Davidoff
  • Alyssa Crawford

And a huge shout out to our past intern Treasure Welle for writing our updated factsheets!

1: Amira Hasenbush, Ayako Miyashita, and Bianca D. M. Wilson. HIV Criminalization in California: Penal Implications for People Living with HIV/AIDS. Los Angeles: The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law, and California HIV/AIDS Research Program, 2015. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/hiv-criminalization-ca-penal/.
2: Ibid 
3: The Center for HIV Law and Policy and National LGBTQ Task Force, The Intersection of Sex Work and HIV Criminalization: An Advocate’s Toolkit (New York: The Center for HIV Law and Policy; Washington, DC: National LGBTQ Task Force, 2017), https://www.hivlawandpolicy.org/sites/default/files/Sex%20Work%20HIV%20Toolkit%20FINAL%20R2_0.pdf.
4: Sullivan, Tami P. “The intersection of intimate partner violence and HIV: detection, disclosure, discussion, and implications for treatment adherence.” Topics in antiviral medicine vol. 27,2 (2019): 84-87.
5: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “HIV Diagnoses, Deaths, and Prevalence: 2026 Update,” HIV Data, last modified May 18, 2026, https://www.cdc.gov/hiv-data/nhss/hiv-diagnoses-deaths-and-prevalence-2026.html. 
6: HIV Justice Worldwide, Beyond Criminalization: Reconsidering HIV Criminalization, February 2022, https://toolkit.hivjusticeworldwide.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Beyond_criminalization__reconsidering_HIV.99129.pdf.
7: Ibid
8: Ibid
9: Tami P. Sullivan, “The Intersection of Intimate Partner Violence and HIV: Detection, Disclosure, Discussion, and Implications for Treatment Adherence,” Topics in Antiviral Medicine 27, no. 2 (May 2019): 84–87, accessed August 3, 2026, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31136996/. 
10: Center for HIV Law and Policy, “Mapping HIV Criminalization Laws in the U.S.” 2025. https://www.hivlawandpolicy.org/maps
11: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U),” https://www.cdc.gov/global-hiv-tb/php/our-approach/undetectable-untransmittable.html.
12: Passed in 1984, the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) provides support for survivors of violence, however indigenous people are excluded from receiving VOCA funding. https://www.niwrc.org/policy-center/voca. 
13: There has never been a dedicated funding line item under VOCA for survivors of violence in Native American tribes. You can read more in the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center’s Brief on this subject: https://www.niwrc.org/policy-center/voca.
14: Passed in 1984, The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) provides funding to domestic violence shelters and services for survivors and their children. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R42838.
15: National Network to End Domestic Violence, “Positively Safe: Addressing the Intersection of Domestic Violence & HIV/AIDS,” https://nnedv.org/content/positively-safe-addressing-the-intersection-of-domestic-violence-hivaids/. 
16: National Center for Victims of Crime, VAWA–VOCA–FVPSA Comparison Chart (Washington, DC: National Center for Victims of Crime, 2022), https://victimrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/VAWA-VOCA-FVPSA-Comparison-Chart.pdf.
17: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Essential Health Care Services Addressing Intimate Partner Violence (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2024), chap. 5, “Essential Health Care Services for Intimate Partner Violence,” accessed August 3, 2026, NCBI Bookshelf.
18: The Center for HIV Law and Policy, “Louisiana Enacts Significant Reform of HIV Exposure Law,” June 2, 2026, https://www.hivlawandpolicy.org/news/louisiana-enacts-significant-reform-hiv-exposure-law.