Legal Aspects of HIV: The Relationship Between Stigma and the Law
Scott Burris, J.D., L.L.D.
Stigma may be characterized as a mode of social control consisting of cultural beliefs about a trait that are operationalized in social attitudes and behavior (including the operation of the legal system) and in the affective responses and coping or resistance strategies adopted by the stigmatized individual (such as self-blaming). In the United States, law provides an important vocabulary and set of institutions for forming, effectuating and contesting stigma. Law may be useful as a means of reducing stigma by 1) providing protection against the enactment of stigma in harmful behavior towards stigmatized individuals, or 2) by expressing social disapproval of the stigma. Law, however, is also a means of enforcing and expressing stigma. The extent to which law influences the stigma of HIV and other diseases either positively or negatively has not been extensively studied, suggesting the need for caution in relying too heavily on law as a primary response to stigma that interferes with public health efforts.