This report provides an up-to-date look at the enforcement of HIV criminal laws in Ohio. The Williams
Institute analyzed data from Ohio’s Incident-Based Reporting System (OIBRS) about HIV-related
criminal incidents between 2000 and 2022. We also analyzed data on HIV-related criminal court cases
between 2009 and 2022 from the Cuyahoga County courts system collected by that county’s Board of
Public Health.
Ohio has six laws that criminalize the conduct of people living with HIV (PLWH), including having sex
without disclosing one’s HIV status, exposing others to bodily fluids more generally, engaging in sex
work, and donating blood. Our analysis revealed that there have been at least 530 allegations of
HIV-related criminal offenses across 447 separate incidents between 2000 and 2022 in Ohio. None of
these incidents required actual transmission, the intent to transmit, or even conduct likely to transmit
HIV in order to sustain a conviction.
The findings presented in this report corroborate those from a recent study by staff at the Equality
Ohio Education Fund and the Ohio Health Modernization Movement.1 Taken as a whole, the two
reports find that from 2000 to the present, there have been hundreds of arrests and prosecutions for
HIV-related crimes in Ohio. Together, they show a pattern of widespread and continued enforcement
of HIV crimes. Enforcement is primarily concentrated in just a handful of counties across the state and
disproportionately affects Black people and women in Ohio.
Authors
- Published in
- United States of America
