ENFORCEMENT OF HIV CRIMINALIZATION in Louisiana

A violation of the STI public health statute results only in a fine between $10 and $200 for a first-time offense, a fine of between $25 and $400 for a second offense, and a fine of between $50 and $500 and/or imprisonment of between 10 days and 6 months for any subsequent offense.19 Sex Work and HIV Criminalization In addition to the HIV criminalization statute, HIV status is relevant in other ar. [...] Enforcement of HIV Criminalization in Louisiana | 9 DATA AND SOURCES In the sections that follow we present a new analysis of the enforcement of Louisiana’s HIV criminal law. [...] As a result, the enforcement data from LIBRS are only a small slice of all law enforcement actions across the state, and they are geographically concentrated.56 Law Enforcement Agencies and Location of Incidents Of the 194 law enforcement agencies participating in LIBRS at the time of analysis, only 11% (22) reported an HIV-related incident. [...] When aggregating to the parish level, we found that almost half of all incidents (48%) were from just three parishes: about a quarter (26%) of all incidents happened in Calcasieu Parish in the far southwest of the state, another 12% occurred in East Baton Rouge Parish, and 10% occurred in Bossier Parish (part of the Shreveport metro area). [...] Parishes with HIV-related LIBRS incidents Number of HIV incidents 12.5 10.0 7.5 5.0 2.5 Year and Month of Incident The chronological distribution of incidents also reflects the slow uptake of LIBRS, with a sudden spike in the year 2021 in HIV-related incidents likely driven by the sudden increase in LIBRS-participating LEAs.