IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlawec/doi10.1086-655806.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Criminal Prosecution and Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Related Risky Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Adeline Delavande
  • Dana Goldman
  • Neeraj Sood

Abstract

We examine the consequences of prosecuting people who are human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive and expose others to the infection. We show that the effect of such prosecutions on the spread of HIV is a priori ambiguous. The prosecutions deter unsafe sex. However, they also create incentives for having sex with partners who are more promiscuous, which consequently increases the spread of HIV. We test these predictions and find that such prosecutions are associated with a reduction in the number of partners, an increase in safe sex, and an increase in sex with prostitutes. We estimate that doubling the prosecution rate could decrease the total number of new HIV infections by one-third over a 10-year period.

Suggested Citation

  • Adeline Delavande & Dana Goldman & Neeraj Sood, 2010. "Criminal Prosecution and Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Related Risky Behavior," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(4), pages 741-782.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:doi:10.1086/655806
    DOI: 10.1086/655806
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/655806
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/655806
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/655806?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philipson, Tomas, 2000. "Economic epidemiology and infectious diseases," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 33, pages 1761-1799, Elsevier.
    2. Steven D. Levitt, 1996. "The Effect of Prison Population Size on Crime Rates: Evidence from Prison Overcrowding Litigation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(2), pages 319-351.
    3. Darius Lakdawalla & Neeraj Sood & Dana Goldman, 2006. "HIV Breakthroughs and Risky Sexual Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(3), pages 1063-1102.
    4. A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), 2007. "Handbook of Law and Economics," Handbook of Law and Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 2.
    5. Bhattacharya, Jayanta & Goldman, Dana & Sood, Neeraj, 2003. "The link between public and private insurance and HIV-related mortality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 1105-1122, November.
    6. Donohue John & Wolfers Justin J, 2006. "The Death Penalty: No Evidence for Deterrence," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 3(5), pages 1-6, April.
    7. Peltzman, Sam, 1975. "The Effects of Automobile Safety Regulation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(4), pages 677-725, August.
    8. Polinsky, A. Mitchell & Shavell, Steven, 2007. "The Theory of Public Enforcement of Law," Handbook of Law and Economics, in: A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), Handbook of Law and Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 403-454, Elsevier.
    9. Michael Kremer, 1996. "Integrating Behavioral Choice into Epidemiological Models of AIDS," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(2), pages 549-573.
    10. Becker Gary S., 2006. "On the Economics of Capital Punishment," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 3(3), pages 1-4, March.
    11. Morse, Edward V. & Simon, Patricia M. & Osofsky, Howard J. & Balson, Paul M. & Gaumer, H. Richard, 1991. "The male street prostitute: A vector for transmission of HIV infection into the heterosexual world," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 535-539, January.
    12. Philipson, Tomas & Posner, Richard A, 1994. "Public Spending on AIDS Education: An Economic Analysis," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(1), pages 17-38, April.
    13. Rubin Paul H., 2006. "Reply to Donohue and Wolfers on the Death Penalty and Deterrence," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 3(5), pages 1-3, April.
    14. Michael Kremer, 1996. "Integrating Behavioral Choice into Epidemiological Models of the AIDS Epidemic," NBER Working Papers 5428, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Jeffrey A. Miron & Jeffrey Zwiebel, 1995. "The Economic Case against Drug Prohibition," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 175-192, Fall.
    16. Andrew M. Francis & Hugo M. Mialon, 2008. "The Optimal Penalty for Sexually Transmitting HIV," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 10(2), pages 388-423.
    17. Michael A. Boozer & Tomas J. Philipson, 2000. "The Impact of Public Testing for Human Immunodeficiency Virus," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(3), pages 419-446.
    18. Newman, J.C. & Des Jarlais, D.C. & Turner, C.F. & Gribble, J. & Cooley, P. & Paone, D., 2002. "The differential effects of face-to-face and computer interview modes," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(2), pages 294-297.
    19. Auld, M. Christopher, 2003. "Choices, beliefs, and infectious disease dynamics," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 361-377, May.
    20. A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), 2007. "Handbook of Law and Economics," Handbook of Law and Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    21. Mechoulan Stéphane, 2004. "HIV Testing: a Trojan Horse?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-26, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francis, Andrew M. & Mialon, Hugo M. & Peng, Handie, 2012. "In sickness and in health: Same-sex marriage laws and sexually transmitted infections," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(8), pages 1329-1341.
    2. M. V. Lee Badgett & Christopher S. Carpenter & Maxine J. Lee & Dario Sansone, 2024. "A Review of the Economics of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(3), pages 948-994, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Adeline Delavande & Dana Goldman & Neeraj Sood, 2007. "Criminal Prosecution and HIV-related Risky Behavior," NBER Working Papers 12903, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Áureo De Paula & Gil Shapira & Petra E. Todd, 2014. "How Beliefs About Hiv Status Affect Risky Behaviors: Evidence From Malawi," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 944-964, September.
    3. Francis, Andrew M. & Mialon, Hugo M. & Peng, Handie, 2012. "In sickness and in health: Same-sex marriage laws and sexually transmitted infections," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(8), pages 1329-1341.
    4. Auld, M. Christopher, 2003. "Choices, beliefs, and infectious disease dynamics," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 361-377, May.
    5. Goodkin-Gold, Matthew & Kremer, Michael & Snyder, Christopher M. & Williams, Heidi, 2022. "Optimal vaccine subsidies for endemic diseases," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    6. Mannberg, Andréa, 2012. "Risk and rationalization—The role of affect and cognitive dissonance for sexual risk taking," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1325-1337.
    7. Sander Heinsalu, 2020. "Infection arbitrage," Papers 2004.08701, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2020.
    8. Francis, Andrew M. & Mialon, Hugo M., 2010. "Tolerance and HIV," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 250-267, March.
    9. Auld, M. Christopher & Toxvaerd, Flavio, 2021. "The Great Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout: Behavioural And Policy Responses," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 257, pages 14-35, August.
    10. David E. Bloom & Michael Kuhn & Klaus Prettner, 2022. "Modern Infectious Diseases: Macroeconomic Impacts and Policy Responses," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 85-131, March.
    11. Konstantin Matthies & Flavio Toxvaerd, 2023. "Rather doomed than uncertain: risk attitudes and transmissive behavior under asymptomatic infection," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 76(1), pages 1-44, July.
    12. Stéphane Mechoulan, 2006. "Risky Sexual Behavior, Testing and New HIV Treatments," Working Papers tecipa-239, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    13. Francis, Andrew M., 2008. "The economics of sexuality: The effect of HIV/AIDS on homosexual behavior in the United States," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 675-689, May.
    14. Friedman, Willa Helterline, 2018. "Antiretroviral drug access and behavior change," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 392-411.
    15. Aadland David & Finnoff David C. & Huang Kevin X.D., 2013. "Syphilis Cycles," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 297-348, June.
    16. Lasha Lanchava, 2013. "Free to Choose: An Experimental Investigation of the Value of Free Choice," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp492, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    17. Franklin E. Zimring & Jeffrey Fagan & David T. Johnson, 2010. "Executions, Deterrence, and Homicide: A Tale of Two Cities," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(1), pages 1-29, March.
    18. Dasaratha, Krishna, 2023. "Virus dynamics with behavioral responses," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    19. Wilson, Nicholas L. & Xiong, Wentao & Mattson, Christine L., 2014. "Is sex like driving? HIV prevention and risk compensation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 78-91.
    20. Heinsalu, Sander, 2021. "Promotion of (interaction) abstinence increases infection prevalence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 94-112.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:doi:10.1086/655806. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JLE .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.