HIV: The Moral Verdict.

The lived experience of HIV is a relatively unexplored yet imminent concern, given the endemic and epidemic character of the disease worldwide. This paper analyzes three theoretical dimensions to the victimization of the global HIV positive population, within the broader context of social stigma: essentially the association of HIV with social deviance with repercussions on social control mechanisms and corresponding legal entitlements of the victimized segment My research takes into consideration three levels of the stigma syndrome: rationale for perpetration, degrees of resistance and presence or absence of intervention. Durkhiems concept of collective consciousness and retributive justice gives a direction to the verdict on HIV as a moral crime. Marxian notion of social class and legal fetishism, accounts for the alienation of the positive population from their legal entitlements, and perpetuation of victimization. Finally Donald Blacks idea of integration and social control, discusses the slim interest of the legal machinery with the peripheral and victimized social groups. My specific research questions include: 1.Is perpetration of stigma a function of collective consciousness and social retribution? 2.Is HIV construed as a class disease? What is the function of social class in the legal and cultural fetishism of the HIV positive population, which interferes with individual stigma management capacities? 3.Is there a relationship between the perceived marginal character of the HIV positive population, and, inadequate legal measures against stigma perpetration? Does the scope of legal injustice increase in societies with more informal and less formal control? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]