Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2123/7369

Title: Offences against the (Moral) Person: HIV Transmission Offences in Australia
Authors: Houlihan, Annette
Sydney Institute of Criminology
Keywords: critical criminology
HIV transmission
offences
Issue Date: 17-May-2011
Publisher: Sydney Institute of Criminology
Series/Report no.: ANZCCC2010
Abstract: HIV transmission remains a focus of criminal prosecutions in Australia, with many of these cases appearing before Victorian courts. This paper will specifically explore the Victorian prosecution of Michael Neal, who was sentenced to 18 years gaol in 2009 for HIV-related offences. This was the first Victorian prosecution that used intentional and attempt provisions. Neal was portrayed as an evil, vindictive criminal in television and newspaper reports. His monstrous culpability was compounded by the subtext of bisexuality and hedonism, but also his implied transcendence from heteronormativity to homodeviance. His sexuality was located within various esoteric, depraved and rapacious imaginations, such as sadomasochism, gay orgies and conversion parties. He became a simulacrum of the ‘grim reaper’ of early Australian AIDS campaigns whereby he signified an indeterminate HIV risk for multiple unknown innocents. He was both risky and culpable. This paper will explore the construction of his risky criminal identity within the socio-legal imagination of HIV transmission criminality.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2123/7369
ISBN: 978-1-74210-224-5
Department/Unit/Centre: Sydney Institute of Criminology
Appears in Collections:The Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference Proceedings 2010

Files in This Item:

File Description SizeFormat
Houlihan_ANZCCC2010.pdf189.16 kBAdobe PDFView/Open

Items in Sydney eScholarship Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.