1 Department of Sociology and Legal Studies, University of Waterloo, Kitchener-Waterloo, ON, Canada. c2hastings@uwaterloo.ca.
2 Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
3 Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
4 Department of Sociology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
5 Department of Sociology, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada.
6 Department of Health and Society, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
7 Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
8 School of Nursing, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
9 School of Social Work, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
10 School of Social Work, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada.
11 Department of Political Science, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada.
12 Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
13 Simone de Beauvoir Institute & Women's Studies, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
14 School of Nursing, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
15 Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies and the School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
16 Faculty of Health & Medicine, Lancaster University, Lancaster, England.
17 Department of Sociology, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada.
18 HIV Justice Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
19 Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Kitchener-Waterloo, ON, Canada.

The criminalization of HIV non-disclosure represents a significant issue of concern among people living with HIV, those working across the HIV sector, public health practitioners, and health and human rights advocates around the world. Recently, the government of Canada began a review of the criminal law regarding HIV non-disclosure and invited feedback from the public about potential reforms to the Criminal Code. In light of this public consultation, this commentary examines social science research from Canadian scholars that documents the intersecting damaging effects of HIV criminalization. Canadian social scientists and other researchers have shown that HIV criminalization is applied in uneven and discriminatory ways, impedes HIV prevention efforts, perpetuates HIV stigma, and has a damaging impact on the daily lives of people living with HIV. We argue that there is an urgent need for reforms that will significantly restrict how the criminal law is applied to HIV non-disclosure.