Introduction In 2015, there were 435,000 diagnoses of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) in England [1]. According to epidemiological mod- elling, between 100,000 and 110,000 people live with HIV in the UK, 13% of them are undiagnosed and prevalence is around 1% among the adult population [2]. Since 2005, the number of new diagnoses slowly decreased to a low of 5,164 people in 2016 [3-5]. Since 2001, there were thirty (30) convictions for STIs and HIV transmission in the UK; twenty-six (26) convictions under the Offences *Corresponding author: Marie Chollier, Interdisciplinary Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, England, UK, Tel: +44 7907748014; E-mail: marie.chol- lier.fr@gmail.com Citation: Chollier M, Tomkinson CT (2018) A Review of Empirical Studies on the Views on the Criminalisation of STIs/HIV Transmission in the UK. J AIDS Clin Res Sex Transm Dis 5: 017. Received: January 09, 2018; Accepted: February 25, 2018; Published: March 12, 2018 Against the Person Act (OAPA, 1861) in England and Wales; four (4) convictions under the Scottish Criminal Law in Scotland.The prose- cution and the conviction of STI/HIV transmission adhere to specifc rules and determined conditions [6]. Pro-criminalisation arguments consider legal enforcement as a structural intervention likely to reduce the number of transmissions and as an individual punishment for harming another [7-10]. By con- trast, the anti-criminalisation rationale has been based on the protec- tion of human rights [11,12]. More recently, studies highlighted the deleterious impact of criminalisation laws (i.e., transmission of and exposure to HIV, non-disclosure of one’s HIV status laws) on public health goals (lack of preventive effect or deleterious effect, [13-16]) the perception of the health and well-being of people living with HIV and relationship with service providers [17-22]. Globally, it is argued that the people most vulnerable to acquiring HIV are already subject to legal and social oppression and criminalisation of HIV increases marginalization [23]. These include undocumented people, sex work- ers, substance misusers, ethnic minorities and sexual and gender mi- norities [24-32]. Since the frst conviction in the UK, a number of studies investi- gated peoples’ opinions about the criminalisation of STIs/HIV and related themes (e.g., knowledge of criminal liability; disclosure of one’s status to sexual partner(s), concerns among people living with HIV, the impact of changes in community settings and/or professional practices). This is the frst systematic review of empirical studies ex- ploring views on the criminalisation of STIs/HIV in the UK. It aims to identify current trends in research and synthesise fndings regarding the British population and context. Method Given the variability of studies to be included regarding method- ology, design and sample size and to ensure the robustness of the sys- tematic review, two sets of guidelines were used: the PRISMA guide- lines for systematic review and meta-analysis and the meta-synthesis method for qualitative and health studies [33-37]. Sources and search strategy Publications were retrieved from the following electronic data- bases: PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct and Ethos. Keywords used were a combination of “HIV”, “STI” “STIs/HIV”, “law”, “crim*”, “expos*”, “transmi*” and “UK”, “Britain”, “Scotland”, “England”, “Northern Ireland”. Keywords were searched in the full-text to be as inclusive as possible. Other sources (e.g. Google Scholar, community survey reports) provided possible sources of grey literature, applying the same criteria. The reference lists of included articles were checked for additional papers or sources otherwise not identifed. Eligibility criteria Publications were included if their focus or their outcomes related to the criminalisation of HIV transmission. Studies were excluded Chollier M andTomkinsonb CT, J AIDS Clin Res Sex Transm Dis 2018, 5: 017 DOI: 10.24966/ACRS-7370/100017 HSOA Journal of AIDS Clinical Research and STDs Review Article Abstract This paper reviews peer-reviewed empirical studies of the views on the criminalisation of STIs/HIV in the UK. The review examines the state of current research in British context and highlights gaps in existing literature. Findings indicate a lack of legal and health-related knowledge among people living with HIV, MSM and professionals working with people living with HIV and highlight specifc challenges for key-populations. Keywords: Criminalisation; MSM; STIs/HIV; Stigma Marie Chollier 1* and Christopher T Tomkinson 2 1 Interdisciplinary Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, England, UK 2 Body Positive, Staffordshire University, England, UK A Review of Empirical Studies on the Views on the Criminalisation of STIs/HIV Transmission in the UK