Kane, Stephanie : Indiana University at Bloomington
Stephanie Kane is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Indiana University and an Adjunct Professor in
the Department of Anthropology. She is the author of The Phantom Gringo Boat: Shamanic Discourse and Development
in Panama.
Summary
AIDS Alibis tackles the cultural landscape upon which AIDS, often accompanied by poverty, drug addiction, and
crime, proliferates on a global scale. Stephanie Kane layers stories of individuals and events--from Chicago to
Belize City, to cyberspace--to illustrate the paths of HIV infection and the effects of environment, government
intervention, and social mores. Linking ordinary yet kindred lives in communities around the globe, Kane challenges
the assumptions underlying the use of police and courts to solve health problems.
The stories reveal the dynamics that determine how the policy decisions of white-collar health care professionals
actually play out in real life. By focusing on life-changing social problems, the narratives highlight the contradictions
between public health and criminal law. Look at how HIV has transformed our social consciousness, from intimate
touch to institutional outreach. But, Kane argues, these changes are dwarfed by the United States's refusal to
stop the war on drugs, in effect misdirecting resources and awareness.
AIDS Alibis combines empirical and interpretive methods in a path-breaking attempt to recognize the extent to which
coercive institutional practices are implicated in HIV transmission patterns. Kane shows how the virus feeds on
the politics of inequality and indifference, even as it exploits the human need for intimacy and release.