When asked to comment on the criminalization of condoms, a representative from the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office told Jezebel that the “premise that condoms have been criminalized is not an accurate statement.” He sent a letter from District Attorney Stephen Zappala, clarifying that the county is not criminalizing condoms across the board, but only classifying them as “instruments of crime” while there is a “nexus between condoms, phones, computers, etc., and the investigation of either trafficking or promotion of prostitution.” While Zappala also acknowledges that HIV is a serious public health risk, he seems to find that the ends justify the means. “If any police agency investigating such a crime [as human trafficking], believes that the possibility of exploitation exists, and did not adequately investigate such matters, they would not be doing their job,” he writes.
Pittsburgh Sex Workers Are Being Charged With Carrying Condoms, or, ‘Instruments of Crime’–Raising the Question of Who Is at Risk
