This book offers a comprehensive examination of the ways in which the criminal justice system of England and Wales has regulated, and failed or refused to regulate, lesbianism. It identifies the overarching approach as one of silencing: lesbianism has not only been ignored or regarded as unimaginable, but was deliberately excluded from legal discourses. A series of case studies ranging from 1746 to 2013 from parliamentary debates to individual prosecutions shed light on the complex process of regulation through silencing. They illuminate its evolution over three centuries and explore when and why it has been breached. The answers Derry uncovers can be fully understood only in the context of surrounding social and legal developments which are also considered. Lesbianism and the Criminal Law makes an important contribution to the growing bodies of literature on feminism, sexuality and the law and the legal history of sexual offences.
This book explores the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) communities as victims, offenders and staff within the criminal justice system. It draws on both emerging and existing LGBT research and campaigns to identify and explore issues relevant to the criminal justice system, including: agencies of the criminal justice system, victimisation, domestic violence and abuse, transgender experiences, LGBT people as offenders, international perspectives and the personal experiences of LGBT people. Charlotte Knight and Kath Wilson trace the legislative journey toward equal treatment before and after the Wolfenden Report. They consider why, for example, lesbians are over represented on death row in the US, how the prosecution characterises them and what part homophobia might play in offending and in sentencing. They raise important questions about the causes of, and responses to, same-sex domestic violence and abuse and how the system delivers justice to trans people. Sodomy laws and the treatment of LGBT people worldwide are also considered and models of good practice are offered. Their insights will be of interest to practitioners, policy makers and scholars of the criminal justice system, particularly those concerned with the rights of LGBT communities.
This book provides a coherent history of criminal law and homosexuality in Scandinavia from 1842 to 1999, a period during which same-sex love was outlawed or subject to severe legal restrictions in the Scandinavian penal codes. This was the case in most countries in Northern Europe, but the book argues that the development in Scandinavia was different, partly determined by the structure of the welfare state. Five experienced scholars of the history of homosexuality describe how same-sex desire has been regulated in their respective countries during the past 160 years. With backgrounds in history, sociology, and gender studies, the contributors represent an interdisciplinary approach. Their contributions present for the first time a comprehensive history of homosexuality in Scandinavia. Among other things, it includes the most extensive study yet written in any language about Iceland's gay and lesbian history. Also for the first time, the book discusses in detail same-sex sexuality between women. Female homosexuality was outlawed in Eastern Scandinavia, but not in the Western parts of this region. It also analyzes the modern tendency to include lesbian women in the criminal aspect of the medicalization of homosexuality and the growing influence of medical discourse on the law. Jens Rydstrm is lecturer in history, particularly gender history, at Stockholm University (Sweden) and the author of Sinners and Citizens: Bestiality and Homosexuality in Sweden, 18801950. He is currently working on the history of laws on registered partnership in the Nordic countries. Kati Mustola is a research fellow at the Department of Sociology of the University of Helsinki (Finland). She is currently involved in research on the situation of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people in the workplace. She also specializes in Finnish lesbian and gay history. She has edited several books in lesbian and gay studies and for many years was responsible for the teaching of lesbian studies at the Christina Institute for Women's Studies at the University of Helsinki.
Throughout US history, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people have been pathologized, victimized, and criminalized. Reports of lynching, burning, or murdering of LGBTQ people have been documented for centuries. Prior to the 1970s, LGBTQ people were deemed as having psychological disorders and subsequently subject to electroshock therapy and other ineffective and cruel treatments. LGBTQ people have historically been arrested or imprisoned for crimes like sodomy, cross-dressing, and gathering in public spaces. And while there have been many strides to advocate for LGBTQ rights in contemporary times, there are still many ways that the criminal justice system works against LGBTQ and their lives, liberties, and freedoms. Queering Law and Order: LGBTQ Communities and the Criminal Justice System examines the state of LGBTQ people within the criminal justice system. Intertwining legal cases, academic research, and popular media, Nadal reviews a wide range of issues—ranging from historical heterosexist and transphobic legislation to police brutality to the prison industrial complex to family law. Grounded in Queer Theory and intersectional lenses, each chapter provides recommendations for queering and disrupting the justice system. This book serves as both an academic resource and a call to action for readers who are interested in advocating for LGBTQ rights.
A groundbreaking work that turns a “queer eye” on the criminal legal system Drawing on years of research, activism, and legal advocacy, Queer (In)Justice is a searing examination of queer experiences as “suspects,” defendants, prisoners, and survivors of crime. The authors unpack queer criminal archetypes—from “gleeful gay killers” and “lethal lesbians” to “disease spreaders” and “deceptive gender benders”—to illustrate the punishment of queer expression, regardless of whether a crime was ever committed. Tracing stories from the streets to the bench to behind prison bars, the authors prove that the policing of sex and gender both bolsters and reinforces racial and gender inequalities. An eye-opening study of LGBTQ rights and equality, Queer (In)Justice illuminates and challenges the many ways in which queer lives are criminalized, policed, and punished.
Queer criminological work is at the forefront of critical academic criminology, responding to the exclusion of queer communities from criminology, and the injustices that they experience through the criminal justice system. This volume draws together both theoretical and empirical contributions that develop the growing scholarship being produced at the intersection of 'queer' and 'criminology'. Reflecting the diversity of research that is undertaken at this intersection, the contributions to this volume offer a deeper theoretical and conceptual development of this field alongside empirical research that illustrates the continued relevance and urgency of such scholarship. The contributions consider what it means to be queering criminology in the current political, social, and criminological climate, and chart directions along which this field might develop in order to ensure that greater social and criminal justice for LGBTIQ communities is achieved.
In late nineteenth-century England, “mannish” women were considered socially deviant but not homosexual. A half-century later, such masculinity equaled lesbianism in the public imagination. How did this shift occur? Citizen, Invert, Queer illustrates that the equation of female masculinity with female homosexuality is a relatively recent phenomenon, a result of changes in national and racial as well as sexual discourses in early twentieth-century public culture.Incorporating cultural histories of prewar women’s suffrage debates, British sexology, women’s work on the home front during World War I, and discussions of interwar literary representations of female homosexuality, Deborah Cohler maps the emergence of lesbian representations in relation to the decline of empire and the rise of eugenics in England. Cohler integrates discussions of the histories of male and female same-sex erotics in her readings of New Woman, representations of male and female suffragists, wartime trials of pacifist novelists and seditious artists, and the interwar infamy of novels such as Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando.By examining the shifting intersections of nationalism and sexuality before, during, and after the Great War, this book illuminates profound transformations in our ideas about female homosexuality.
This book surveys the growing field of Queer Criminology. It reflects on its origins, reviews its foundational research and scholarship and offers suggestions for future directions. Moreover, this book emphasizes the importance of Queer Criminology in the field and the need to move LGBTQ+ issues from the margins to the center of criminological research. Core content includes: • Contested definitions of and conceptual frameworks for Queer Criminology • The criminalization of queerness and gender identity in historical and contemporary context • The relationship between LGBTQ+ communities and law enforcement • The impact of legislation and court decisions on LGBTQ+ communities • The experiences of queer victims and offenders under correctional supervision This revised and updated edition includes new developments in theory and research, further coverage of international issues and a new chapter on victimization and offending. It is essential reading for those engaged with queer, critical, and feminist criminologies, gender studies, diversity, and criminal justice.
Violence and Social Injustice Against Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People helps you look past the stereotypical picture of violence against sexual minorities--the public physical assaults on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered youth by hypermasculine male thugs--and directs you toward the many daily acts of quiet violence that go on, unhindered, in the workaday settings of our legal, social, educational, and law-enforcement institutions. You’ll learn about the frightening prevelance of complacency, homophobic ignorance, and apathy that pervades our police departments, courts, high schools, and churches. Also, armed with this critical insight and statistical research, you’ll be better equipped to wage a non-violent war of fairness and mutual respect against the daily, senseless violence of policy and practice that threatens to render gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people unwelcome and battered citizens in their own communities.You’ll find that Violence and Social Injustice Against Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People is ideal for aiding social workers, counselors, teachers, and criminal justice officials in removing the unseen acts of violence from the policies and practices of the public sector. These and other specific areas will give you the information and the fortitude necessary to evoke positive change in your community: legal issues relating to same-sex marriage the connection between social injustice and violence violence against sexual minority youth sexual identity and ethnic minorities practice and policy recommendationsAs this book shows, violence against sexual minorities can be subtly woven into the very fabric of some of our most long-standing, respected social institutions. For too long, the sexual minorities of color, for example, and the lesbian who suffers physical assault at the hands of a partner, have had little or no help from social workers, law enforcement, or education for fear of receiving either complete negligence or increased antagonism. But now, in Violence and Social Injustice Against Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People, you’ll find the facts and tools necessary for turning the ugliness of communal violence into social justice for people of all sexual orientations.
