Justice & law

Justice & law

Use examples from the readings and documentaries, explain how the criminal justice system has been used as a tool of social control, policing both race and sexual orientation.

Discussion Instructions: Module 5
Initial Post is due on or before Wednesday at 11:59 pm EST
Response Posts are due on or before Sunday at 11:59 pm EST
Instructions:
Utilize this week’s assigned readings and viewings to answer the discussion question from the Initial Post
section below. Your initial post is due at 11:59 pm EST on Wednesday. This post should be submitted as
a comprehensive essay. Depending on the succinctness of your writing style, 3‐6 paragraphs should be
necessary to fully explore the points raised. Use proper citations and APA format in your writing.
Then, by Sunday at 11:59 pm EST, read the posts of your classmates and respond to at least two. Use
the guidelines noted in the Response Posts section below to formulate your responses. These can be
shorter (1‐2 paragraphs), but also need to be substantive and include references to and citations of the
readings.
Initial Post:
Use examples from the readings and documentaries, explain how the criminal justice system has been
used as a tool of social control, policing both race and sexual orientation.
Response Posts:
Read the posts of other learners and respond to at least two other learners. Your responses are
expected to be substantive in nature and reference the assigned readings, as well as other theoretical,
empirical, or professional literature to support your views and writings. In your response, do at least two
of the following:
 Ask a probing question.
 Offer a suggestion.
 Elaborate on a particular point.
 Provide an alternative perspective.

CRIM66761 Module 5
Description of Presentation 1
The Racialization of Crime
Immediately after the Civil War ended, Southern states enacted “black codes” that allowed
African Americans certain rights, such as legalized marriage, ownership of property, and limited
access to the courts, but denied them the rights to testify against whites, to serve on juries or in
state militias, vote, or start a job without the approval of the previous employer. Significantly,
black codes were intended to secure a steady supply of cheap labor, thus replicating patterns of
slave labor Included were vagrancy laws that declared a black to be vagrant if unemployed and
without permanent residence; a person so defined could be arrested, fined, and bound out for
a term of labor if unable to pay the fine. Apprentice laws provided for the “hiring out” of
orphans and other young dependents to whites, which often turned out to be their former
slave owners. Some states limited the type of property blacks could own, and in others blacks
were excluded from certain businesses or from the skilled trades.
From 1866-1877, the period of Reconstruction brought with it increased rights for African
Americans, under the supervision of federal troops. During this short period, black men even
served in public office. With the loss of federal enforcement, these men were removed from
office and Southern states enacted a series of laws intended to circumscribe the rights of
African Americans. These included contract laws that penalized anyone attempting to leave a
job before an advance had been worked off, and because many states didn’t allow African
Americans to sue whites, these contracts also maintained patterns of slave labor.
The period from 1877 until 1964 is called the Jim Crow period. Jim Crow was not just laws but
was a culturally-enforced racial caste system. While southern states were more bold and
frequently codified Jim Crow practices into written law and signage (such as labeling facilities
for “Whites” and “Coloreds,” northern states like Ohio engaged in unofficial, cultural
segregation, with considerable variance among locations.
Because of the cultural practices of Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of
second class citizens. It supported beliefs that whites were physically, mentally and morally
superior to blacks, and created norms of segregated spaces, such as separate churches,
neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, transportation, and even cemeteries.
The Civil Rights movement struggled to end segregation and oppressive cultural beliefs. The
1954 Supreme Court ruling Brown v Board of Education ended laws of school segregation,
although schools to this day remain segregated because of the slow pace of cultural changes
resulting in continued patterns of neighborhood segregation. The passage of the Civil Rights Act
in 1964 expanded protections, while in 1967 the Supreme Court, in the Loving v Virginia case
declared that bans on interracial marriage unconstitutional.
Despite these gains, in the post-civil rights era there as been an extreme increase in
criminalization and incarceration which has disproportionately impacted racial minorities,
particularly African Americans.

CRIM66761 Module 5
Description of Presentation 2
Queer Injustice
This presentation examines the history of LGBTQ people as well as the creation and
implementation of laws that criminalize sexual orientation and gender identity. Particular
attention will be placed on assessing proper terminology for LGBTQ-identified people.
In the 20th century, as different groups organized in the struggle for human and civil rights,
people who were marginalized because of their sexual orientation and gender identity
organized. In this century, while there have been significant gains, LGBTQ people still don’t
have equal rights.
Before discussing the struggle for civil rights, lets begin with basic definitions. The category
LGBTQ includes people who are marginalized on the basis of either sexual orientation or gender
identity (and some people fall into oppressed categories for both.) Sexual orientation refers to
the romantic, and/or sexual attraction of a person. All people have a sexual orientation, and no
people choose their orientation—this is not theory or opinion it is a matter of scientific
consensus. Heterosexuals are attracted to people of the opposite sex or gender, homosexuals
(gays and lesbians) are attracted to people of the same sex or gender, and bisexuals are
attracted to people of both sexes or genders. Sometimes people use the term sexual
preference rather than sexual orientation, which is considered as an offensive term because it
assumes choice or preference. However some bisexuals will use the term sexual preference to
denote which (if any) sex or gender they may prefer.
Gender identity is distinctly different from sexual orientation. It refers to a person’s innate
identification as male or female. For most people, their gender identity corresponds to the sex
they were assigned at birth, but for trans (or transgender) people, their gender identity is
different from their assigned sex. The American Psychiatric Association recognizes a condition
known as gender dysphoria, which is significant stress caused by the difference between a
person’s expressed/experienced gender and the gender others assign to that person. Not all
trans people experience gender dysphoria. Some trans people undergo surgical and hormonal
gender transition, some undergo hormonal transition, and some express their gender through
non-physical means such as clothing and makeup.
The term queer is used by some minorities as an umbrella term that encompasses both sexual
orientation and gender identity. It is a preferred term in the academic world, but because it is a
reclaimed word used to denigrate LGBT people, it is best used by people who exist within these
groups.

Justice & law

Both homosexuality and trans-identities have existed and been documented in prehistoric
drawings, ancient records and writings, and in all cultures and societies. Not surprisingly
homosexuality is documented in non-human species as well. In other words, while it is minority
behavior it is natural behavior. In European countries and globally as a result of colonization,
homosexuality became criminalized, beginning in the Middle Ages. Many scholars connect
cultural condemnation of homosexuality to the need for nation-states to rebuild their
populations after war, famine and disease. Initially codes criminalizing homosexuality existed
side-by-side with codes criminalizing heterosexual oral and anal sex (or sodomy) and
masturbation; while other scholars connect the bans to the rising power of the Catholic (and
later Protestant) church.
In 1791, revolutionary France becomes the first modern nation to decriminalize sodomy (which
while technically applies to any acts of oral and anal sex is applied mostly to same-sex activities.
By the mid-1800s the term homosexuality is used in scientific circles, and by the late 1800s
several European nations decriminalize homosexual acts. However, the United States doesn’t.
Illinois becomes the first state to decriminalize sodomy—in 1961. As the sexual revolution and
the modern gay rights movements rise in prominence and power in the 1970s and 1980s, more
states remove their sodomy bans. But it isn’t until the 2003 Supreme Court Lawrence v Texas
that the criminalization of homosexuality ends in the United States. In 2011 the United Nations
passed a resolution recognizing LGBT rights. However in 2014 there still are 81 countries
(mostly in African and Asia) that criminalize homosexuality, with penalties as serious as
execution.
While many European nations extended full civil rights to LGBTQ people, the United State has
not. In most US states it is legal to not hire and fire an LGBQ person, evict them from rental
housing, deny home sales or rentals, remove them from public accommodations (such as parks
and public transportation), or refuse them service. Despite the 14th Amendment, the
Constitution (via Supreme Court rulings) does not apply to LGBTQ people accept in narrowly
defined cases. Therefore many states (including Ohio) ban lesbian and gay couples from
marriage.
LGBTQ people are disproportionately victimized in violent crimes, including rape and murder.
Hate crime statutes do not apply to LGBTQ victims in all states. Trans people are the most likely
to be victimized. While some LGBTQ people are employed in the criminal justice system and
related professional (including academic departments), other LGBTQ people fear involvement
with the criminal justice system, some because they have experienced discrimination from law
enforcement and corrections personnel. Because of legal and cultural workplace and
educational discrimination against LGBTQ people, they are more likely as a group to live in
poverty, and thus suffer from increased victimization as a consequence of socio-economic
factors. Few criminal justice and victim-based services have programs and policies to encourage
reporting, encourage LGBTQ people to apply for jobs and/or otherwise serve this minority
group.

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