Bias Against Transgender Individuals And Crime

When thinking of a jury, there is a belief that everyone is fair when it comes to making the decision of whether the person being accused of the crime is guilty or not guilty because of the person’s race. What if this belief is not necessarily correct? There have been many instances in whether race has been a factor when the jury makes a decision. According to Baskin, Goldstein, and Sommers (2014), there has been enough evidence to show that racial biases influences the decisions of a jury. In this paper, the articles will show how jury decision-making is influenced by the offender’s race.

Not only did the authors believe that opponents are using these claims to support their arguments, they also believed that it placed stereotypes on men or an imagined male, to be threats and women to be weak and in need of protection. Schilt and Westbrook argued that opponents did not take into account that transgender individuals report facing an immense amount of discrimination and are in need of protection as well. They also argued that their opponent’s claims “generate fear and misunderstanding around transgender people along with the suggestion that transgender people are less deserving of protection than cisgender women and children (Bathroom Battlegrounds and Penis Panics, para. 6).” Although they mentioned that they were not suggesting that sexual assault is not a serious issue, they argued that public restrooms rarely have such assaults. In addition, they argued that based on empirical data, transgender people in the Unites States are much more likely to face violence rather than creating it. They also emphasized that their opponents were not able to site these claims of an actual case of bathroom sexual assault, rather that it was just from their deep-rooted cultural fears.

Racial biases present a detrimental flaw in the U.S Court system, providing the possibility of false convictions. A study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University finds all white juries convict African American defendants a significant 16% more often than white defendants (Anwar, p.2). The statistic above shows the factual effect of race in the justice system. In a study by University of California Irvine, it was found that an African American man convicted of sexual assault was three and-a-half more likely to be innocent than that of their caucasian counterparts.(Gross, p.12-13). As shown in the study above, racism in the jury pool leads to a faulty system and innocent people being convicted of heinous crimes they did not

“The Jury Selection Process” is a research paper that reviews the jury selection process in detail. First we will review the stages of the criminal trail and go in depth with the jury selection process. The paper will demonstrate why the jury selection process is necessary for the United States as well as its patrons. The paper will also provide a break down of advantages and disadvantages on the jury selection process. In addition to the information listed above, we will review some large profile court cases and its jury selection process. This will determine just how detailed and challenging the process can prove to

Moreover, due to the judicial system encouraging fairness to selecting its members, these angry twelve men shared a demographic diversity present during the deliberation. This was another factor to their difficulties because their biased opinions came from their backgrounds. For example, one of the jurors tried to justify the accused action based on where the child was raised at. Yet, he was not aware of the fact that two of the jurors also grew up in that

Carolyn Turpin-Petrosino, who is a Criminal Justice Professor at Bridgewater State University, states that crimes are committed for numerous reasons. However, when dealing with bias crime, also known as hate crime, the motivation stems from “prejudice or hostile” behavior that is “triggered by his or her perception of the victim’s ethnicity, race, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or gender” (Tupin-Petrosino, 2015, p. 2). When one thinks of a gender-based crime, many individuals concluded the crime’s victim is most likely a woman. However, in recent years, that statistic has been proven partially true. This is because the term ‘woman’ no longer refers to an individual who is genetically born with female genital, but rather defines those who are “non-normative or non-traditional” and not born with female parts (Kidd & Witten, 2007, p. 36). Quite often, our society places these particular individuals in a category of transgender.

It is critical to understand why eyewitness testimony has such a great impact upon jurors’ choice of guilt because many innocent people have gone to jail due to eyewitness testimony. It is speculated that male and female jury members weigh guilt differently. This study hypothesizes there will be a measured difference between the independent factors, gender and type of eyewitness and the dependent variable, level of guilt. In this experiment the eyewitness type is: ‘no eyewitness,’ ‘unrefuted eyewitness,’ or ‘discredited eyewitness.’ The controlled condition is the level of guilt assigned by the participant after hearing details of a crime. The results supported the hypothesis. There were significant differences between the gender and eyewitness types when assigning levels of guilt. Female participants rated higher levels of guilt overall while both genders rated higher levels of guilt to the unrefuted eyewitness group over the other eyewitness types, which shown similar measures.

Psychological research has shown that the attractiveness can influence jury decisions with studies demonstrating an ‘attractive bias’ in that attractive defendants tend to receive more lenient sentences for similar crimes carried out by less attractive people. For example, Castellow et al (1990) aimed to test the effect of the attractiveness of a defendant on guilty verdicts. This was done by conducting a lab experiment in which 145 students were given details of a sexual harassment case and then shown images of a defendant & victim. These images had been previously categorised as attractive/unattractive by a panel as perceptions of attractiveness are mainly consistent between genders and races (Eisenthal et al. 2006). It was found that the combination of an attractive victim & unattractive defendant created the highest percentage of guilty verdicts (83%) when they were asked whether the defendant was guilty of sexual harassment. However, only 41% guilty verdicts were reported when the defendant was

If an attractive woman and an unattractive man committed the exact same crime, would their punishments be identical? Logically, it makes sense that the same crime would lead to the same recommended punishment but this is often not the case. Evidence suggests that gender and level of attractiveness lead to biased perceptions and can greatly influence the decisions made by jurors. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of gender and attractiveness on jury decision-making.

Blight, Jake. 2006. “Transgender Inmates.” Trends and issues: crime and criminology 16 (8): 1-6. Accessed April 16, 2016. http://aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi168.pdf

Victimization of LGBT community members is elevating as time passes. Researchers attempt to determine the prevalence of the violence committed against members of the LGBT community (Rothman, Exner, & Baughman, 2011). Many people that identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender that are victims of hate crimes have participated in studies where they insist that the crimes committed against them are based on their sexuality; not class, color, gender, or any other factor. In a qualitative study, Meyer (2009) conducted open-ended interviews with people who were victims of hate crimes. The participants were recruited at LGBT advocacy organizations. Those who presumed that their hate crime was due to multiple systems of oppression such as class,

Each and every day, thousands of members among the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual) community are affected by hate crimes, bullying and even homicide. In fact, in just 2015 alone, the number of crimes and homicides reported against these members are staggering. According to The National Coalition of Anti-violence Programs, there were fifteen reported homicides. (Jindasurat & Waters, 2015) That is only the reported number of victims who were confirmed as part of this community. Can you imagine how many are actually affected each year? These people are being targeted because of who they are and how they choose to live their life. They are being targeted because they have stood up for who they are. I couldn’t imagine being targeted

Courage is standing up for what you believe is right, even when you know others will hate you or worse. There are multiple activists for the LGBTQ+ community, yet there have still been more hate crimes against the community. The community has been involved in hate crimes since the 1960s, and even before that. 50-60 or more years may seem like a long time to teenagers and young adults, but it’s actually not. People in the community have died to others acts against a person being with someone of the same sex or changing their gender identity. There are multiple reasons why hate crimes on the LGBTQ+ community need to be lowered drastically.

The social issue that I chose which affects society today is transgender inequality. These issues are more recently gaining attention and becoming a prevalent topic of inequality within our country. A transgender person is someone whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth. As more and more transgender people share their stories in the media, the social problems that arise from these stories are discrimination within their everyday lives. They suffer from scrutiny and judgment from their peers, and thus many hide their gender identity from family and society. This social injustice can be as simple as a glance or staring, or offensive comments and questions to violent hate crimes. Transgender people are prone to violence and harassment, and often not feeling safe in any aspect of society. They are fired from jobs, denied medical insurance, and being murdered left and right solely for being transgender. “A staggering 41% of respondents reported attempting suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population, with rates rising for those who lost a job due to bias (55%), were harassed/bullied in school (51%), had low household income, or were the victim of physical assault (61%) or sexual assault (64%)” (National Center for Transgender Equality). The structure of this paper will consist of adding all the research that was gathered over the semester, news articles and peer

The right to a trial by jury is a core element of the United States Criminal Justice System. This right is guaranteed to all citizens by the highest law of the land: The United States Constitution. But are juries truly an effective means of securing justice? The movie 12 Angry Men provides commentary on this question with its portrayal of twelve jurors deliberating over a murder case. The jury initially seems bound to condemn the defendant, a young man of nineteen years, to the electric chair, but a single man, Juror no. 8 descents against the majority. Over the course of the film, tensions rise, and after much debate Juror no. 8 manages to convince the other eleven jurors to eventually vote not guilty. Through their debates and casual side conversations, we are shown the role of personal biases and group manipulation tactics that can impede with objective analysis and ultimately the attainment of justice. Thus, the Movie 12 Angry Men mostly serves to challenge the jury system as a means of securing justice by demonstrating the harmful effects of personal biases, the lack of dedication to the system, and the potential for manipulative tactics.