The birth of modern criminology and gendered constructions of homosexual criminal identity

A Comparative Content Analysis of the News Media Framing of Trans Homicide Between Trans Men and Trans Women in the U.S. from 2016 to 2022

Recently, the media's coverage of trans homicides has increased in the U.S. Studies show that the news media's framing has been largely negative but has improved in recent times. Yet, research has mostly analyzed the news media's framing of victims who were trans women, thus limiting our understanding of this issue across different trans groups. The present study employs a mixed method approach to comparatively analyze articles (N = 124) published in online news media outlets of 15 trans men and 15 trans women murdered between 2016 and 2022. The findings indicate news media outlets used more positive and neutral frames than negative for both groups. However, when compared to trans women, trans men were delegitimized at higher rates. These findings highlight the ways that the police, news media, family, friends, and community members simultaneously contribute to the humanization and delegitimization of trans victims of homicide, demonstrating the importance of ensuring all information released about the victims correctly reflects who they were, or the cycle of delegitimization will continue. By studying how the news media frames trans homicide victims, we can look at how the media shapes cultural beliefs and ideologies about trans people, the role of language in reinforcing stereotypes, and the implications of these framings for trans people.

Decolonizing Decriminalization Analyses: Did the Ottomans Decriminalize Homosexuality in 1858?

Assessments of the decriminalization of homosexuality are rarely questioned. It is widely accepted that the Ottomans decriminalized homosexuality in 1858 owing to the absence of penalties assigned to private same-sex intimacy. The reason for this misanalysis rests upon the universalization of the Western formula for the decriminalization of homosexuality. This assumption about the Ottomans has been made without examining how they had criminalized homosexuality in the first place. Two penal cultures that criminalized homosexuality differently cannot decriminalize it by way of the same legal framework. The current method excludes, moreover, the subject country's history. This elicits neo-orientalist conclusions such as the Ottomans' decriminalization of homosexuality in 1858 via the introduction of the 1810 French Penal Code, without an accompanying examination of how the Ottomans had criminalized homosexuality before 1858. This assessment method not only facilitates neo-orientalism, but also casts a significant doubt on this method's validity.

The Interaction Between Observer Sex and Sexual Identity on Attributions of Blame With a Heterosexual Female Victim

This article examines the difference in blame attribution between men and women, heterosexuals and homosexuals, and heterosexual males, heterosexual females, gay males, and lesbians in response to a vignette depicting the acquaintance rape of a heterosexual female (n = 177). While the levels of empathy for the victim and blaming of the perpetrator were high for every group and blaming of the victim and rape myth acceptance were low for every group, some important trends emerged. Consistent with previous research, women reported higher rates of empathy for the victim, lower rape myth acceptance, and lower victim blaming than did men. Men and homosexuals had higher rates of victim blaming and were more likely to excuse the perpetrator's behavior than were women and heterosexuals, respectively. Lesbians had various patterns where they were at times more similar to heterosexual males (e.g., how much they blamed the perpetrator) or heterosexual females (e.g. in terms of empathy levels). They were consistently different from gay males. Further, the majority of differences were attributed to gay males, who had the highest levels of victim blaming and empathy for the perpetrator, were the most likely to excuse the perpetrator's behavior, and had the highest rate of rape myth acceptance of all of the groups. We conclude that sex and sexual identity interact to shape attributions about rape and discuss avenues for future research to explore these patterns.

Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Rape Myth Acceptance: Preliminary Findings From a Sample of Primarily LGBQ-Identified Survey Respondents

This study is among the first to examine the relationship between sexual orientation and rape myth adherence using a nationwide survey of primarily lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) respondents (n = 184). The more established Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale and a modified Male Rape Survey serve as the primary instruments to test both rape myth adherence and instrument-appropriateness. Results suggest that respondents were most likely to support myths that discredit sexual assault allegations or excuse rape as a biological imperative and least likely to support myths related to physical resistance. Consistent with previous work, men exhibited higher levels of rape myth adherence than women. Regarding sexual orientation, respondents who identified as queer consistently exhibited lower levels of rape myth adherence than respondents who identified as gay.