Violence & Crime
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Scholars File Comment on National Crime Victimization Survey Changes
On May 11, 2018, Williams Institute scholars filed a comment to the US Department of Justice regarding their proposal to stop asking 16- and 17-year-olds to voluntarily and confidentially disclose their sexual orientation and gender identity on the survey.
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LGBQ Youth Disproportionately Incarcerated in the U.S. Juvenile Justice System
Bianca D.M. Wilson, Ph.D., Sid P. Jordan, J.D., Ilan H. Meyer, Ph.D., Andrew R. Flores, Ph.D., Lara Stemple, J.D., and Jody L. Herman, Ph.D.
April 2017
Researchers consider the extent to which sexual minority youth are disproportionately incarcerated in the U.S. juvenile detention system and whether sexual minority youth are incarcerated for longer periods than heterosexual youth. The study also considers the prevalence of sexual victimization while in custody for sexual minority youth compared to their heterosexual peers of the same gender. Sexual minority youth include those that identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, as well as those that identified as mostly straight but had some attraction to the same sex.
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Incarceration Rate of LGB People Three Times the General Population
Ilan H. Meyer, PhD, Andrew R. Flores, PhD, Lara Stemple, JD, Adam P. Romero, JD, Bianca D.M. Wilson, PhD, and Jody L. Herman, PhD., February 2017
A new study by scholars at the Williams Institute found that sexual minorities are incarcerated at disproportionately high rates, and once incarcerated they are more likely to experience mistreatment, harsh punishment, and sexual victimization. Approximately 238,000 sexual minorities are incarcerated in the United States. The nationwide incarceration rate of sexual minorities was previously unknown.
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Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Abuse among LGBT People
By Taylor N.T. Brown and Jody Herman
November 2015
This report provides an overview of existing research on intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual abuse (IPSA) among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and makes recommendations for future research. The researchers reviewed 42 studies, from 1989 to the present, that include findings on the prevalence of IPV and IPSA, survivors’ barriers to seeking help, and the quality of available assistance for LGBT people. Most studies reviewed for this report found a lifetime prevalence of IPV among lesbian and bisexual women, gay and bisexual men, and transgender people that is as high as or higher than the U.S. general population.
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Discrimination and Harassment by Law Enforcement Officers in the LGBT Community
By Christy Mallory, Amira Hasenbush, Brad Sears
March 2015
Discrimination and harassment by law enforcement based on sexual orientation and gender identity is an ongoing and pervasive problem in LGBT communities. Such discrimination impedes effective policing in these communities by breaking down trust, inhibiting communication and preventing officers from effectively protecting and serving the communities they police. While a patchwork of state, local and federal laws provides some protection against certain forms of discrimination, there is no nationwide federal statute that comprehensively and consistently prohibits discrimination based on actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.
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Testimony: California Legislature Assembly Bill AB 2501
By Jordan Blair Woods
September 2014
On September 27, 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 2501, legislation that prohibits the use of “gay panic” and “transgender panic” defenses to reduce murder charges to manslaughter in criminal trials. The passage of this bill makes California the first state in the country to prohibit the use of gay and transgender panic defenses through legislation. AB 2501 ensures that defendants cannot use gay and transgender panic defenses in an attempt to lower a charge from murder to manslaughter or to escape conviction in California.
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The Sexual Victimization of Men in America: New Data Challenge Old Assumptions
By Lara Stemple, Ilan H. Meyer
April 2014
Based on the analysis of large-scale federal agency surveys, men experience a high prevalence of sexual victimization, in many circumstances similar to the prevalence found among women. In one of the studies included in the analysis, the CDC found that an estimated 1.3 million women experienced nonconsensual sex, or rape, in the previous year. Notably, nearly the same number of men also reported nonconsensual sex. In comparison to the large number of women who were raped, nearly 1.3 million men were “made to penetrate” someone else.
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Two Models of the Prison: Accidental Humanity and Hypermasculinity in the L.A. County Jail
By Sharon Dolovich
January 2013
Gay male and transgender women prisoners are vulnerable to sexual assault behind bars. Rather than ignoring the problem or confining members of these groups to solitary confinement, the L.A. County Men’s Central Jail segregates them into a special unit called “K6G.” Drawing on extensive interviews with K6G residents and with the officers in charge of the unit, Dolovich concludes that the K6G unit offers a plausible model, if not the only one, for protecting gay male and transgender women detainees from sexual assault.
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Sexual Orientation Disparities in History of Intimate Partner Violence: Results From the California Health Interview Survey
By Naomi G. Goldberg, Ilan H. Meyer
September 2012
Bisexual women and gay men had elevated risks of experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). For bisexual women, 95% of IPV annual incidents reported occurred outside a same-sex relationship. Almost all (97%) of the annual incidents of IPV incidents occurring to male victims involved a male intimate partner. Lesbians were not at higher risk for intimate partner violence.
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Comparison of Hate Crime Rates Across Protected and Unprotected Groups – An Update
By Rebecca L. Stotzer
May 2012
New research based on FBI data show that gay men face higher rates of hate-motivated physical violence than lesbians, bisexuals or other federally protected groups with high rates of hate crimes. The study is the first to consider FBI data on hate crimes against lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals separately.
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Strategic Segregation in the Modern Prison
By Sharon Dolovich
July 2011
Gay and transgender people are disproportionately vulnerable to sexual assault behind bars. Rather than ignoring the problem or confining members of these groups to solitary confinement while in custody, the L.A. County Jail segregates them into a special housing unit called “K6G.” Dolovich’s article, originally published in the American Criminal Law Review, carefully describes how detainees are identified for inclusion in K6G and responds to some constitutional and moral objections to “strategic segregation” based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
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Comparison of Hate Crime Rates Across Protected and Unprotected Groups
By Rebecca Stotzer
June 2007
Sexual orientation and gender identity are not currently covered by federal hate crime laws. This analysis compares victimization rates for lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals with groups already covered by hate crime laws.
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Constitutional Analysis of AB 1160: Validity of Due Process Challenges to Legislation Eliminating Gay and Trans Panic Defenses in California
By R. Bradley Sears and Elizabeth Kukura
February, 2005
Would a statute that defined sufficient provocation for “sudden quarrel” or “heat of passion” to exclude gay and trans panic defenses violate defendants’ due process rights?
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The Real Story of U.S. Hate Crime Statistics: An Empirical Analysis
By William B. Rubenstein
June 2003
Through the first careful empirical analysis, William Rubenstein constructs a different, more nuanced, story of Hate Crimes Statistics Act (HCSA) data: before September 11, three groups in the US – gay people, Jewish people, and African-Americans, in that order – reported by far the greatest number of hate crimes.
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Brief of Amici Curiae: Lawrence and Garner v. Texas
By William Rubenstein and Pamela S. Karlan
March 2003
for the Supreme Court’s Review of Texas’ Sodomy Law, Lawrence and Garner v. Texas
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