Policing identities and molding self-conception: LGBTQIA+ youth interactions with police

• In Event: Sexuality, Victimization, and Offending

Abstract

With laws and bills continuing to target LGBTQIA+ youth across the country, criminalizing and pathologizing identities, and encouraging interactions with police, it is crucial to understand the perceptions of these interactions to pinpoint the needs of the marginalized community. Through the use of in-depth semi-structured interviews, this paper explores LGBTQIA+ youth perceptions of interactions with police from the age of fourteen years old in the United States. Overall, this paper examines the ways in which LGBTQIA+ youth identities, self-value, self-conception, and presentation have been influenced by policing. This study extends the current literature on youth perceptions by centering a marginalized population and makes recommendations about resources, policies, and programming for the LGBTQIA+ youth.

Author

• Jessica Rose Morgan, University of New Haven