Sexual Orientation and Crime

• In Event: Crime, Law and Deviance Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 6: Gender, Sexuality, and Crime

Abstract

Sexual minorities are more likely to come into contact with the criminal justice system than are straight people. However, this gap is only found among women; gay/bisexual men are if anything less likely than straight men to experience criminal justice contact. Why does the effect of sexual orientation on criminal justice contact vary by sex? This paper utilizes data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health and the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health to describe this disparity, which we refer to as the Sexed Gay Crime Gap, and test possible explanations for it. Descriptively, we find that the Sexed Gay Crime Gap is exacerbated among African-Americans. Black lesbian/bisexual women experience a more severe penalty for their sexual orientation than do white lesbian/bisexual women, whereas black gay/bisexual men experience a greater benefit from their sexual orientation than straight white men, with respect to risk of arrest. Explanatorily, we develop and test two theories that might explain the Sexed Gay Crime Gap: sex typicality and queer pathways. We find limited support for sex typicality, which partly explains why gay/bisexual men are arrested less than straight men, but which does not explain why lesbian/bisexual women are arrested more than straight women. We do not find support for the queer pathways approach as an explanation for the Sexed Gay Crime Gap.

Authors

• Sebastian B. Spitz, Harvard University

• Jen-Chen Chao, Harvard University