This title is printed to order. This book may have been self-published. If so, we cannot guarantee the quality of the content. In the main most books will have gone through the editing process however some may not. We therefore suggest that you be aware of this before ordering this book. If in doubt check either the author or publisher’s details as we are unable to accept any returns unless they are faulty. Please contact us if you have any questions.
This study examines the intersection of systemic racism and transphobia in the criminal legal
system by analyzing the criminalization of Black, trans individuals for sex work. While doing
so, I explain how the stigmatization and policing of Black, trans sex workers reflects racist,
transphobic fictionalizations of Black and trans bodies as inherently sexually deviant. I further
explain how these fictions are rooted in the U.S.'s history of White supremacist colonization.
After recording, transcribing, and analyzing the oral histories of four Black, trans individuals
who have been criminalized for sex work, I discern four main themes regarding their experiences
and insights. These themes include patterns of systemic racism and transphobia that increase
their likelihood of relying on sex work for survival, direct forms of violence perpetrated by
agents of the criminal legal system, indirect forms of violence perpetrated by the system, and the
various institutional, social, and political changes necessary to secure the safety and rights of
Black, trans sex workers. This study reveals the criminal legal system as an institution which
functions less as an arbiter for justice than an institution that forwards the biopolitical interests
of hegemonic society. By disciplining non-heteronormative bodies, in this case those of Black,
trans sex workers, the criminal legal system reinforces White, cis-heteropatriarchal dominance
and maintains marginalized communities' positions at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
