Reflection on the Learnings & A Future of Studying Crime Intersectionality

WC Blogpost by: Celestine Mullin

Learning about gender and age in today’s time is extremely relevant. Especially in the way that these two intersect and create a different experience for those involved. I feel that women still continue to struggle today as they are portrayed in many different lights. Women can hold multiple identities that contribute to her publicly perceived character. Each identity contributes to a difference in how they are regarded, treated, and judged. It has affected the way I’ve lived and grown up; and, it has affected how women have been treated in the world of justice. 

One aspect of women in crime that I’m especially interested in is how the woman stereotype has influenced how women are treated as suspects of crime—and further, how race has played a part in this as well. Firstly, women have a different stereotype than men do. Women are generally seen as more docile, submissive people. Men, on the other hand, are often given much more authoritative positions with the ability to justify their actions—they are often given much more power. This puts women in a position where they are undermined and not considered to have the ability to commit gruesome, violent acts. I believe we touched on this idea when we began to talk about Lizzie Borden. Lizzie Borden was an upper-class, white woman who was allegedly responsible for the death of her father and stepmother. A part of the mystique and intrigue around her case her stereotype was not seen capable of committing such a gruesome crime. It was unexpected. Her stereotype allowed her some protection when she went to defend herself in the courtroom. No one wanted to believe that a woman of her class and stature would do something so out of the normal bounds of her expected behavior. On the other hand, we have Margaret Garner—who was a Black woman that slit her child’s throat. Now, this case is equally intriguing but for completely different reasons. The act of the death was still shocking, but there was no longer that question of the woman’s actions more so the act itself. It seemed that the interest was more targeted at the fact that killing her daughter was a crazy idea. As a mother, it would seem the opposite of what a mother should do. But her class was not questioned in this case. That part of her identity was not as important rather than her identity as a mother and slave. Overall, I am just curious to see how different identities and memberships in social groups will lead to different treatments in the judicial world. 

Another interesting topic we explored was the intersectionality of age and gender. In our first week, we asked the questions: How do we define age? How does gender factor into our social understanding and construct of age? How does age affect how we treat others? We saw a few examples of this in the episode of Columbo: “Try and Catch Me”. In this episode, Abby was a well-known murder mystery author. She was a petite, older, white woman. In the event that her nephew was murdered in Abby’s home, she knowingly played into her role of the older, non-suspicious, woman. She assumed that she was safe from suspicion because of her deniability of knowing much. This was interesting to me because we don’t get much coverage or news headlines about older adults committing gruesome crimes. Generally, we give them the stereotype of laidback and non-threatening. So, if we get the opportunity to see more crimes with a diverse age group, it will be interesting to see what the discussion and ideas were during trials and interviews. I am interested to see how the age component of identity can affect how criminal cases are carried out. To look at the other side of age and crime, I wondered what this topic would look like if applied to children. 

Professor Mustakeem asked us in class “What do you consider old? Can a kid commit a crime?”. At first, these questions were bizarre to me. It wasn’t something I had really considered before in relation to crime.

 Children have a stereotype of being unknowing and unblamable; they are children after all…

 

At the beginning of this semester, I recently began working at a children’s hospital right about when we began our class. As I began working, I noticed that we had a lot of high security around the hospital. Security officers milling the halls, stationed at the front doors, and badges required for walking anywhere. A lot of this is to keep the safety of the staff and the patients. Since it is a children’s hospital, it would make sense that patient security is of utmost importance. However, it wasn’t long before I began to see police officers escorting children throughout the ED with handcuffs behind their backs. I was admittedly nervous seeing the handcuffs because those restraints usually indicate that the person is dangerous. And, in that case, I would question how safe it is to be in those rooms. I have yet to walk into a room with that kind of patient. But it just let me reflect a bit more about how children can be seen with the same danger and identity as an adult. I think that physicians are still very cautious about those patients as are the nurses. I look forward to discussing cases with younger perpetrators to also see how that affects their trial outcome. 

As we read the “She must go overboard” article, I was curious as to what I remember stuck out to me. We had read it in a previous (medical history) class last semester; so, I was curious what parts of this article I could apply to a new class with new topics and ideas. Last semester as I read this, it was a new idea and topic I had never thought to explore before. I remember that I was shocked by the lack of empathy for a person and the true intensity of violence enacted during the slave trade. As I read it today, I realize that many similar feelings still exist for me. I am still shocked by the discussion and detail. D’Wolf and other sailors used the argument that what they did was for the benefit of others. It reminds me of the trolley problem where a train is running on the railway. If you were to switch the train’s path, it would avoid a group of people stuck on the railroad tracks but it would sacrifice the life of one person stuck on the other track. The idea of sacrificing either is difficult to justify either way. 

To further apply it to this semester’s class, I began thinking about how the woman was perceived. From the beginning, D’Wolf and the rest of the sailing crew do not respect the woman as a human being; they see her more objectively (not subjectively similar to them at all). This affects their treatment and judgment of her for the entire trip and situation. If they were more empathetic to her and her situation, they would give more careful consideration and options for her. As a woman in the slave trade, I’m assuming that the only factor they would consider about her is her reproductive capability. Though, this fact seems to be obviously overlooked considering their final decision to throw her overboard. Therefore, it is clear here how women stereotypes could have affected their treatment but overall, her racial identity and sickness identity trumped the others. 

Secondly, I noticed that when the woman became sick, she immediately took on a new stigma because of her condition. The entirety of her identity became known as ‘the sick woman on board’. 

As I read this excerpt, I reflected on my own, current experience. I recently contracted COVID during my second week of school. 

It seems that even today, there is a certain stigma around being infected with COVID. Today’s stigma around COVID is more centered around isolation and encouraging infected individuals to avoid close contact with others until they are less contagious. But, I recently had an incident with a friend which showed how this sickness stigma of being embarrassed to be sick still plays into today. A friend of mine was recently around a lot of people that ended up testing COVID-postive. In an attempt to ‘save face’, he didn't tell anyone that he tested positive. He was embarrassed to have been sick and did not want to be isolated. Instead, he continued hanging out with other friends that had not known about his COVID sick contacts. To me, this was selfish and a clear example of how being sick still has a negative connotation today. To tie this back to our class, I was just curious to understand the relationship between the sick woman’s identity and her further treatment on the ship. It is clear that these stigmas and stereotypes still affect people’s behavior today. To introduce a term I recently learned, it is a clear example of stereotype threat. This describes when an individual may know about their stereotype and through a fear of fulfilling that stereotype, they end up doing more stereotypical actions because they assume that is what they are expected and capable of. This definitely is still a problem today. I am excited and curious to learn more about how stereotypes affect criminal activity. Specifically, I think it would be interesting to learn about the crime that happened right after the abolition of slavery. 

Overall, I am excited for this class. I think that (especially with the clinical experience I’m currently involved in) there are a lot of themes and ideas I can continue to apply to what I’m experiencing today. Clinically, this helps me understand patients, patient history, patient experience, etc. so much more. Women have had a long history of overcoming differences in societal movements. To see the treatment, stereotype, and judgment of them specifically in crime will be crucial for my future as a contributing member of my community.