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Doubly deviant: gender/ed deviance and the transgendered offender

Claire Cahill, Dept of Criminology, University of Melbourne, Australia 

Email: cmcs@cyberspace.net.au

This paper explores the intersections between contemporary meanings of "gender" and constructions of "deviance" by referring to the criminal convictions of three transgendered people in the United States in the first three months of 1996.

What is remarkable about these cases is the consistency with which the gender identity of the defendants was openly contested by the various agencies of the state, and by the media in its coverage of these cases.

An analysis of the media coverage of these three cases reveals the ways in which the transgendered offender is constructed as "doubly deviant" in the popular imagination.

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