Hana Heidenreich Legal St 425 Dr. Frank 06/14/2024. Extra Credit Assignment: Murder to Mercy Cynotia Brown’s case got widespread attention due to the unique circumstances of her case and sentencing. Although she was sixteen and could have been tried in a juvenile court, she was tried as an adult. This decision significantly influenced her sentencing and was sentenced to life in prison with possible parole eligibility after 51 years served. Murder to Mercy provides interviews with Cynotia throughout her legal process and sentencing. Brown claimed self-defense after thinking that Johnny Allen, a man who solicited her for sex, rolled over to potentially reach for a gun after she rejected his sexual advances. The court found her guilty of first-degree murder, …show more content…
Gender plays a crucial role in her case. Brown had an unideal upbringing. Her mother gave birth to her at 16 years old and continued to use substances while pregnant. Although Brown was adopted by another woman, Brown’s life was far from easy. Her involvement in prostitution at such a young age reflects how society failed to protect vulnerable girls like herself. Brown, a biracial girl, and her poor home life put her at high risk of being exploited. She got into prostitution to make money. The court hypersexualized her and put her at fault for being a victim, as “historical accounts emphasized that any nonmarital sexual experience, even forcible rape, typically resulted in girls being treated as offenders” (Mallicoat, 160). The criminal justice system criminalizes girls' sexualities but not boys' due to gender-related stereotypes that women should be pure and virtuous until marriage. Women who commit violent crimes face a double standard that men do not. Women who engage in violent acts often get harsher punishments because women are seen as futile and not traditional to female behavior. Moreover, women are victims, especially prostitutes. Although she was the one who feared for her life that night,
Women of color are treated differently; law does not function as a social mediator between relationships of all people. The focus is on women of colour and how non-white communities are considered inherently violent. By such stereotypes, rape myths create a belief that certain races are more dangerous than others, creating fear based on the social construction of society. Using the ``Slut Walk`` article as an example: women have argued ``it is different for a white middle class women to wear something slutty and march in a parade than a women of colour.`` Due to the social construction black woman are more likely to have their characters stereotype and are seen more promiscuous compared to white woman. (Julie Dowsett Lecture).Stereotyping has even gone so far where a police official made a comment about York university students, referring to the females saying “they should not dress like a slut” to reduce assault (Slutwalk 249). Such rape myths put women on the line, claiming that it is their fault for getting sexually assaulted because they provoke men. “Such stereotypical assumptions find their roots in many cultures, including our own. They no longer, however, find a place in Canadian law” (R. v. Ewanchuck
In this paper, I will discuss the key facts and critical issues presented in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case.
It was not uncommon for a female slave to have several encounters with sexual exploitation, or rape. Jacobs wrote, “... I now entered on my fifteenth year–a sad epoch in the life of a slave girl. My master began to whisper foul words in my ear.” A girl at the age of 15 is innocent, being exposed to these inappropriate actions from her master is killing her innocence. Women are more at risk of being harassed this way than any male slaves. In “Women and slavery: The popularity of female slave trade in
Frances, S. (2012). Sex work and the law: A critical analysis of four policy approaches to adult prostitution . Thinking about justice: a book of readings (pp. 190-220). Halifax, N.S.: Fernwood Pub..
This essay will explore reasons why females such as Vanessa George turn to the crime of sex offending. Demonstrating my knowledge and understanding of classical criminological theory, exploring biological theories such as penis envy and more contemporary views such as liberation theory within feminism. The essay will then go on to look at the inequalities female sex offenders face within the criminal justice system in comparison with males, using chivalry theory and evil woman theory to explain this.
The sex industry contains negative labels which target the lives of each individual involved in these perceived sinful acts. In the article, “The Stigma of Sex Work”, Maria Ma illustrates that “part of the stigmatization of sex work includes the notion that sex workers are trafficking victims, or maybe just victims in general, as women who are able to make their own decisions would and could not possibly choose to be a sex worker.” The negative perception that all sex workers are victims is proven wrong in the film, Pretty Woman in several scenes. This is portrayed when Vivian discusses how she willingly became a sex worker to reach financial autonomy and support herself. She does so without working under control of a pimp which clearly emphasizes Vivian’s independence and freedom over her own life decisions as a sex worker.
Bowers, W, Pierce, G., and McDevitt, J.(1984), Legal Homicide: Death as Punishment in America, 1964-1982, 333
Designs, Alissa. “The History of Homicide in the Criminal Code.” Victims Of Violence. Online 13 October 2003. < alissa’sdesigns@rogers?subject=victims%200f%20violence.com>
Throughout history, certain crimes have been separated into different categories base on their prevalence. For every crime, the offense and charge is different. In addition, not every crime is committed by the same gender. Crimes such as larceny, fraud, forgery, and prostitution (Chesney-Lind, 1986) tend to be committed more often by women; whereas, assault, murder, trafficking, etc tend to be committed by men. When it comes to the stereotyping of women in the criminal justice system one could say that women present themselves as victims to reach a lesser sentence or that by presenting themselves as victims they will have a longer sentence that will protect them.
While it may seem that no discussion is needed, Cyntoia’s case isn’t clear-cut. Brown confessed to killing Johnny Allen, a 43-year-old
The value of a woman as a mother, wife, sister, daughter or aunt has been replaced for sexual please. Greed and perversion disguised as men chose to debase America’s women and children for their own selfish gain. Child sexual exploitation is the most hidden form of child abuse in the U.S. and North America today. It is the nation’s least recognized epidemic. The overwhelming majority of children forced to sell their bodies on the street are girls. Young boys face hardship and abuse as well, but they often fend for themselves to survive. The girls, on the other hand, inevitably fall victim to pimps and organized trafficking networks. (Sher, pg. V)
During the eighteenth and nineteenth-century, notions of freedom for Black slaves and White women were distinctively different than they are now. Slavery was a form of exploitation of black slaves, whom through enslavement, lost their humanity and freedom, and were subjected to dehumanizing conditions. African women and men were often mistreated through similar ways, especially when induced to labor, they would eventually become a genderless individual in the sight of the master. Despite being considered “genderless” for labor, female slaves suddenly became women who endured sexual violence. Although a white woman was superior to the slaves, she had little power over the household, and was restricted to perform additional actions without the consent of their husbands. The enslaved women’s notion to conceive freedom was different, yet similar to the way enslaved men and white women conceived freedom. Black women during slavery fought to resist oppression in order to gain their freedom by running away, rebel against the slaveholders, or by slowing down work. Although that didn’t guarantee them absolute freedom from slavery, it helped them preserve the autonomy and a bare minimum of their human rights that otherwise, would’ve been taken away from them. Black
Author Clare Johnson starts the review of the literature by explaining to the reader that when she was in middle and high school, the only areas of black history that she was taught was about captives running away from the harsh and inhumane treatment of their oppressors while working in the fields. She also explains to the reader that her none of her educators or any of the other literatures that she read in junior or high school ever discussed or even briefly introduced various approaches of resistance to enslavement that were done by both genders of slaves who were being held captive. It was not uncommon for black women slaves to commit murder against their white captors. Women have also been found to figure prominently in such events as
With prostitution still arising and thriving in present day America the Argument and war waged on it by media has changed from an advocated perspective, to being seen as present day slavery among women. Especially with modern practices of forced trafficking and drugged prostitution. the views have changed from one of a women's private and personal freedom of choice, to one of "the ones who weren't lucky enough to get away from being drugged, kidnapped and forced into slaved prostitution."
In conclusion, women were considered property and slave holders treated them as they pleased. We come to understand that there was no law that gave protection to female slaves. Harriet Jacob’s narrative shows the true face of how slaveholders treated young female slave. The female slaves were sexually exploited which damaged them physically and psychologically. Furthermore it details how the slave holder violated the most sacred commandment of nature by corrupting the self respect and virtue of the female slave. Harriet Jacob writes this narrative not to ask for pity or to be sympathized but rather to show the white people to be aware of how female slaves constantly faced sexual exploitation which damaged their body and soul.