Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1146/annurev-criminol-080525-023500

Publication Title

Annual Review of Criminology

Volume

9

Issue

1

Pages

343 -368

Abstract

The ebb and flow of social control efforts aimed at LGBTQ people necessitate a thorough investigation into their experiences. This review of the literature is organized around four key themes that characterize LGBTQ people's experiences with crime, criminalization, victimization, and the criminal legal system—including police, courts, and carceral facilities. LGBTQ people experience excessive rates of arrest and incarceration and have higher rates of victimization, which illustrate disproportionality. Their experiences differ from those of their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts and are conditioned by age, race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, illustrating intersectionality. The two primary, interrelated mechanisms driving LGBTQ criminalization and victimization are visibility and heteronormativity, which refers to the value systems that prioritize and reward being heterosexual and cisgender, stigmatize LGBTQ people, and encourage discriminatory treatment of people who are visibly LGBTQ. A discussion of future directions for research and policy concludes the article.

Rights

Copyright © 2026 by the authors.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See credit lines of images or other third-party material in this article for license information.

ORCID

0000-0002-3005-4726 (Panfil)

Original Publication Citation

Panfil, V. R. (2026). LGBTQ people's experiences with crime, victimization, and the criminal legal system. Annual Review of Criminology, 9(1), 343-368. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-080525-023500

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