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Violence Against Transgenders

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Department

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Professor

Due date
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Violence Against Transgenders

There is an increase in the number of problem-solving courts over the years. Most of

these courts were specifically created to handle victims with specific problems and needs. For

the purpose of this assignment, problem-solving court for Violence against transgender

people will be addressed.

The court mentioned above will be dealing specifically with the problem of violence

against transgenders. Transgenders are individuals with gender identities that differ from sex

assigned at birth (Testa et al., 2012). Several communities do attach minimal values to these

individuals; hence, they face a myriad of challenges including being killed by their partners

or strangers. They encounter violence in the society which in many cases subjects them to

unemployment, poverty as well as homelessness because they are the most vulnerable

(Rodríguez-Madera et al., 2017). In addition, they are denied a lot of opportunities and are

selected against in most cases in the community. Therefore, this is an essential problem in the

community with a public concern because it has implications on the quality of life and mental

health. This necessitates the need of problem-solving court for the need of violence against

transgender individuals.

Violence against transgender can be addressed in different ways. First, gender should

not be used as a basis to judge people, rather, all people should be addressed with equality.

This implies that they should always be included in the community activities which will

allow them to prosper and be acknowledged regardless of their gender identities. Secondly, it

is also important that the offenders in violence against transgender individuals be arrested and

judged. This can be possible with use of national surveillance systems that track the offenders

(Wirtz et al., 2020). An action to serve a jail term should always be taken against the

offenders especially in the cases of murder in order to reduce the vulnerability of the

transgender individuals in the community.

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In this court, the criminal cases of violence against transgenders will be addressed on

a panel of three judges. Before the trial, the court have pretrial procedures which will allow

hearing of the opinions of the defense and the prosecutor. Trial will be sectioned into four

parts (Sales, 2013). The first stage is the opening of the trial where the defendant will

introduce him/herself, then the prosecutor will read the charge and the court will allow the

defense and defendant to make statements. Secondly, there will be an examination of

evidence where the prosecutor will provide the evidence of the trial. At this stage, the

testimony of the witnesses will also be displayed. In case of written evidences, they will also

be fully read at this stage.

The third stage will involve posing questions to the defendant. At this stage, the

defense counsel will be the first one to question the defendants followed by the prosecutor

then the court will ask the final questions. The final segment will be the closing argument. At

this stage, the prosecution will make the final statements followed by the defense counsel.

The judge will make the final verdict on the action to be taken. The offenders should appear

in court at least two times and if judged with violence against transgenders, they should serve

the court order for the specified time, specifically the jail term.

This court will be different from the typical trial process. The rationale behind this is

because it will only major in handling issues that pertain violence against transgenders by

being able to have experts who are well versed in bringing out justice towards this minority

group. Moreover, the court will be distinct in its handling of the cases on transgender

violence by building the best and most effective frameworks that can be entrusted on dealing

with minority issues. However, as compared to typical trial process where criminals can pay

a fine, for this court the judge can punish the criminal only by sending them to jail. There is

no death sentence for this court cases. In this case, as compared to other criminal courts, if the

defendant is found guilty, he/she will remain in custody until the set date to go to jail. Unlike
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in other courts where the defendant may also remain on release as they wait for sentencing

date. Also, in this court, the victims are allowed to participate in the trial procedures at all

stages. In addition, the defendant is not given a room for appeal in this court as compared to

other courts. After the verdict has been read, the defendant will serve the jail term according

to set law.
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References

Rodríguez-Madera, S. L., Padilla, M., Varas-Díaz, N., Neilands, T., Vasques Guzzi, A. C.,

Florenciani, E. J., & Ramos-Pibernus, A. (2017). Experiences of violence among

transgender women in Puerto Rico: an underestimated problem. Journal of

homosexuality, 64(2), 209-217.

Sales, B. D. (Ed.). (2013). The trial process (Vol. 2). Springer Science & Business Media.

Testa, R. J., Sciacca, L. M., Wang, F., Hendricks, M. L., Goldblum, P., Bradford, J., &

Bongar, B. (2012). Effects of violence on transgender people. Professional

Psychology: Research and Practice, 43(5), 452. DOI: 10.1037/a0029604

Wirtz, A. L., Poteat, T. C., Malik, M., & Glass, N. (2020). Gender-based violence against

transgender people in the United States: a call for research and programming.

Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 21(2), 227-241. DOI: 10.1177/1524838018757749