Training and sensitizing on gender, sex, and sexuality issues

Criminal justice actors should receive adequate training and guidance to ensure that they are able to respond to persons of all genders, sexes, and sexualities properly. To this end, the following solutions and actions should be adopted.

Criminal justice actors, including law enforcement agents, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and parole and probation officers should receive:

• Training on the implementation of the Department of Justice Guidance on Preventing Gender Bias in Law Enforcement to sensitize them to the issues of gender sex, and sexuality and enable them to respond to persons of varying expressed sexes, genders, gender identities, and sexualities;
• Explicit bans on the profiling of persons for sex, gender, and/or sexuality;
• Policies that ensure that community members’ safety are not compromised due to their expressed gender and/or sexuality, while detained or otherwise interacting with law enforcement officials; and
• Policies that ensure the safety and wellbeing of pregnant and postpartum women including a ban on the use of shackles during labor and recovery and adequate care to postpartum women, including a minimum recovery period and screenings for postpartum depression.

State, and local governments should also:

• Enact explicit bans on the profiling of persons for sex, gender, and/or sexuality;
• Decriminalize domestic abuse survivors by prohibiting policies such as nuisance ordinances which force survivors out of their home or prevent them from calling police by levying steep fines against the landlord or homeowner if a home is a site of a certain number of calls for police or alleged nuisance conduct.
• Minimize the impact of trafficking on young people by enacting “safe harbor” laws, which provide immunity and services to children who have been trafficked.