While the issues of women and the criminal justice system have become an increasingly significant area of both study and policy, issues surrounding gays and lesbians have largely been ignored. A review of the literature suggests this is largely an omission. In discussing sodomy laws and the homosexual panic defense, the discriminatory nature of the law becomes apparent. Significant in the history of the criminal justice system and the discipline of criminal justice is the predominantly macho, quasi-militaristic nature of the field. A discussion of the military policy regarding gays and lesbians is an example of institutional discrimination which fosters antipathy toward gays and lesbians in larger society
