Lesbians in prison: The making of a threat

Cover illustration for "Female Convict" by Vincent E. Burns. (Illustration by Robert Maguire, 1952 via Wikimedia Commons)

After World War II, criminologists began depicting the white “lesbian prison inmate” as a menacing social type and dangerous sexual category. Historian Estelle B. Freedman explores how this happened, as both academic and popular attention focused on women in prison