The first section briefly draws upon feminist theoretical discussions of how the criminal law and justice system affect women differently from men through the examples of prostitution and rape. The next section addresses the racial dimension of male sexuality in popular portrayals, such as drug trials. Race is highlighted as an element that complicates gender in relation to black and white males. The article examines different frameworks within which the subordination of black male sexuality has been made prominent, ultimately to become accepted in society as an absolute form. Through racial stereotyping, black men are denied the advantages of masculinity and maleness available to their white counterparts in encounters with the criminal justice system, placing them in a special gender position. This points to the need to substantively incorporate race and gender categories and their interplay in informing criminal justice discourse and practice into the theorization of gender, crime and criminal justice.