23 LGBTQ+
Transgender Rates of Violence
Although greater attention is being given to research and data collection of transgender people in general, quantitative and qualitative data is still sparse, especially related to violence by or against transgender or gender non-conforming individuals. It is critical to keep in mind that data — any data that might exist — is based on the collection of individual people’s lives and experiences.
When providing services to a transgender/gender non-conforming survivor or loved one, they will care far less about what prevalence percentages you know and far more about how you sensitively and competently interact with them.
| “I look for competence and compassion.
I don’t want to be a number.” —trans survivor (FORGE 2011 survey) |
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Limitation of studies
Research data can be easily skewed or misleading based on a number of factors, such as sample size, data collection methods, incomplete data, or misinterpretation of results. Frequently, studies are small and conducted via snowball samples (one participant refers their friends); bar, support group, or clinic samples (where individuals from one particular place are sampled); or internet samples, which study only the individuals reached by whichever listservs, websites, or social media the researchers are aware of. All of these types of studies will miss large numbers of people and may produce data that is very skewed by the demographics of those who were sampled. In almost every case, this type of data gathering eliminates those who live in rural areas and those who do not tend to frequent places focused on transgender identity.
A primary non-academic source of data comes from anti-violence programs (AVP) which report to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. Although this data is often very detailed, it only includes those individuals who reach out to an AVP, if they even have an AVP in their geographic area. 2
Nearly every type of violence is under-reported. People from marginalized communities are even less likely to report violence than those who have access to and knowledge of services. Nearly all trans survivors have substantial fears of being re-victimized by the individuals and agencies who are supposed to offer help and support.
| 22-38% of trans people have been harassed by police, with upwards of 15% experiencing physical abuse and 7% being sexually assaulted by law enforcement. | Trans people have also experienced violence at the hands of healthcare professionals:
26% experiencing physical assault and 10% living through sexual assault. |
Even in schools, where we hope students can seek solace and support from teachers, 78% of gender non-conforming youth reported “significant abuse at school” — 31% of the youth noted the abuse was from teachers. 1 |
The above data is primarily from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS) and confirms rates reported by smaller samples. One drawback of the NTDS is that all the questions were written to determine how much violence and discrimination respondents faced because of their transgender identity or gender non-conformity. Therefore, the figures above represent only anti-trans violence and do not include violence experienced by transgender people that were motivated by other causes. This discrepancy becomes particularly noticeable when the NTDS asked about domestic violence. The NTDS reported that 19% of respondents had experienced family violence “because of their transgender identity or gender non-conformity,” whereas most researchers have found the rate of domestic violence—25%—is the same across all genders, gender identities, and sexual orientations. Some research has even found slightly higher rates within LGBT populations.
Multiple studies indicate that over 50% of transgender people have experienced sexual violence at some point in their lives. This rate is nearly double (1 in 3 girls) or triple (1 in 6 boys) the commonly reported rates of sexual abuse.
Resources
To learn more about rates of violence against transgender, gender non-conforming people, and loved ones, we recommend three resources that offer rich collections of data:
1. The “Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey” report, was conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. The full report, break-out population reports, and videos are available at http://endtransdiscrimination.org/ (This research is one of the best available. It was disseminated to a list of more than 800 active transgender organizations and 150 listservs and was augmented by in-person recruiters. Its final sample size of 6400 respondents is far larger than every previous study that looked at violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people.)
2. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs produces two annual reports: one focused on intimate partner violence and one on anti-LGBTQH hate violence. These reports are available at http://www.avp.org/ncavp.htm
This project was supported by Grant No. 2011-TA-AX-K121 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.
Transgender Rates of Violence www.forge-forward.org. https://forge-forward.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FAQ-10-2012-rates-of-violence.pdf