Transgender People More Often Targeted in Crimes

Transgender people in the United States are four times more likely to be the victim of a crime than cisgender people, research out of the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law shows. These staggering statistics show the hostilities and barriers transgender people continue to face in their everyday lives on this International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (May 17).

Violent crime was the type of crime most acutely affecting transgender people, with members being 4.5 times as likely to be the victim of a violent crime than cisgender people. Transgender women in particular were also more often targeted in hate crimes than cisgender women: 2.5 times as often. These rates show the high degree of aggression brought towards the transgender community, both because many members are still pushed outside of mainstream society - for example working in inherently dangerous professions like sex work - as well as because transgender people are actively targeted for of their sexual identity.

Even property crimes, for example, vandalism and break-ins, were elevated in the transgender community, with members twice as likely to be a victim of it than cisgender Americans.