Transgender Rates of Violence
V I C T I M S E R V I C E P R O V I D E R S ’ FA C T S H E E T # 6

O C TO B E R 2 0 1 2

www.forge-forward.org
PO Box 1272, Milwaukee, WI 53201
AskFORGE@forge-forward.org

Although greater attention is being given to research and data collection oftransgender people in general, quantitative and qualitative data is still sparse,
especially related to violence by or against transgender or gender non-conformingindividuals. It is critical to keep in mind that data -- any data that might exist -- isbased on the collection of individual peoples’ 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.

Limitation of studies
Research data can be easily skewed or misleading based on a number offactors, 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, orclinic samples (where individuals from one particular place are sampled); orinternet samples, which study only the individuals reached by whichever listservs,
websites, or social media the researchers are aware of. All of these types ofstudies 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.

“I look for competenceand compassion.
I don’t want to be a number.”—trans survivor(FORGE 2011 survey)

A primary non-academic source of data comes from anti-violence programs (AVP)
who report to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. Although thisdata is often very detailed, it only includes those individuals who reach out to anAVP, if they even have an AVP in their geographic area. (See resource #2)
Nearly every type of violence is under-reported. People from marginalized
communities are even less likely to report violence than those who have accessto 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.

Transgender Rates of Violence

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PO Box 1272, Milwaukee, WI 53201
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Fear of (re)victimization by helping professionals
These fears are supported by data, as well as spread from one person to the next
within the trans community.
L AW E N F O R C E M E N T“I need to be believed.”—trans survivor(FORGE 2011 survey)

50%

OF TRANSGENDERP E O P L E H AV E
EXPERIENCED SEXUAL
VIOLENCE

REMINDER

Data can be very useful inhelping guide programming,
educational efforts,
and outreach. Data canqualitatively and quantitatively
capture the lived experiencesof violence, abuse, andtrauma trans people andloved ones experience.
However, how you treat andinteract with trans survivors
and loved ones is far more
important than your statisticalknowledge.

22-38% of trans people
have been harassed bypolice, with upwards of
15% experiencing physicalabuse and 7% being
sexually assaulted by law
enforcement.

H E A LT H C A R E
Trans people have also
experienced violence at
the hands of health care
professionals:
26% experiencing physicalassault and 10% living
through sexual assault.

S C H O O LS
Even in schools, where wehope students can seek
solace and support fromteachers, 78% of gender
non-conforming youth
reported “significant abuseat school” —31% of theyouth noted the abuse wasfrom teachers. (See resource #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 isthat 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 does not include
violence experienced by transgender people that was 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 mostresearchers have found the rate of domestic violence—25%—is the same across all
genders, gender identities, and sexual orientations. Some research has even foundslightly 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 3girls) 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, werecommend three resources that offer rich collections of data:
1. The “Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey” report, 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 wasaugmented by in-person recruiters. Its final sample size of 6400 respondents is far larger than every previous study thatlooked 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
3. Archived FORGE webinars. Each of the monthly webinars FORGE produces is laden with ample data to support eachsubject. All webinars are recorded and freely available online at
http://forge-forward.org/trainings-events/recorded-webinars/

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, andrecommendations 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.