Transgender hate crimes

[MuseumofInnocence]

Pink News recently published an article about the number of transgender people who have hate crimes committed against them, as part of an article about a woman who abused two transpeople.

www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/10/22/hate-crime-attack-chester-transgender-women

The statistics report that 1651 trans people are victims of reported hate crime. However, I did some research, and saw that the number of cases of hate crime related to sexual orientation was 11,600, disabled people (7000), religion (8000), and race (71,000).

Given that we hear there are 300 - 500000 trans people in the UK, don't these statistics actually show the opposite of what the original statistic implies? That transpeople are disproportionately targeted by hate crime? I understand that it could be that transpeople under report.

On a similar note, I read in the same year, 1.2 million women in the UK are victims of domestic violence

How do you define a hate crime, does it include cat calling?

What are the statistics/percentages for people hospitalized and murdered, and how do they compare across the groups?

So, I looked up the stats. The pattern across the board is similar. The only difference I see is that transgender crime has a higher rate of "violence without injury" 24% compared to average 14%. I wonder if this includes the "literal violence" of misgendering.

I think most hate crimes are under reported. Also depends on the definition of 'transgender' used here and the reports as a percentage of that category.

A hate crime could be:

a non binary person being misgendered.

Or stating that no one can change biological sex.

Or requesting that women have their own safe spaces.

Do mounted police attend all reports of hate crime?

Or a women only meeting.

Posting the dictionary definition of woman on a billboard.

Ensuring safeguarding procedures are put into place.

mobile.twitter.com/SandyDrawsBadly/status/1049234016128438272/photo/1

Oh yes. Giving out leaflets is most definitely a hate crime.

I don’t really understand all this hate crime stuff so I apologise for being misinformed. Does it mean you can get arrested for telling someone that you think they are not the gender they present themselves as?

To be fair, if I look at the official definition, it states that it is "Any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender”

I can't see how handing out leaflets could be reported as a hate crime

Like many Pink News articles, reporting often lacks accuracy or nuance.

There are clear differences between the number of people who believe they are a victim of hate crime, the numbers of people who report a hate crime and the number of people whose hate crime is successfully prosecuted etc.

So why then did the police along with a mounted police attend a report of hate crime because leaflets were handed out?

Karen White reported elderly neighbours for 'hate crimes' such as misgendering and police responded.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6310759/Convicted-child-rapist-identifies-woman-jailed-seven-years-abusing-girl.html

The mail are rebellious in reporting this type of case now, once they would not have included the dead name or identifies as a woman.

The statistics and whole concept is rendered meaningless because of the over use and blurring of 'hate crime' to mean 'anything someone says or does that I don't like'. There's no point in worrying about thousands of reports having any meaning when it's plain from TRA behaviour that a large percentage of those reports will be about women perfectly legally saying things they don't agree with, perfectly legally refusing to conform to intimidation and demands, and exercising their perfectly legal rights such as handing out leaflets about proposals in law change. Not crime at all.

The police and govt were warned they were about to make the whole 'hate crime' thing so silly that it lost all meaning. And when the electorate have been trained that 'hate crime' means in practice much of the time 'wittering that someone hurt my feelings' and police resources and public funding is actually wasted on this, they're inevitably going to stop going 'oh gosh how can I help' and start going 'whatever'. You can only abuse people's credulity and sympathy for so long.

from the Mail article above:
(extract)
A sex offender who now identifies as a woman has been convicted of a series of sickening attacks on a young girl.

Carrie Cooper, who used to go by the name of Gary, was jailed for seven and a half years after being found guilty of nine sexual assaults, which took place in Hertford.

Despite identifying as a woman, Cooper has been serving time in male prisons HMP Parkhurst and HMP Littlehey.

The Ministry of Justice has yet to confirm whether she will serve her sentence in a men's jail.

Cooper was previously jailed for 14 years in 2012 for raping a girl under the age of 14. The latest seven-and-a-half year term will be added to her current sentence.

The latest case brought against the 53-year-old related to attacks on a girl as young as seven at the time.

Now in her late teens, the victim came forward after discussing what had happened to her with a friend.

After Cooper was convicted by a jury at St Albans Crown Court and jailed last week, police praised the bravery of the victim.

Detective Constable Martin Macnish said: 'The victim has carried this for so many years without telling anyone about what happened to her. I want to commend her courage in disclosing Cooper's crimes so that justice could be served.

'She has been extremely brave throughout this whole process and I hope this result will bring her some sense of closure, and enable her to move forward with her life.

'If you have suffered sexual abuse, no matter how historic, I want to reassure you that we will always take your report seriously and do all we can to investigate.'"

Media and Police reports which do not include key information such as previous name/s, sex and identifiable photographs will hinder the liklehood of others recognising the perpetrators of historic ssexual abuse.

mis gendering was the excuse KW used for stabbing his neighbour.

I didn't know this was also given as an excuse.

The consequences of perpetuating rhetoric that 'misgendering is literal violence' are serious.

If misogyny was a hate crime and female socialisation and oppression didn't prevent reporting, I honestly don't think police forces could cope.

Statistics on hate crimes are misleading and confusing for the public.

At the start of the process, the police encourage people to report hate crimes. There is a very broad definition and the witness/victim has to form an opinion. Your opinion of what is 'hate' and my opinion may differ. In many cases - race, religion, sexual orientation - it can be straightforward to recognise.

At this stage, the police don't want to filter out crimes that may fit the criteria - disability, transgender identity (yes self I/D allowed), sexual orientation, race, religious belief. They go to town on assuring people that there perceptions are enough to warrant a call to the police.

This leads to possible over-reporting of all sorts things that aren't "crimes" (eg being refused service in a pub; misgendering;). These latter things are re-classifed as 'hate incidents' rather than hate crimes.

It also leads to occasions where people report opportunistic crimes like 'thefts from cars' as hate crimes - because they perceive that the car was targetted because of their sexual orientation/disability etc. (You would have to catch the thief to find out if that were true).

Instead of looking at reported hate crimes, we need to look at the actual crimes that were 'brought to justice' - in other words, where the police got to the bottom of the incident and established the motivation.

The reason that the police investigate 'hate incidents' as well as 'hate crimes' is to gather information on whether there are any rising tensions and risks to vulnerable groups. Best to nip it in the bud before graffiti, damage and street harassment escalate beyond 'misgendering'. There may be a need to alert other agencies in the council or elsewhere. Alternatively, where it's a one-off, the incident can be filed.

Sorry - it's overlong and I've managed to over-simplify the process too.

'Hostility' includes giving someone a 'look' they don't like. It's become completely absurd. The trouble is it takes away from real hate incidents like the woman on the plane. Danger of crying wolf is greater for trans because of the fragility of a significant number of them.