New statistics realised of reported murders of trans people

[IwantToRetire]

Thought I would post this, as it is a question that comes up on occassions.

Globally, at least 320 trans and gender-diverse people were reported murdered between 1 October 2022 and 30 September 2023.

Globally, 48% of murdered trans people whose occupation is known were sex workers. That figure jumps to more than three-quarters - some 78% - in Europe.

On the continent as well as in the wider global community, racism-motivated murders have risen 15% from last year - up 65% in 2022 to 80% now.

The vast majority of victims identified as trans women or trans feminine people and most of the murdered people were under 25 years old.

At a time of significant conflict globally, the fact that 45% of trans people reported murdered in Europe were migrants or refugees is especially stark.

TGEU say the data surrounding the murders suggest there are concerning trends when it comes to the intersections of misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and whorephobia.

The majority of victims were Black and trans women of colour, and trans sex workers - many killed in Europe were migrants or refugees too.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/trans-murders-remain-consistently-high-052004682.html

Also How can 80% of murders be racially motivated? Is that all murders World wide? That's nuts, most people are killed by those close to them.

Also How can 80% of murders be racially motivated? Is that all murders World wide? That's nuts, most people are killed by those close to them.

This news article has made a hash of reporting this, here's what TGEU originally said:

"Trans people affected by racism make up 80% of the reported murders, a 15% increase from last year."

So it's about this relatively small cohort, and they are assuming any murder of a PoC is related to racism.

If you took away the stats of the transpeople working as prostitutes then the murder rate for them is very low, that has to be good news surely?

Trans activists tend to get angry when presented with arguments suggesting that the relative risk faced by trans people is actually lower than the general population. One would think they'd welcome such news but for some reason they want the risk faced by trans people to be higher. One could almost form the impression that their activism isn't about making life better for trans people.

That makes more sense.

I can't get riled up about this, 320 people globally is nothing in the grand scheme of things, more people get killed in random accidents in Wales in a year 🤷‍♀️ thousands have been killed in a few weeks in Gaza, so this is not a worrying statistic. The only trans person killed for years in the UK has been Brianna Grey and no-one knows the motivation for that one yet.

Off the top of my head, nope. But of course there's reason for that. If the figures were accurately released no one could claim that the trans population are more at risk than anyone else.

It's wrong. Very wrong.

@Fififafa I didn't say it was trans related. Just that Brianna is the only trans person I'm aware of who was murdered in the UK.

You are an order of magnitude out; 470,000. Though another estimate puts it at 531,000 for 2020 and WHO put it at 651,000 homicide victims in 2017. On average the rate across the globe worked out around 6.1 per 100,000 in 2017, in El Salvador it is 61 per 100,000 per year. 90% of perpetrators were male and 80% of victims. Gang related violence is one of the biggest causes.

So it seems being trans still substantially reduces your risk of being murdered. Surprisingly they don’t seem to mention this.

Also, as noted, there is no evidence that they were murdered due to any phobia. None of the few trans people murdered in the uk over the last 15 years were murdered due to being trans. Drugs and domestic incidents were the main motivations.

Sorry, I missed you said women. Though the figures I found would still suggest it is an underestimate

Brazil has a really high homicide rate over 40000 people a year. I’m sure I read something along the lines that 1 in 5 murders in the world take place in this country. Any murder is horrific but all stats have to be considered in context.

320 trans people murdered worldwide in a single year is a tiny number.

As nauticant said, about half a million people are murdered worldwide every year.

If 0.5% of the population is trans, then you'd expect there to be 2,500 murders of trans people worldwide every year.

With that information in mind, 320 murders looks like a remarkably small number, suggesting that trans people are much less likely than other people to be murdered.

Of course, the big caveat here is that the 320 figure is likely to be wrong, because most countries probably aren't counting how many trans people are murdered - they simply record the numbers of males and females who are murdered.

It is low if you include them.

And Brianna Grey was only one of the teenagers stabbed to death that week.

I've just been googling murder rates for women who work in prostitution. It's very hard to come by accurate figures, apparently, though this site suggests that prostitutes are 18 times more likely to be murdered than other people:

https://ellyarrow.wordpress.com/2021/03/29/who-is-killing-whom-where-how-and-why-in-german-prostitution/

On the UK front...

The last year I could find statistics for (21-22) was 69 murders of teenagers. Its a pretty consistent number unfortunately.

So Brianna Grey was likely one of 60ish teenagers to die that year. Every one of those is one too many. But we only hear of a few. (Many I suppose were gang related, where as Brianna was an innocent white person)

I think murdered for being trans usually means angry male punters killing prostitutes they had assumed to be female, who turned to have a penis.

Obviously men shouldn't murder people they feel have called their sexuality into question (but they do), and shouldn't rent other people's bodies for sex purposes (but they do). Since everyone knows they do, it's very unwise for any trans prostitute to conceal their real sex - it's mis-selling at best, and very dangerous in this context.

On top of that, we know there are men for whom sex is linked with extreme violence and murder. Most such men choose prostituted victims. You can call this whorephobia if you like, but it's actually a homicidal kink.

None of this is specific to trans people.

Many I suppose were gang related, where as Brianna was an innocent white person

We do not know the motivations in this case.

In Brianna Ghey's case the kids were all 15/16 and known to each other, if memory serves. Given the horrendous rate of kids of that age slaying each other, this case could well be another and the trans issue was irrelevant. Or maybe not, we'll find out.

I always get the vibe from articles like this that the murder rate of prostituted trans women is shocking and to be deplored, but for women in the trade it's an acceptable risk. Because sex work is work, right? For us, that is.

I was referring more to the press coverage rather than the motivation behind the crime. We don't hear of the majority of murders.

@Rightsraptor, sex work is work for women and tragic consequences are just part of the job. For trans people, sex work is validation! This makes tragic consequences even more tragic! Trans lives matter (so much more than women's lives)!

Surely this data is absolutely useless without comparative data? A certain number of trans people were murdered. Ok, this tells us nothing. Is it more less or the same as killings from a similar non trans demographic?

I wonder what the number would be if you remove those linked to drugs, gangs and prostitution. I suspect the best way to tackle trans murders is to crack down on these (using the Nordic model for prostitution and tackling the buyers).

In terms of prostitution, it is the commodification of people’s bodies. Once you think it is ok to buy the use of someone’s body, the steps to murder are pretty small.

So Brianna Grey was likely one of 60ish teenagers to die that year.

Brianna Ghey was one of two British 16 year olds to die by stabbing on the same weekend.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/andy-wood-chelmsford-murder-inquiry-essex-police-b1060320.html

We can't as yet say it was murder, either. Until the court case is closed two people have been accused of murder but not yet tried. Please be careful about what is said when a case is yet to go to court.

All murders are awful on an individual level but these stats just show that trans people are a statistically safe demographic.

So why are we making women less safe to accommodate them?