Stats on violent assault - trans people

[ItsCoolForCats]

I frequently see stats bandied about and claims made on social media that trans people are much more likely to be the victim of violent assault than 'cis' people. For example, here is Helen Webberley claiming that "...trans people are 4 x more likely to be victim of violent assault than cisgender people, just because of their identity". https://www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/comments/1natr6o/graham_linehan_arrest_setting_piers_morgan/

Does anyone know where they are getting these stats from, as I rarely see a source referenced.

She gets a lot of facts from her own head (or other part of her body which it's probably not acceptable to say)

They just make them up - in the same way they imagine they're a woman when their male biology tells them differently.

Haha I did wonder if they were just plucked out of the air.

I don't think violent crime stats are disaggregated by gender identity.

I haven’t looked at the specific link but it’s usually one of two things

Men are more likely to be attacked than women. If you class transwomen as women not men you find they get attacked more than you would expect

prostitutes are more likely to be attacked then other groups. In some places ( states, Brazil) transwomen are often also prostitutes and therefore more likely to be attacked

again it’s a causal mistake - confounding factors

it isn’t in my mind unreasonable to think they would be more likely to be attacked - gay men are also more likely to be attacked for example

What’s unreasonable is to use that as a reason to put them in with women. Because whilst they are more likely to be attacked they are also more likely than women to attack

Helen Webberley has staked her whole career and reputation on the trans ‘cause’

She just has to keep repeating the mantra. It’s all she’s got

There have been some separate studies - not ONS

Maybe this will help

This quote keeps appearing here:

”Transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault”

It was from this press release.

williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-trans-press-release/

I have a few issues with this press release. I think it has been used widely and extensively since it was released. I believe this document discusses those crime statistics

escholarship.org/content/qt7c3704zg/qt7c3704zg.pdf?t=qqfomk&v=lg

It refers to 369 trans people vs 435 061 people who were not trans identified in a study.

How strange that the sample size was not mentioned at all in the press release!!
I might have forgotten most of what I learned from my Statistics module at uni but 0.0008 is not a population that you could draw many confident conclusions from. And it would be ridiculous to make the comparison.

Think about this from the point of view that women around the world admit they don’t bother to report their sexual assaults and rapes. Because they have no confidence that they will get justice AND not be vilified in the process.

What % of females actively reporting their attacks vs current trend of not bothering to report would decimate that 369 figure?

And that number cannot be accurately depicted in this point either;

”About half of all violent victimizations were not reported to police. Transgender people were as likely as cisgender people to report violence to police.”

Sure this 'maybe'. However, I believe the huge number of women telling us they don’t report.

This article is misrepresenting the reality.

I also bring to your attention this as it is relevant to your claim:

”Transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault”

Including! Notice it says ‘including’!

Not ”Trans people are 4 times more likely to experience violent attacks including rape and sexual assault.”

What was NOT included was a handy breakdown of what constituted the crimes against trans people were. What was the bar for a hate crime being committed for instance? Misogyny? Does that fit the definition that holds for transphobic hate crimes?

And based on 369 people, I am not going to delve into that national dataset to look for it. I don’t have the will. Maybe if you wish to prove your point, you could link to that data with the breakdown of the actual crimes reported for those 369 people.

“One in four transgender women who were victimized thought the incident was a hate crime compared to less than one in ten cisgender women.”

How many females being taught how to accurately assess the motivation against them as to whether it constituted a hate crime, or indeed using the very same frames of reference as trans people do but based on sexism, and then reanswering that same survey would again make that point meaningless? Is misogyny a ‘hate crime’ for instance?

Do people understand the significance of what centuries of oppression of females has done on being able to accurately assess the motivation of crimes against our sex?

I am beginning to. The trans lobby groups are informing my learnings. Because of what they classify as ‘transphobic hate crimes’ when I look at what I have experienced as a female… wow! I sure have overlooked a huge amount of what I just waved away as crap from males.

And that the group who are trans could include many of those reporting abuse that includes misgendering and perceived micro-aggressions. Gosh, imagine if women reported all the hateful things said and done to them on a daily basis.

Crimes that cause harm and pain to anyone should be fully investigated and justice served.

But if a claim such as ”Trans people are 4 times more likely to experience violent attacks including rape and sexual assault.” is going to be made by any institution or poster, it needs to be based on some very robust data.

Apart from the dishonesty of making up stats, it is really alarmist. There are a lot of young people with poor mental health caught up in this, and it's no wonder they talk about being too afraid to leave the house when the likes of Helen Webberley are telling them they will be attacked and discriminated against at every turn.

The trans Reddit UK is quite eye opening, because it's full of people who think the whole country is against them, and there is a big conspiracy underway to erase them (whatever that means). But mostly, it's depressing that they are so absorbed in their victim narrative that they have no empathy or insight into why women need single sex spaces.

Oh, it's her.

HW is completely off the wall on this subject, OP. Shark jumped very hard, very far, a very long time ago.

Thanks @Helleofabore

This is in the US isn't it, so not relevant to uk

https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/genderidentityandcrime

'Victims of crime by gender identity (relating to questions 3, 4, 7, 8 and 10).
Tables D1 and D3 of our latest Annual trend and demographic tables present the proportion of people who have experienced CSEW headline crime and CSEW personal crime, broken down by sex and gender identity (gender identity the same as sex registered at birth versus gender identity different from sex registered at birth) for the year ending March 2024. CSEW headline crime includes theft, robbery, criminal damage, violence with and without injury, fraud and computer misuse. The number of victims for these breakdowns are not published.

Unfortunately, we do not hold further breakdowns within the "gender identity different from sex registered at birth" category. We have not created this as the sample size would not be robust enough to provide reliable estimates. The following datasets also provide prevalence estimates by sex and gender identity for specific crime types:

• Property crime – Table 6 (Robbery) and Table 8 (Personal theft)
• The nature of violent crime: appendix tables – Tables 1 and 3
• Domestic abuse prevalence and victim characteristics – Table 6
• Stalking: findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales – Table 5
• Nature of fraud and computer misuse in England and Wales: appendix tables – Table 7

Homicide broken down by sex of victim and sex of offender are presented in Table 4 and Table 28 of our Homicide in England and Wales: appendix tables. These figures are taken from the Home Office Homicide Index. Table A5a of our Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables also provides police recorded crime numbers broken down by specific offence, and in some instances, sex. '

I just also wanted to highlight that in the paper I posted, it shows that there is no explanations on what the victimisations were when they quoted this.

”Transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault”

It included 'property victimisations' for instance. It covers a wide range of things.

Yes, but it is an interesting insight into where they might be getting this stat from. I knew that some of the stats were to do with people working in prostitution in South America, so again, not relevant to this country. But they still get quoted all over the place, including on our work intranet during things like trans day of remembrance 🙄

Has anyone clarified if Webberley was speaking about UK statistics?

It could well be that this press release that I posted has become the 'go to' like the South American and US murder statistics. I have seen that paper used here exactly for the purpose of trying to say that male people with transgender identities are 4 times more likely to attacked.

Cross posted.

Yes- not only are these vulnerable young people told that they are more likely to be assaulted or murdered than anyone else; they’re also told that suicide rates for their group are uncommonly high (I think the jury is still very much out on those ‘stats’ too). No wonder they are so frightened and believe themselves to be horribly oppressed. It’s actually incredibly cruel, isn’t it?

There are lots of stats about "hate" crimes but cant find any that record acts of violence.

eg Transgender hate crimes fell by 2% over the last year, to 4,780 offences. Over the last year, there was a fall in malicious communications offences (down 237) and public fear, alarm or distress offences (down 100) and an increase in harassment offences (up 170). https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-year-ending-march-2024/hate-crime-england-and-wales-year-ending-march-2024

and AI comes up with this:

There isn't a single, exact figure for the total number of physical attacks against transgender people in the UK, as many incidents go unreported. However, statistics from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Stonewall show that transgender people experience high rates of violence and hate crimes, with some studies indicating up to 12% of trans employees have faced physical attacks from colleagues or customers, and many others reporting being harassed, threatened, or subjected to physical and sexual assaults

But it turns out the figure of 12% is from Stonewall in 2017.

I find this very curious that no one is collecting these stats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_killed_for_being_transgender

GenderGP has linked the press release that I posted on their site. From what I can find, the four times only refers to that Williams Institute press release.

Trans People at Four Times Greater Risk of Violence Than Cis People

https://www.gendergp.com/anti-trans-violence-on-the-rise/

Trans people are more likely than cis people to be victims of a violent crime. Anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes are also on the rise. This violence influences not only their mental and physical well-being but also when they decide to start gender-affirming healthcare.

Research indicates that trans people are at significantly greater risk of violence than their cis counterparts

A 2021 study published by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found that trans people are four times more likely to experience violence and abuse compared to cis people. Around one in every four trans women who were victims of a violent crime believed it to be due to their gender identity. In comparison, only one in every ten cis women believed it to be due to their gender. Half of all victims of violent crimes did not report it to the police.

Further research also proves that experiences of violence and abuse negatively impact trans people’s well-being. The suicide rate for trans people is already extremely high compared to that of cis people. In the US, around 50% of young trans and non-binary people have contemplated suicide. In 2020, 20% attempted suicide.

Gender-Affirming Healthcare improves mental well-being

Another study demonstrated that trans people who receive gender-affirming healthcare had a decrease in their depression of about 60%. The study also showed a 73% decrease in suicidal ideation and attempts among trans youth who started gender-related medical care.

A 2023 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine also confirmed trans healthcare improves the mental health of trans youth. These studies are part of a growing body of evidence confirming the benefits of gender-affirming healthcare for trans people’s mental well-being.

In February 2023 ILGA Europe released their annual review of the human rights situation of LGBTQ+ people. The review found that hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community led to the most violent year in over a decade.

It is worth noting that positive court responses to anti-LGBTQ+ violence have increased. Nevertheless, ILGA Europe confirms that there is a ‘stark rise in violence against LGBTI people’ as well as a rise in the severity of said violence.

Experiences of members of the GenderGP team

We interviewed a pathway advisor at GenderGP to talk about her own experiences with violence as a trans woman. She discussed the influence violence had on her journey with her gender identity. She knew that she was trans from a young age, stating that her first experience with gender dysphoria was at the age of 5. However, she only started gender-affirming healthcare in her early 30s.

A significant reason as to why she started transitioning later in life was the continuous physical abuse she experienced from a family member. Whenever she would act in a way that was not deemed as ‘normal’ or she was doing ‘anything other than being a boy or a man’, she was met with violence. She also experienced a lack of awareness about the trans community, as she lived in a rural area of the US where bigotry against marginalised groups was normalised.
Growing up in an abusive household, the only choices she felt she had were either to conform to other people’s expectations or to present and behave in the way she desired and get physically abused for it. She was forced to conform to societal ideas of ‘manhood’ in order to protect her physical well-being. However, inevitably, this negatively affected her mental health.

Violence and abuse affects people long after the abuse has stopped

Our colleague shared with me that due to the way she was socialised and the fears she had around the potential abuse, her emotions are extremely difficult to express. This has affected in particular her ability to cry. She only used to cry a handful of times a year, usually feeling guilty afterwards. It is only now, after being on hormone replacement therapy for over a year, that she is able to truly cry and feel ‘relieved afterwards’.

‘Just being a person that has emotions and can express them is new to me and it has been really nice.’

Looking back on her past experiences with violence and physical abuse, our colleague stated that she now feels as though she can finally ‘communicate’. She can express herself in a way that she could not do before starting gender-affirming healthcare.

We also interviewed a counsellor working at GenderGP. He mentioned how the abuse he experienced hindered him from starting gender-affirming healthcare and changing his name. It is only now in his 40s that he was able to legally change his name. The physical and emotional abuse he experienced as a child was making it impossible for him to let go of the person he used to be.

His childhood trauma was so deep that it kept him from dealing with any issues surrounding his gender identity. It was only after years of therapy that he was able to deal with the abuse. He then changed his name and finally began gender-affirming healthcare.

A need for change unmatched by the appetite

Research and testimonials from GenderGP’s team members show the extent to which violence and abuse affect the trans community. It negatively impacts their well-being as well as their gender journey. It is vital to create safe spaces for trans and gender diverse people through education and policy, to make an environment in which such violence and discrimination has no home.

While campaigners push, media and lawmakers seem either disinterested or actively hostile to protecting the community. Society has a duty of care to its vulnerable members, and the current epidemic of violence, discrimination and exclusion of the trans people has made the community extremely vulnerable. Government needs to become part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.

In some places, such as in Spain in February 2023, positive change has been taking effect. Meanwhile, in Scotland and the wider UK, and in much of the US, things are moving backwards. This was most recently made clear with the monstrous tragedy seen in the UK, with the murder of Brianna Ghey. This tide of violence and cruelty against the trans and gender diverse community has to break.

__

Adding:

This was also linked

https://www.ilga-europe.org/press-release/deadliest-rise-anti-lgbti-violence-decade/

But I skim read and could not see any mention of 4 x in this relating to Europe.
This is the ILGA annual report:

www.ilga-europe.org/files/uploads/2023/02/annual-review-2023.pdf

Around one in every four trans women who were victims of a violent crime believed it to be due to their gender identity. In comparison, only one in every ten cis women believed it to be due to their gender identity.

Two things interest me about that statement.

1. If they had used the word ‘sex’ instead of ‘gender identity’ when interviewing the women, they might have got a different answer.
2. We know that a lot of women are still very naïve about just how misogynistic many men are.

Here is the Metro, earlier this year.

'A 2021 US-based Williams Institute study found that, in the year 2017-18, trans people are four times more likely than cis people to experience violence, including sexual assault and rape.'

https://archive.ph/Ceb9Z

Article by Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir aka 'Owl' Fisher. A male who declares that he is a feminist

Here is GLAAD using the same study in a fact sheet produced this year:

https://glaad.org/debunking-trans-terrorism/

'Despite being less than 2% of the U.S. adult population, transgender people are four times as likely to be victims of crime. GLAAD’s ALERT Desk has tracked more than 2,100 anti-LGBTQ incidents from June 2022 – December 2024, including 750+ incidents specifically targeting transgender and nonbinary people.'

I think that this paper gets rolled out across the world as evidence and that people such as Webberley and Fisher just keep repeating that soundbite even though it has no relevance to the UK.

I cannot find anywhere where the UK has released such a statistic. But I can see plenty of UK groups repeatedly linking to that Williams Institute press release with that sound bite.

Only, it is NOT the soundbite, they are misquoting it now as being:

'four times more likely than cis people to experience violence, including sexual assault and rape.'

It is dishonest. The press release was dishonest, the conclusion that the team drew was for 0.08% of the respondents in that survey. And it was a self selected survey if I remember correctly too. And this attempt to make it relevant to the UK is dishonest. Those using it don't make it clear it is a USA data set.

Weren't we being told, not long ago, that misgendering is "literal violence"?

Maybe it’s impossible to collect due to the systematic use of gender when sex should be used.