Gender Identity Disparities in Criminal Victimization: National Crime Victimization Survey, 2017–2018

Abstract

<b>Objectives.</b> To estimate the prevalence of personal and household victimizations among transgender people in the United States.<b>Methods.</b> We analyzed pooled 2017 and 2018 data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, the first nationally representative sample that allows identification of transgender respondents.<b>Results.</b> Transgender people experienced 86.2 victimizations per 1000 persons compared with cisgender people's 21.7 per 1000 persons (odds ratio [OR] = 4.24; 90% confidence interval [CI] = 1.49, 7.00). Households that had a transgender person had higher rates of property victimization (214.1 per 1000 households) than households with only cisgender people (108 per 1000 households; OR = 2.25; 90% CI = 1.19, 3.31). Transgender victims whose sex assigned at birth was male were more likely to perceive their victimization as a hate crime than cisgender victims whose sex assigned at birth was male. There were no disparities in reporting victimizations to authorities: only about half of the victimizations of both transgender and cisgender people were reported.<b>Conclusions.</b> Public policy and administration need to consider the unique vulnerabilities transgender people routinely encounter, resulting in disparities in criminal victimization.