Conversation

Whereas crime data exist for all other demographics—race, age, educational attainment, etc.—we are not systematically collecting or analyzing stats for trans offenders. Apparently, it’s too politically uncomfortable to call attention to transgender people as anything but victims. Any effort to delve into research on transgenderism and crime uncovers reports, white papers, law review essays, and media reporting—but all of it is focused exclusively on trans victimization. Such material prioritizes analytics such as the percentage of trans crime victims who were deadnamed in the press and how many were transwomen “of color.”

The focus on trans victimization is so powerful that media reporting and advocacy emphasize any suggestion—often unsubstantiated—that trans victims are the objects of hate crimes. But few reports actually record who the offenders are committing crimes against transgender individuals, and whether they are trans themselves.

A modest number of studies exists from outside the U.S. on transgender offending and indicate that transgender individuals tend to commit a dispropor-tionate amount of crime, violence, and sexual violence. A Swedish study conducted in 2011 found that “transsexual individuals were at increased risk of being convicted for any crime or violent crime after sex reassignment.” More specifically, transwomen had a significantly increased risk for committing crime and violent crime compared with biological women—but not compared to cis-men. Indeed, transwomen retain “a male pattern regarding criminality.”

Transmen, on the other hand, had higher crime and violent crime rates than women—about the same rates as biological men. In other words, women who “transition” commit crime at rates similar to men—who, in the general population, commit most of the lawbreaking and violence.

https://www.commentary.org/articles/hannah-meyers/trans-criminals-poor-policy/

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