Homicide Rates of Transgender Individuals in the United States: 2010-2014

Abstract

Objectives: To estimate homicide rates of transgender US residents and relative risks (RRs) of homicide with respect to cisgender comparators intersected with age, gender, and race/ethnicity.

Methods: I estimated homicide rates for transgender residents and transfeminine, Black, Latin@, and young (aged 15-34 years) subpopulations during the period 2010 to 2014 using Transgender Day of Remembrance and National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs transgender homicide data. I used estimated transgender prevalences to estimate RRs using cisgender comparators. I performed a sensitivity analysis to situate all results within assumptions about underreporting of transgender homicides and assumptions about the prevalence of transgender residents.

Results: The overall homicide rate of transgender individuals was likely to be less than that of cisgender individuals, with 8 of 12 RR estimates below 1.0. However, the homicide rates of young transfeminine Black and Latina residents were almost certainly higher than were those of cisfeminine comparators, with all RR estimates above 1.0 for Blacks and all above 1.0 for Latinas.

Conclusions: Antiviolence public health programs should identify young and Black or Latina transfeminine women as an especially vulnerable population.

FIGURE 1—

US Transgender Homicides: United States, 2010–2016 (Provisional) Source. Transgender Day of Remembrance and National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs Data.