Anti-transgender violence put under the microscope
by Don  Gorton
Chairperson, The Anti-Violence Project of Massachusetts
Wednesday Jul 6, 2011

http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=opinion&sc=guest_opinions&sc2=news&sc3=&id=121891

A newly-released report on hate crimes against transgender victims shows that these crimes are vastly underreported. A study conducted by the Anti-Violence Project of Massachusetts found that a large majority of victims of crimes motivated by gender-identity and gender-expression bias do not turn to law enforcement for help. The most common reasons victims give for not going to police are fear of physical and verbal abuse by law enforcement personnel ("secondary victimization") and a lack of confidence that anti-transgender hate crimes will be taken seriously. This finding is consistent with the lack of data on anti-transgender crimes in the official hate crimes statistics. Only one U.S. jurisdiction -- the District of Columbia -- has reported more than one or two gender-identity-based crimes. The FBI does not even track violence against the transgender community.

The problem with tracking of 'hate crimes' is that there is generally no absolute manner to infer that the crime was committed BECAUSE of sexual orientation, race, 'gender identity' or any other criterion.  Rare is the instance that such information is known even when the perpetrators are arrested and give a statement. 

The reality is that MOST crimes are crimes of opportunity.  Trying to track 'thought' motivations is an exercise in futility and leads to an increase in difficult prosecutions.  It would do the community far more good to realize that sometimes a crime is just a crime...just because it has a gay, lesbian or other minority classification as a victim DOES NOT mean it was a bias-motivated act. 

Further, the issue of reporting OF the crime by the victim is ALSO not unique to the various minority communities.  There are a LOT of rape victims who do not report their assault.  There are many mugging victims who do not report their attack except and unless they need significant medical attention. 

Never been a fan of hate crime stuff either.  Murder is murder, I don't see how a non-hate crime murder is any less dead, or with any less hate involved, then a positive hate crime murder.  Short of wearing sheets and/or Nazi uniforms to the crime itself, it's almost impossible to prove.

And my guess - though people aren't going to like it - is that if you really, really do a good job tracking anti-transgender violence and crime you'll find that the instances are about what the general population rate is, and, at that, like all crime in the US the poorer or more minority you are the more likely its going to be you as the crime victim.  When was the last time a white, middle-class trans-women was murdered?