Transphobic Hate Crime All Wales Hate Crime Research Project Mair Rigby, Project Officer

Definition Transphobic Hate Incident Any incident, which may or may not constitute a criminal offence, which is perceived to be transphobic by the victim or any other person Hate Crime: Delivering a Quality Service, Good Practice and Tactical Guidance, ACPO (2005).

Transphobic Hate Crime 1 of 5 monitored categories of hate crime Legislation will be equalised this year - transphobic and disability hate crime should be treated in the same way as the other categories Minimum sentencing tariff for transphobic murders will be 30 years

Recorded Figures 2010

Research 60% of transgender respondents reported having been a victim of violence or harassment Lombardini et al., Gender Violence: Transgender Experiences with violence and discrimination (2001) 79% of all respondents had experienced some form of harassment in public Turnder et al., Transphobic Hate Crime in the European Union, Press for Change, 2009

Forms Unsolicited comments Verbal abuse /threats Physical abuse Sexual abuse Murder

Impact Changing habits, lifestyle, appearance Isolation Stress, depression, anxiety Moving out of the area Worsening of existing physical and psychological conditions Retaliation Suicide

Context Early stages of transition may be especially difficult for people Rejection and discrimination from family Isolation/lack of support networks Loss of employment Loss of home Unsympathetic and sensationalist media

Why don’t people report? So many incidents – it’s too much trouble to report them all It becomes “white noise” Managing a stressful situation - need to pick battles Fear of being “outed” as trans Fear of making it worse/losing control Fear of counter-allegations

Bad Practice when people report .... Mis-gendering Confusion with homophobic hate crime Failure in the criminal justice system to recognise vulnerability of trans women Trans women treated as “men by proxy’ in CJS Trans women perceived as cause of the incident Secondary victimization

Good Practice Robust hate crime and harassment policies Staff training re: gender identity Allocations process sensitive to needs of trans people Tenants provided with information and support from the start Work with local organisations e.g. Unique, LGBT Excellence Centre