Transgender people 'significantly more likely' to be crime victims, report finds

  • LGBT+
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It's the first time ONS analysis has included the gender identity of victims in its Crime Surve. Credit: PA

Transgender people are "significantly more likely" to have been a victim of crime in England and Wales in the past year, research suggests.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) report, people whose gender identity had changed since birth, were twice as likely to have been a crime victim in the year to March.

It's the first time ONS analysis has included the gender identity of victims in its Crime Survey - adding the extra question between October 1 2019 and March 18 2020 as part of a trial.

More than one in four people who were transgender (28 per cent) had experienced crime compared with 14 per cent of cisgender individuals - those whose gender identity is the same as their sex registered at birth.

Fraud was excluded from the data as it is considered a "less targeted" crime, the report said.

What is the Crime Survey and what where the other findings?

The ONS Crime Survey is a nationally representative sample questionnaire of around 50,000 people.

It asks about crimes not reported to the police and is designed to be a reliable measure of long-term trends, but the ONS said it is "not a good measure of emerging trends".

The report found just over one in five (21 per cent) of people who identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual experienced crime during the period surveyed.

Just over one in five lesbian, gay, and bisexual people experienced crime during the period surveyed. Credit: PA

This compares with 14 per cent of people who identified as heterosexual or straight.

Some 20 per cent of people from mixed ethnic background were most likely to have experienced crime.

The ONS found Asian people were "significantly more likely" to have been a victim of crime (15 per cent ) compared with white people (13 per cent).

When it came to religion, Muslims were more likely to have experienced crime than Christians, the findings suggested.

Across the board, the survey estimates that the overall level of crime has dropped by nine per cent during the period.

Something Home Secretary Priti Patel described as "encouraging" and a "step in the right direction".