Criminal Justice and the LGBT* Population

Research Spotlight No. 4-2021

Editor’s Notes: This Research Spotlight reflects a selection of ICPSR studies and the literature analyzing the data in those studies, as of September 2021. 

Created by ICPSR Bibliography staff members, using the ICPSR Bibliography of Data-related Literature as their source, Research Spotlights are short reports that synthesize the findings about one or several related topics. Each report contains links to the publications and the underlying ICPSR studies, where the data used in the publications can be accessed.

It is important to note that the works highlighted do not represent the Research Spotlight author’s nor ICPSR’s point of view. Research Spotlights are not intended to draw conclusions, nor are they comprehensive literature reviews, due to the extensive existing scholarship. Their main purpose is to show how scholars are using data available from ICPSR in their primary and secondary analyses.

Conflicts between the United States criminal justice system and the LGBT community have long existed, expressed, for example, in the police raid that triggered the Stonewall riots. They have continued to the present day, when activists question the appropriateness of police presence at Pride parades (Langness and Velasco 2020). Further evidence of this conflict is described in political policy briefs that estimate large overrepresentation of LGBT individuals in incarcerated populations (Hunt and Moodie-Mills  2012; Movement Advancement Project and Center for American Progress 2016). Even analysis of non-criminal justice data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health “reveals that in 2019, gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals (with an arrest rate of 3,620 per 100,000) were 2.25 times as likely to be arrested in the past twelve months than straight individuals (with an arrest rate of 1,610 per 100,000)” (Jones 2021).

Despite this history, the LGBT community tends to be underrepresented in criminal justice research. In this Research Spotlight, the focus is on publications that use data from studies distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), which do represent this population, and reveal some recurring themes:

Risks of underreporting

Many LGBT-related publications in the criminal justice literature include a section explaining the lack of previous research to rely on, alongside the lack of reliability in reporting from these communities as a caveat in their analyses. Addington and Dixon (2019) cite a study finding only 3 percent of intimate partner violence (IPV) articles from a 15-year period focused on LGB IPV. Blosnich (2021) notes in his introduction to the February 2021 issue of the American Journal of Public Health that the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey only began to include respondents’ sexual orientation and gender identity data in 2017, and in that same issue Bender and Lauritsen refer to their analysis as “one of the first known uses of NCVS data to estimate LGB victimization” (2021, 318). The National Center for Victims of Crime(PDF) points out in their resource guide on hate crime that “some state agencies include sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender-based offenses in their classification of hate crimes, while others do not” (2018), complicating longitudinal data analyses. Apparent disparities between hate crime rates from Uniform Crime Reports (which rely on law enforcement reports) and NCVS (which rely on reported perceptions by victims themselves) are also noted in the literature (Oudekerk 2019). Sterzing et al. report that the SpeakOut: Polyvictimization Prevalence Rates for Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents – Online, 2015 [United States] is “the first study to identify lifetime polyvictimization rates for sexual and gender minority adolescents” (2019, 419). But they also note that the study relied primarily on a self-reported Internet convenience sample that may not be representative of LGBT individuals who are more hesitant about self-reporting their identity. In response to these limitations, some researchers suggest supplementing criminal justice data with LGBT healthcare reporting data (Coston 2018), while others have developed and begun testing recommendations and tools for better measures of LGBT-related bias crimes (Addington and Dixon 2019; Simich, 2018).

Hate crime reporting trends

With the limitations of current reporting data acknowledged, researchers have still utilized the data that does exist about LGBT-related hate crimes from government sources, though sometimes with conflicting findings. One variable discussed as a factor in hate crime rates has been the 2015 legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States. Piatkowska and Messner (2021) use hate crime data from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data series to find a positive association between the prevalence of same-sex marriage in metropolitan populations and hate crime rates, while Pettis et al. (2021)(PDF) use UCR hate crime and county-level offenses data to find same-sex marriage legalization announcements could precipitate a decrease in anti-LGBT hate crimes. And Shreve (2018) finds no effect on UCR hate crime counts after an example of statewide legalization of same-sex marriage, but a subsequent spike in hate crimes following a state same-sex marriage ban in 2008. Levy and Levy (2017) point to legal inequalities as a whole as encouraging hate crimes, and they credit employment non-discrimination policies and hate crime laws with decreasing rates. Other sources connect an anti-LGBT hate crime increase to the posture and rhetoric towards the community from the Trump administration compared to the Obama administration (Hauck 2019).

LGBT at-risk youth

The recognition of a need for additional research on LGBT populations extends to at-risk youth. Kuranz (2020) finds that in addition to factors like socioeconomic status and parental support, supportive state policies towards the LGBT community can lower rates of substance use among LGB youth as counted in Uniform Crime Reporting data. In Dank et al.’s analysis of data from the study, Technology, Teen Dating Violence and Abuse, and Bullying in Three States, 2011-2012, they find “lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are at higher risk for all types of dating violence victimization (and nearly all types of dating violence perpetration), compared to heterosexual youth. Further, when looking at gender identity, transgender and female youth are at highest risk of most types of victimization, and are the most likely perpetrators of all forms of dating violence but sexual coercion, which begs further exploration” (2014, 846). The SpeakOut polyvictimization study for sexual and gender minority adolescents enables researchers to explore several factors contributing to the likelihood of having multiple victimization experiences specifically among LGBT youth, including “posttraumatic stress, family-level microaggressions, and peer rejection” (Sterzing et al. 2017, 1). Transgender youth in particular “had the highest rates of polyvictimization, depression, and suicide attempts in comparison to their cisgender counterparts” (Ratliff and Sterzing 2017).

Conclusion

This Research Spotlight does not reflect all of the existing research regarding criminal justice and the LGBT population. To see how each of the ICPSR studies mentioned in this Spotlight has been examined in other scholarly literature, to gain ideas for extending prior research, or to conduct a larger literature review, you can search the ICPSR Bibliography of Data-related Literature. The term, “LGBT,” typically encompasses identities of “gay,” “lesbian,” “bisexual,” and “transgender,” but may also include other communities identifying under terminology such as “pansexual,” “nonbinary,” or “genderqueer.” Using search terms like transgender AND health or “sexual minority” AND health will lead you to search results containing publications linked to the study data analyzed in them. Discovering data via the literature in this way can begin your investigation of the existing and potential uses of the data distributed by ICPSR.

When authoring publications that include your secondary analysis of study data downloaded from ICPSR, be sure to cite the study in the publication’s references section, using the provided data citation and unique identifier (in the form of a URL containing a DOI). Once your paper is published, submit its citation to the ICPSR Bibliography via this form, so it can be added to ICPSR’s collection of linked data-related literature, enabling others to find, learn from, and cite your work.

*LGBT people are represented in some or all of the study samples and publications used in this Research Spotlight; other members of the LGBTQ2+ community are not.

Addington, Lynn, and Ericka Dixon. 2019. “Intimate Partner Violence Involving Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Individuals: A Look at National Data.” Washington, DC: Center for Victim Research.

Bender, Annah K., and Janet L. Lauritsen. (In press). “Violent Victimization among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Populations in the United States: Findings from the National Crime Victimization Survey, 2017-2018.” American Journal of Public Health.

Blosnich, John R. 2021. “Violent Victimization of Sexual Minorities: A Clearer Lens on a Wicked Problem, but Solution Remains Obscured.” American Journal of Public Health 111, no. 2: 190–92.

Coston, Elizabeth. 2018. “Anti-LGBT Hate Crimes in the US.” PhD diss., Stony Brook University.

Dank, Meredith, Pamela Lachman, Janine M. Zweig, and Jennifer Yahner. 2014.  “Dating Violence Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 43, no. 5: 846–57.

Gartner, Rachel E., and Paul R. Sterzing. 2018. “Social Ecological Correlates of Family Level Interpersonal and Environmental Microaggressions toward Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents.” Journal of Family Violence 33, no. 1: 1–16.

Hauck, Grace. 2019. “Anti-LGBT Hate Crimes Are Rising, the FBI Says. But It Gets Worse.” USA Today, June 28, 2019.

Hunt, Jerome, and Aisha C. Moodie-Mills. 2012. “The Unfair Criminalization of Gay and Transgender Youth.” Center for American Progress.

Jones, Alexi. 2012. “Visualizing the Unequal Treatment of LGBTQ People in the Criminal Justice System.” Prison Policy Initiative (blog).

Kuranz, Seth. 2020. “Substance Use Among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Young People: The Role of Neighborhood, School, and Family.” PhD diss., Boston University.

Langness, Melanie, and Gabriella Velasco. 2020. “‘No Cops at Pride’: How the Criminal Justice System Harms LGBTQ People.” Urban Institute.

Levy, Brian L., and Denise L. Levy. 2017. “When Love Meets Hate: The Relationship between State Policies on Gay and Lesbian Rights and Hate Crime Incidence.” Social Science Research 61: 142–59.

Movement Advancement Project and Center for American Progress. 2016. “Unjust: How the Broken Criminal Justice System Fails LGBT People of Color.”

National Center for Victims of Crime. 2018. “Hate Crime.” Office for Victims of Crime.

Oudekerk, Barbara. 2019. “Hate Crime Statistics.” Bureau of Justice Statistics, March 29, 2019.

Pettis, Robert W., Breyon J. Williams, and Zehra Valencia. 2021. “Pride and Prejudice: Same-Sex Marriage Legalization Announcements and Anti-LGBT Hate Crimes.”

Piatkowska, Sylwia J., and Steven F. Messner. (In press). “Group Threat, Same-Sex Marriage, and Hate Crime Based on Sexual Orientation.” Justice Quarterly.

Ratliff, G.A., and Paul Sterzing. 2017. “Rates and Correlates of Polyvictimization, Depression, and Suicide Attempts for Cisgender, Transgender, and Genderqueer Youth.” Society for Social Work and Research 2017 Annual Meeting. New Orleans, LA.

Shreve, Johanna R. 2018. “Anti-LGB Hate Crimes: Political Threat or Political Legitimization?” PhD diss., Portland State University.

Simich, Laura, and Jacob Kang-Brown. 2018. “Questioning Bias: Validating a Bias Crime Victim Assessment Tool in California and New Jersey.”

Sterzing, Paul R., Rachel E. Gartner, Jeremy T. Goldbach, Briana L. McGeough, Allen G. Ratliff, and Kelly C. Johnson. 2019. “Polyvictimization Prevalence Rates for Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents: Breaking down the Silos of Victimization Research.” Psychology of Violence 9, no. 4: 419–30.

Sterzing, Paul R., G.A. Ratliff, Rachel E. Gartner, Briana L. McGeough, and Kelly C. Johnson. 2017. “Social Ecological Correlates of Polyvictimization among a National Sample of Transgender, Genderqueer, and Cisgender Minority Adolescents.” Child Abuse and Neglect 67: 1–12.

Burchart, Sarah. “ICPSR Bibliography of Data-related Literature Research Spotlight: Criminal Justice and the LGBT Population.” No. 4-2021. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2021.