“A Human Being Like Other Victims”: The Media Framing of Trans Homicide in the United States

Abstract

A growing awareness of violence against LGBTQ + individuals has led to an increase in media coverage of the homicides of trans people in the United States. Media accounts involve powerful narratives which are subjective, biased, and imbued with meaning. These narratives employ "frames" that impact public perception of populations. Studies have demonstrated differences in the ways that trans victims of homicide are framed compared to cis victims, specifically regarding responsibility for the violence inflicted upon them. Trans victims are more likely to be constructed as "deviants" or criminals who are deserving of or responsible for their own homicides. In addition, these victims are framed as deceivers who deliberately obscure their gender modality from offenders, thus facilitating violent retaliation. The present study employs a mixed methods approach to analyze articles published in news media outlets about the twenty-six trans people killed in 2018. Our analysis identified more positive frames than negative frames employed by agents of social control, such as media and law enforcement, that inform narratives surrounding this unique form of violence. Yet, efforts still need to be undertaken to involve trans voices, to humanize those who have lost their lives, and most importantly, to prevent this violence. This article discusses implications for how these organizations can begin to transform these narratives to describe accurately trans victims of homicide.

A Descriptive Account of the Nature and Extent of Transgender Homicide in America, 2010 to 2021

“…The primary advantage of this open-source approach is that it avoids systemic issues with police data that result from under- and misidentification of cases (e.g., see Lantz et al, 2019). We note that it is still likely, however, that our final dataset excludes some transgender homicides which were never identified by the police as transgender, and then never covered by the media or reported as such (see DeJong et al, 2021; Osborn, 2022).…”

“…Applied to transgender homicide, this approach points to the need for a critical evaluation of the interlaced identities of transgender individuals in their experiences with violence (see Lenning et al, 2021; Potter, 2013). Existing popular discourse on transgender homicide, however—including media coverage (see DeJong et al, 2021)—largely fails to recognize the intersectional nature of this problem, particularly along the lines of race and gender (Wood et al, 2022). Yet, prior research highlighting the need for intersectional approaches has argued that transgender women of color are particularly at risk for homicide because of pervasive, often institutionalized, practices that delegitimize the lives of transgender women (Capuzza, 2014; Wood et al, 2022).…”

“…As a result, valid and reliable information on the nature and extent of such incidents in the United States, especially in recent years, does not currently exist. The limited information that is available covers only a single year (e.g., DeJong et al, 2021; Osborn, 2022) or is primarily compiled by advocacy organizations, including the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC Foundation, 2020), which publish regular reports and lists of murder victims obtained through media reports and other sources; but these reports do not include detailed, quantifiable information about victims, suspects, or related information, and sometimes contain sparse information beyond the name of the victim. 1 And, while some evidence of elevated victimization risk has been obtained from self-report surveys, that is clearly not possible for homicide victimization.…”

Advantages and Challenges of Queer Scholars Doing Qualitative Queer Criminology and Criminal Justice Research

“…This is not to say, however, that other queer criminological research methods such as quantitative (see Worthen, 2022 for a good example) and mixed methods (see DeJong et al, 2021 for a good example) aren’t needed. As Worthen (2022) says in her work on the victimization of bisexual and pansexual women:quantitative findings point to the need for additional work to understand more fully pansexual and bisexual women’s violence and harassment using a more fully developed intersectional framework (Collins, 1999; Crenshaw, 1991; Davis, 2008).…”

The (r)evolution of transsexuality in the news media: The case of the Spanish digital press (2000-2020)

“…The academic literature has found empirical evidence that the media do not always respect the sexual identity of women and men in a situation of transsexuality and they also question its stability (e.g. Åkerlund, 2019; Billard, 2016; Capuzza, 2016; DeJong et al, 2021; Gupta, 2019; Osborn, 2021; Seely, 2021). The wrong body discourse (e.g.…”