Gender identity: an examination of fears concerning reporting.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20001150

The study explores qualitatively the fears that transgender and gender non-conforming college students have about reporting victimization to the police. This study uses a reverse social distance ideology to account for the space between transgender individuals and their treatment in society. This distance (often felt through discrimination and victimization) may be a predictor in transgender and gender non-conforming students not reporting victimization to the police or other service agencies. Study participants were recruited from nine colleges in a Northeast city for interviews to discuss reporting and help seeking behaviors. The findings suggest that social distance factors into students' perceptions of the police as well as their reporting and help-seeking habits.