The call by transgender people for the police to take violence against them more
seriously has some familiar attributes. In general it is a violence characterized as
hate crime. Transgender activism has highlighted many problems, for example,
under-reporting, lack of trust and confidence in policing, lack of police
recognition, low detection rates, clear up rates and infrequent judicial
determinations of guilt. This activism might be characterized as another instance of
identity politics emerging within the field of policing and criminal justice. While
we welcome its emergence some scholars have been critical of the impact of identity
politics upon policing and criminal justice bodies, suggesting it promotes further
social and community divisions. Although we share some of these concerns, in this
article we argue that these problems are the effect of particular assumptions about
the nature of identity. We offer an analysis of identity politics that seeks to
challenge this position, as well as an analysis of empirical data of transgender
experiences of violence and insecurity arising out of research undertaken in Sydney,
Australia. Our analysis exposes the multiple and simultaneous operation of many
different social and cultural divisions at work in the context of transgender
identity. We explore the significance of this approach to identity for policing.
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