“Seeing the word ‘police’ can be a huge point of recoil”: a qualitative examination of trans people’s perceptions and questions of police legitimacy

Abstract

This dissertation examines transgender people’s experiences and perceptions of police within Canada. Transgender people experience a wide variety of negative interactions with police, including disrespectful language, rude and inappropriate behaviour, verbal and physical harassment, and the denial of police services (Dwyer, 2011, 2014, 2015; Wolff & Clokely, 2007; Shields, 2021). This study investigates the need for a transgender lens when examining the concepts of procedural justice and police legitimacy. Additionally, this study contributes to the growing literature on gender and legitimacy by emphasizing the need for transgender-focused analyses. I answer how trans people construct police legitimacy using in-depth, qualitative interviews. The following research questions guided this research project: What does the relationship between the trans community and police look like according to the trans community? Why do trans individuals believe the relationship is the way that it is? According to the trans community, what are the proposed best practices for police engagement with the trans community? What is justice to you, and how can police reflect that back to you? A total of 14 trans people were interviewed through online one-on-one and focus group interviews. The research questions were used as the interview questions. Findings show that trans people have limited or no trust in the police, as individual officers or in the institution of policing. Additionally, trans people feel the only way to address police mistreatment is to abolish the policing system. This study contributes to the criminological literature by combining transgender theory and procedural justice theory, including a transgender analysis of how police legitimacy is formed. This research’s significance and further contributions encourage future researchers to examine how trans people express their understanding of procedural justice and police legitimacy, and add to the growing literature on gender and legitimacy.