Transgender Incarceration and Law Enforcement as a Source of Harm: Upstream and Primordial Prevention Perspectives

In the United States (US), transgender individuals are more likely to experience violence and sexual assault in jails and prisons compared with cisgender peers. Harms of incarceration on transgender individuals include limited access to medical care and hormone therapy, as well as being housed in facilities based on biological sex instead of gender identity. However, there has been insufficient research on addressing factors that lead to transgender individuals being incarcerated in the first place. In this article, we argue the need to focus on law enforcement interactions with transgender individuals in the US to reduce incarceration-related harms. Using the perspectives of primordial prevention and focusing on upstream factors that create health-related harms, we assert that focusing on law enforcement is a necessary component in addressing how the criminal justice system harms transgender individuals.