Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in BJS Data Collections

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the nation's primary source of information on criminal victimization. Each year, data are obtained from a nationally representative sample of about 240,000 persons in about 150,000 households. Persons are interviewed on the frequency, characteristics, and consequences of criminal victimization in the United States.

The 2013 Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, the 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and other federal laws established protections for violent crime victims who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. In July 2016, sexual orientation and gender identity measures were added to the demographic section of the NCVS Basic Screen Questionnaire and administered to all respondents age 16 or older. These measures provide a way to estimate criminal victimization by sexual orientation and gender identity.

The NCVS sexual orientation question measures sexual identity, which is how an individual self-identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or straight. The question and response options are read aloud to the respondents by interviewers— 

The NCVS uses a two-step approach to ask questions about gender identity, first asking about sex assigned at birth and then current gender identity. Responses to these questions are used to classify persons as transgender or cisgender. This two-step approach allows for transgender individuals who identify as male or female but not transgender to report their gender identity and be classified as transgender for statistical analysis. A two-step method has identified transgender individuals more successfully than a single question has. Interviewers read the two questions aloud to respondents (response options are shown to interviewers but not read to respondents)—

The NCVS also uses a confirmation question to check for potential coding errors in the Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) program and responses where the respondent’s current gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth. Interviewers read the gender identity confirmation question aloud to respondents (response options are shown to interviewers but not read to respondents)—

For more information on the measurement of sexual orientation and gender identity in the NCVS, see Violent Victimization by Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, 2017–2020.

The National Inmate Survey (NIS) gathers data on the prevalence and incidence of sexual assault in adult prisons and local jail facilities as reported by state prisoners and local jail inmates under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA). The survey uses audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) technology with a touchscreen-enabled laptop to maximize prisoner and jail inmate confidentiality.

The NIS has been administered to over 200,000 prison and jail inmates in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The first three administrations of the NIS included a question on sexual orientation measuring sexual identity and a question on the respondents’ gender identity (see NIS Questionnaires). Specific question text varied depending on an inmate’s self-reported sex, but example text from the 2011-12 NIS is as follows –

Inmates who reported their sexual orientation as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or other and transgender inmates were among those with the highest rates of sexual victimization in 2011-12 (see Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2011–12).

The National Survey of Youth in Custody (NSYC) gathers data on the prevalence and incidence of sexual assault in juvenile facilities as reported by youth under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA). Interviews with the youth are conducted using audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) technology with a touchscreen-enabled laptop. ACASI technology maximizes the confidentiality of responses. It addresses literacy concerns by simultaneously providing the youth with an audio feed of the questions being read.

The NSYC has been administered to over 25,000 youth in custody in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The first two administrations of the NSYC included a question on sexual orientation that combined sexual identity and attraction. The third administration split those two concepts into separate questions and added a two-step measure on the youth’s gender identity (see NSYC Questionnaires). Specific question text varied depending on a youth’s self-reported sex, but example text from the 2018 NSYC is as follows –

In 2018, youth reported varying victimization rates depending on sexual orientation and gender identity (see Victim, Perpetrator, and Incident Characteristics of Sexual Victimization of Youth in Juvenile Facilities, 2018 – Statistical Tables)

The Survey of Prison Inmates (SPI) is a periodic, cross-sectional survey of the state and sentenced federal prison populations in the United States. Its primary objective is to produce national estimates of state and federal prisoner populations across a variety of domains, including but not limited to demographic characteristics, current offense and sentence, incident characteristics, firearm possession and sources, criminal history, socioeconomic characteristics, family background, drug and alcohol use and treatment, mental and physical health and treatment, and facility programs and rule violations. The SPI was last fielded in 2016, when data were collected from a national sample of about 24,850 state and federal prisoners through face-to-face interviews using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI).

The constructs of sexual orientation and gender identity were measured for the first time in the SPI with the 2016 administration (see 2016 SPI Questionnaire). Given the potentially sensitive nature of these measures, the questions were included in Section 5 of the 2016 SPI questionnaire, which asked about physical health, rather than Section I, which asked about demographics. Section 5 in the 2016 SPI was administered in the middle of the survey, and by that point, interviewers would have established more of a rapport with respondents compared to when the questions from Section I (demographics) were administered.

The gender identity items followed questions on the height and weight of prisoners and directly preceded the question on sexual orientation. All sampled prisoners were asked the questions on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The sexual orientation measure was modeled after the question asked in the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the National Health Interview Survey, although the SPI did not tailor the question based on the reported sex of the prisoner. The sexual orientation question and all response options in the SPI were read aloud to respondents by interviewers:

Like the NCVS, the SPI uses a two-step approach to ask about sex assigned at birth and current gender identity to measure gender identity. The main advantage of the two-step approach is that it allows for transgender respondents who identify as male or female, but not transgender, to identify as such and still be coded as transgender for analyses.

While the first question in the two-step approach in the SPI was read aloud to respondents by interviewers, the response options were not, but they were coded by interviewers:

This question also included a note to interviewers instructing them to code a response if a prisoner responded to the question by reporting that they were born male or female.

For the second SPI item, the question and all response options were read aloud to respondents by interviewers, and interviewers were instructed to code one response:

After this second question (PH4), the CAPI instrument was programmed to verify the responses. Interviewers were trained to verify that they recorded responses correctly when prisoners’ responses to the first question (PH3) in the two-step approach did not agree with their responses to the second question (PH4).

For more information on the measurement of sexual orientation and gender identity and findings from the 2016 SPI, see Profile of Prison Inmates, 2016.

Violent Victimization by Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, 2017–2020 (614K PDF)

Victim, Perpetrator, and Incident Characteristics of Sexual Victimization of Youth in Juvenile Facilities, 2018 – Statistical Tables (607K PDF)

Profile of Prison Inmates, 2016 (1.1M PDF)

Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2011–12 (1.7M PDF)

Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jail Reported by Inmates, 2011–12 – Supplemental Tables: Prevalence of Sexual Victimization Among Transgender Adult Inmates (1.7M PDF)