Overkill and Antemortem Facial Injuries in U.S. Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Homicides (2013–2023)

This exploratory study examines 298 homicides of US transgender and gender non-conforming victims from 1st January 2013–1st January 2023. Using content analysis and triangulation of data from open-source news reports along with official data sources (i.e., government reports, police reports, post-mortem reports, etc.) victimology and forensic themes within these homicides were identified and examined. Notably, overkill occurred in over 8% of the overall homicide sample studied with antemortem injury locations centralised to the face (79.17%). Overlapping weapon usage were as follows for studied overkill cases: stabbing wounds (n = 11); blunt force injuries (n = 10); and gunshot wounds (n = 3). The results from this study highlight unique investigative themes for forensic consideration in transgender and gender non-conforming homicides when facial injuries are apparent.