Homosexuals feel less safe and are more often victims of crime

Homosexual men and women feel more often unsafe than heterosexuals. They are also more often the victims of common crime and experience more disrespectful treatment.

Three in ten lesbians feel unsafe in their own neighbourhood

Substantially more homosexuals than heterosexuals sometimes feel unsafe. Some 30 percent of lesbian and 22 percent of the heterosexual women sometimes feel unsafe in their own neighbourhood. The differences between gay and straight men are 22 versus 13 percent, comparable to the difference among women. Gay men feel more often unsafe in their neighbourhood than straight men in places were young people hang out; lesbian women primarily feel unsafe in shopping areas.  Homosexual men and women also feel considerable less safe in public transport than heterosexuals. Bisexual men also feel less safe than heterosexual men.

Not feeling safe, 2012

Homosexuals more often victims of crime

There are reasons why homosexual men and women feel unsafe. Homosexuals are more often victims of common crime than  heterosexuals. In 2012 three in ten homosexuals and two in ten heterosexuals reported a form of victimisation. Vandalism, property offences such as theft and burglary happened one and a half times more often to homosexuals. Homosexual men and women also became victims of violence twice as often, particularly threats. About 5 to 6 percent of homosexual men and women reported these crimes.

Crime victims, 2012

Homosexuals experience more disrespect treatment

Despite widespread acceptation of homosexuality in the Netherlands, non-heterosexuals feel more often treated disrespectfully by people they know and by strangers. On average less than a quarter of the heterosexuals sometimes feel treated disrespectfully by strangers in the street, compared to 33 percent of gay men and 37 percent of lesbians. Furthermore about one in ten non-heterosexuals feel sometimes treated disrespectfully by people they know, which is about one and a half times as often as heterosexuals.

Disrespectful behaviour, 2012

Elke Moons