UK — Scotland. On April 15, 2021, an article in the Courier reported that Police Scotland is recording a rape or attempted rape committed by a male as committed by a female, if the male perpetrator self-identifies as a woman. This revelation came via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by MurrayBlackburnMackenzie, an independent policy analysis collective:
My specific interest is in a male who self-identifies as a woman (that is, a person who does not have a gender recognition certificate and has not changed their legal sex), and whether Police Scotland, in a case of rape or attempted rape, would record their gender as male or female.
The FOI team provided the following response:
If the male who self-identifies as a woman were to attempt to or penetrate the vagina, anus or mouth of a victim with their penis, Police Scotland would record this as attempted rape or rape and the male who self-identifies as a woman would be expected to be recorded as a female on relevant police systems.
A subsequent article in the Times included comments from Dr Kath Murray of MurrayBlackburnMackenzie, where she outlines the dangers of this approach to recording crime statistics:
Recording and presenting violent and sexual offences committed by male as ‘female’ distorts our understanding of the nature of offending by women and men. It obscures whether changes shown in statistics are due to real changes or only to changes in recording. In extremis, it may lead to the development of policies and projects based on false information. Sex should be the default category, and we would suggest further discussion is needed on how gender identity is recorded as a separate category for those who wish the information to be captured.
The Times article notes that the manner in which crime statistics are being recorded contradicts previous claims from the justice secretary, Humza Yousaf, who had stated that a crime committed by a male would only be recorded as being committed by a female if that individual had a gender recognition certificate, “and so is legally female”. Detective Superintendent Fil Calpeldi also confirmed that “the sex/gender identification of individuals who come into contact with the police will be based on how they present or how they self-declare”.
How can crime be recorded in any substantial, accurate, and meaningful way when the perpetrator is allowed to assume a different identity? Why should women assume responsibility for male crimes? What does this imply for the sentencing and punishment phase? #wtf
— Eggsplain Yourself (@EgzactlyMeghan) April 17, 2021
Scotland joins a growing number of jurisdictions where the public has received confirmation that male sex offences are now being recorded as committed by women – thanks to independent organizations and individuals making information requests to various authoritative bodies.
ACTION: If you would like to support MurrayBlackburnMackenzie’s work, you may do so here.
Read more from other sources
The Courier
LUCY HUNTER BLACKBURN: Does it matter if someone was born male or female? When it comes to crime reporting, yes
When does it matter to know whether someone was born male or female? This question has recently become the focus of a sensitive debate.
The Times
Rape suspects can choose to self-identify as female
Rape suspects are able to self-identify as female, it was revealed after a freedom of information request by a feminist policy think-tank.
A question for our lawyer-readers…
Could a group of actual female people band together to sue Police for defamation of character for attributing men’s violent and sexual crimes to women where such class actions are permitted?
Just the fact that a class action lawsuit is filed and tried, and appealed again and again to higher and higher courts if necessary, would call attention to the issue. We should file class action lawsuits in every country. Most people have no idea that men’s rape statistics and statistics for other violent crimes are now included in women’s statistics, and the average person needs to know.
Including men’s crime statistics with women’s is dangerous for women, as it justifies removal of sex-specific shelters, prisons, locker rooms, etc. Some studies like this one find that men who self-identify as women have the same rate and pattern of criminality as other men, but UK prison data shows that men who self-identify as women are registered sex offenders at a far greater rate than other men (48% versus 19%).
Fabulous. Now we all know what was not under all those kilts. Or in these men’s heads.
This proposal makes it impossible to address the problem of male-on-female sexual violence. That’s not even a by-product of it. It’s deliberate. Very few cases even reach the courts because it takes so much courage to report the crime, with women being forced to recount and re-live it worrying they will get, “It didn’t happen/ no witnesses/ lack of forensic evidence/ she consented/ she provoked it,” thrown at them. But the women who reported the crime could always hope for a successful prosecution. Now, though, they will be guilt-tripped if the prosecution does succeed. If men can self-identify as “women”, they will soon learn to do so, every single time, even after the event. Prosecution means the victim will have tarnished the reputation of women as the crime will have been recorded as done by a woman, and if a custodial sentence is given, the victim will have it on her conscience that a violent offender will be unleashed upon a harem of captive women in prison. This destroys any incentive to prosecute. In addition, she will be told to grovel to the man’s role-play and lie on oath that a woman committed the crime.
When I read this piece, I did something stereotypically female, and cried. I do not play victim, but am a survivor of sexual assaults that happened a long time ago, and this brought back bad memories that I have put behind me, as I asked myself, “What if … what if I had tried to prosecute, and what if it was now, in this current climate?” I was engulfed in despair. Then a friend rang, and I told her, and she, too, had heard of this proposed legislation, and she was thinking the same, as she had once been gang-raped.
Where in the world we live is immaterial. This monster’s wings flap ever nearer.
We are continually subjected to the trite phrase from supporters of this ideology: “It doesn’t affect you.” So our memories, opinions and forebodings don’t count. Never in my life have I felt so deeply that women are considered absolutely worthless.
I’m sorry to hear that. I’m glad you have a friend to support you. Most women and girls relate to your experiences, not reporting it due to shame and fear, and feeling guilt at not doing so.
There’s nothing shameful or playing the victim if you needed a release and had a cry. Letting it out is healthy, as long as you continue healing.
Man or woman – we all need a good cry now and then. Maybe men would be better off if they did sometimes, rather than bottling up their pain and unleashing it as rage. As long as we aren’t too burdened by trauma to be productive, and aren’t hurting anyone, let it out.
And let’s keep fighting back.
From memory, I recently read that in British Columbia a victim who testifies in court must use the preferred pronouns as required by the accused. If so, that would be in my old-woman and former stenographer’s mind giving testimony under duress. You should not be forced to testify, and sworn to tell the truth or be accused yourself of perjury, if you cannot tell the experience as you live it.
I loathe the phrase ‘legally female’.
If you have to be ‘legally’ recognized as something – then you’re not really that thing. If you have to identify as something, then you’re not that thing in reality. If you have to force others into recognizing you as a thing or else you’re not that thing, then you’re not actually that thing in material reality.
I don’t identify as a female or woman… I AM a female/woman by birth.
I don’t identify as an artist… I AM one by the work I do.
I don’t identify as an atheist… I just don’t believe in god.
I don’t identify as an asexual… I just don’t desire sex.
I don’t identify as an omnivore… That’s just the diet I eat.
These things don’t change if someone doesn’t believe me when I tell them, or refuses to validate these parts of who I am. I don’t need a certificate or pronouns or the rest of the earth to support my ‘identity’. It exists without and separate of them regardless of what they think.
A man that is ‘legally female’ is STILL A MAN, no matter what papers he has. His crimes are male crimes, most likely committed with his male strength, male ego, male anger, and male penis, and should be recorded as such – his feelings and paperwork be damned.
(sorry this particular issue gets me a little mad :[ )
Please don’t apologize for being angry about this. I think it should really infuriate people!
SO. FUCKED. UP.