Chamber and committees

Anonymous submission of 21 September 2021

PE1876/I - Accurately record the sex of people charged or convicted of rape or attempted rape

I would like this petition to be acted upon.

As a 15-year-old girl, I was raped by a boyfriend and shortly after his traumatic death when I was 18 years old, I was raped by his friend. Both of these men were in their twenties therefore fully-grown adult males. There is a huge amount of shame in trying to fight back but then involuntarily freezing and therefore not defending yourself. This shame is despite everyone knowing that males easily overpower females and that freezing is a survival response to overwhelming threat. If these men had been women I would have had a fighting chance but rape is not a women's crime. For my rapists to be documented as female would intensify the shame, anger, betrayal and injustice felt after being raped.

I work with many traumatised people, predominantly women who have experienced male violence and know how important it is to document their experiences in a way they are comfortable with. I am careful about how my own information is recorded and would be devastated if Court documents and Police records documented my rapists as female. Anyone with a shred of empathy and common sense can see how damaging this would be to a rape survivor. Prioritising a rapist’s feelings over their victim’s catastrophic reality is a new low within a judicial system that does not, in my experience, serve women.

Due to the extreme trauma of being raped, it is difficult to think clearly when describing what happened to me. It would be impossible to remember to use a rapist’s preferred pronouns in Court or with the police. The thought of this is terrifying and should not have to be pointed out to my government or Police Scotland.

My attention has been drawn to news stories about this subject and recently I have noticed trans-identified male paedophiles and sex offenders are being reported as females. This may be the final insult. Having been raped or sexually abused by a male, these males are allowed to self-identify into my sex class (the female sex class that commits about 1% of sex crimes). It won’t take many trans-identified male sex offenders to completely skew female sex offending data. Indeed, last year the BBC reported that female sex offending was up by 84%.

Terrifyingly some trans-identified, genitally intact, male sex-offenders are, I believe, serving their sentences in women’s prisons despite their proven risk to women. Female prisoners have experienced disproportionately high levels of male violence and are often deeply traumatised. If these trans-identified male sex-offenders assault female prisoners or staff their offences could be documented as women’s crimes. Data essential for challenging this dystopian policy will not be available, effectively tying marginalised women’s hands tighter behind their backs.

Rape survivors and rape crisis workers have a major stakehold in this petition and I took it upon myself to request that Rape Crisis Scotland publicise this petition on their website. This would have allowed raped women and girls who are silenced in a variety of ways to sign this petition and find their voice in a small way.

Rape Crisis Scotland emailed me their refusal citing a lack of resources (presumably 5 minutes and basic technical skills to upload a short paragraph and link on their website) and also that to date no male rapist has been documented as female (yet). Rape Crisis Scotland are aware that trans-identified male paedophiles and sex offenders have been documented by Police Scotland and mainstream media as female. They know the effect this will have on survivors and crime data yet still refused to publicise this petition.

I view it as shameful that Rape Crisis Scotland, who advise the Scottish government and claim to be the leading advocates for female survivors of male sexual violence, appear to have prioritised a male rapist’s self-declared gender identity over a female rape survivor’s reality. Given their response I don't imagine they will submit a supporting statement for this petition but I hope they have. Its absence will speak volumes.

This is one of the reasons I have self-excluded from their service.

For a variety of reasons, 85% of women never report their rapist. I know for certain that if I report my second rapist and he decides to identify as a woman, I will do everything I can to drop the charges.

Accurate, credible data is required for policy making and shapes public attitudes. It challenges inaccurate perceptions about male violence which is not gender-neutral. 99% of sex offenders are male while 88% of sexual violence victims are female. From the research available it would seem that trans-identified males have similar patterns of criminality to males. As more trans-identified males access women and girls single-sex spaces without safeguards, there should be accurate data on sex offending within these spaces to inform policy that protects females.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales states that 7.1% of women have been raped. By definition all their rapists are male.

Traumatised, marginalised and vulnerable women and girls appear to be paying the highest price for “progressive” politics.

For all my sisters and our daughters.