Chamber and committees

Anonymous submission of 4 October 2021

PE1876/M: Accurately record the sex of people charged or convicted of rape or attempted rape

I would like to respond to the Scottish Government’s submission of the 23rd September 2021 (PE1876/J). 

By definition rape requires a penis and thus far no trans-identified male rapists have been recorded as female in Scotland according to the Scottish Government’s submission. There have been 436 “female” rapists recorded in England and Wales between 2012-2018 so it is reasonable to assume that this will happen in Scotland. The fact that no “female” rapists have been recorded in Scotland yet does not, in my view, form a cogent response to this situation and interestingly was the same argument Rape Crisis Scotland put to me.  

This is not only about vital crime data required to help keep women and girls safe or how damaging this is to the female sex class that commits about 1% of sex crimes. It is also about how a rape survivor would feel about their rapist being allowed to identify as a women, would Police Scotland and the Courts require her to use she/her pronouns to describe a rapist and how damaging this would be to a survivor. It is the principle of allowing this that the Scottish Government appears to overlook. Although this petition specifically looked at rape, it is not a big leap to think about other violent and sexual offenders and how their sex is recorded within crime statistics. The Scottish Government’s submission has failed to address any of these points. 

From Table 8(c) within the Scottish Government’s submission it can be seen that 21 convicted sex-offenders were recorded as female during 2019-2020. Conducting a brief internet search revealed three trans-identified male sex offenders convicted in Scotland during that time period:   

• An 18-year-old trans-identified male who sexually assaulted a young girl in a female public toilet and filmed another young girl in a toilet cubicle. This person was then housed in a female hostel.   
• A 48-year-old trans-identified male, sent sexually explicit pictures to an underage girl and admitted to communicating with and intending to have sex with an underage girl.   
• A trans-identified teenage male convicted of downloading images of child rape and searching online for baby abuse, toddler murder, baby killer and child abusers.   

There may be more trans-identified males within the 21 females convicted of sex-offences in that time period. From this data it would seem that at least one in seven convicted female sex offenders were trans-identified males that year. No-one knows as Police Scotland’s data obscures this information.   

Given that the Scottish Government funded organisations Scottish Trans Alliance (who, I believe, were instrumental in allowing some violent and predatory trans-identified males to be housed in women’s prisons in Scotland) and Stonewall are adamant that any trans-identified male that declares themselves to be a women is a women (“transwomen are women”) I would have expected a submission from them about the human rights of all trans-identified males to be documented as female on request regardless of their criminality as criminals also have human rights. The lack of any submission from these lobby groups seems incongruous but in my view is as revealing as it is tactical. 

As predicted in my original submission Rape Crisis Scotland did not submit a supportive statement for this petition. 

The Scottish Government’s submission appears to abdicate all responsibility for allowing male rapists to be recorded as female instead blaming Police Scotland stating, “It is, therefore, for Police Scotland to determine how the sex of people charged or convicted of rape or attempted rape is recorded on the CHS”, (Criminal History System).   

However, it seems it was actually the Scottish Government’s Chief Statistician who rejected the need to accurately record the sex data of criminals. No-one in Government appears to be accountable. 

Lastly and with respect, it is the Scottish Government and not Police Scotland who were elected to represent the people of Scotland, legislate for us and make decisions about these matters. As a rape survivor I had hoped my Government would improve the awful justice process for rape survivors. I would never have expected my Government to further reduce the lack of confidence female sexual violence survivors have in the Police by blaming Police Scotland for the inaccurate recording of a rapists’ sex. Of note, the Scottish Government’s submission focussed purely on crime data omitting any discussion about how this policy will psychologically affect individual female rape and sexual violence survivors. As a rape survivor this simplistic and apathetic submission from my Government leaves me feeling less hopeful that things will change for female survivors of male violence in Scotland at this time. 

For all my sisters and our daughters.