UNITED KINGDOM, October 21, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Several police departments in the U.K. are now allowing rapists to have their criminal records show that they are female, despite the fact that they are males.
“Six forces, including South Yorkshire and Thames Valley, disclosed under freedom of information laws that if someone is arrested for or convicted of rape, the official record will state the gender they [sic] chose to identify themselves [sic] as,” reported The Sunday Times.
Five other police jurisdictions indicated to the Times that they too record the sex of alleged and convicted assailants according to each person’s wishes.
A backlash on Twitter quickly ensued:
“You can’t get much more of a male crime than rape. It would be highly offensive to a woman who was raped to have it written down that her attacker was a female,” tweeted Dr. Kath Murray.
“You can’t get much more of a male crime than rape. It would be highly offensive to a woman who was raped to have it written down that her attacker was a female…” Inacccurate stats aside, it's concerning that the NPCC response does not recognise this.https://t.co/4Vb7VLF8At
— Dr Kath Murray (@kathmurray1) October 20, 2019
“Damn women, always going around raping people with their penises,” said Wings over Scotland.
Damn women, always going around raping people with their penises. https://t.co/gADYJPNqqe
— Wings Over Scotland (@WingsScotland) October 20, 2019
“This feels so wrong. The stats are going to be skewed to imply women are raping women and that the number of men committing rape is lower than it is, affecting policy. Who benefits?” wondered Clare on Twitter.
Police forces let rapists record their gender as female > This feels so wrong. The stats are going to be skewed to imply women are raping women and that the number of men committing rape is lower than it is, affecting policy. Who benefits? https://t.co/4GHBAnx6AE
— Clare (@ClareToHere) October 20, 2019
“Police forces let rapists record their gender as female — the law is letting women down badly,” tweeted Womans Place UK. “There is no justice here for us.”
Police forces let rapists record their gender as female – the law is letting women down badly. There is no justice here for us https://t.co/AynRIUvAkK
— Womans_Place_UK (@Womans_Place_UK) October 20, 2019
“People have differing opinions on gender identity but this seems insane,” noted Mike Holden.
.@Glinner people have differing opinions on gender identity but this seems insane https://t.co/sYRTFq4Hf5
— Mike Holden (@MikeHolden42) October 20, 2019
“A woman has the a right to name the sex of her rapist. We should not be a country of compelled speech,” said Cath Leng.
A woman has the a right to name the sex of her rapist. We should not be a country of compelled speech. .
https://t.co/dSXmtfHYaT— Cath Leng (@leng_cath) October 20, 2019
According to The Sunday Times, the police records in question are part of the official annual data requirement (ADR) required by every police force in England and Wales.
“While some police forces said they record the fact if someone identifies as transgender, this information is not placed on the ADR, which provides only male or female options,” said The Sunday Times report. “Transgender status is stated only if the person is a victim of transgender hate crime.”
The detective superintendent of one jurisdiction admitted that the department “currently manages three offenders with convictions for rape who now self-define as female.”
“There is no evidence to suggest that recording a person’s gender based on the information that they [sic] provide will have an impact on an investigation or on national crime statistics,” insisted the National Police Chiefs’ Council to the Times, “because of the low numbers involved.”