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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

'BBC: 'Eleven transgender inmates sexually assaulted in male prisons last year'

78 replies

missproportionate · 21/05/2020 12:20

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52748117

I haven't seen a thread about this but I find it hard to get my head round.

"of 124 sexual assaults in five women's jails over the previous nine years, from 2010 to 2018, seven had been carried out by trans prisoners.'

Also I just can't get the stats right in my head from the way they are quoted. The semantics are twisted in knots, and anyone not familiar with any of this would find it impenetrable.

OP posts:
Michelleoftheresistance · 21/05/2020 19:33

I can't remember the thread, but a MNetter who has DSD has posted about their experience before. They described being in prison with female anatomy with a male exterior appearance, and that the prison staff managed the whole situation so that they were never expected to shower in sight of other inmates, all vulnerabilities were met and no other inmate ever knew. They described on the thread how they really didn't understand how TW could not be just as easily housed in male prisons under the same guidelines and provision for vulnerable prisoners.

The safety (so put 'em in with females) is a red herring, as there are many, many existing and additional ways this valid need could be met. As usual, the bottom line is an agenda to validate males in their personal choices regardless of the impact on females.

ShootsFruitAndLeaves · 21/05/2020 19:04

Indeed, Kantastic, and said violent criminal is unmistakably male, and nobody is likely to think 'thats a woman', so any secrecy of said GRC would only serve to protect their criminality

ShootsFruitAndLeaves · 21/05/2020 19:02

If you continue with that blog it says only 1% of trans people have GRCs so they don't think there could be many missing from the total. This doesn't exactly follow in that we don't know if for example rapists seek GRCs because it would give them a cast iron entry ticket to women's prison.

There are about 2000 genetically male people with GRCs and we don't know if for example half of them are in prison. That's not likely of course, but if the government prioritise secrecy of people who in most cases will obviously from meeting them have been born male (so the supposed secrecy of a GRC is a meaningless conceit if it's blindingly obvious), over protecting women's safety, then we have no way of knowing.

Kantastic · 21/05/2020 18:57

Or is it something unknowable because it is not/cannot be recorded?

It can't be recorded. But we know, thanks to one of the most dedicated monitors of this site, (whose name I won't mention here as it would result in the comment being reported and legal threats being issued to the mods), that being a violent criminal is no barrier to receiving a GRC. And of course, being a violent criminal comes with considerable incentives to apply for a GRC. If said monitor were to go to prison it would be straight to the women's estate regardless of any risk posed to female prisoners. So there's no reason to assume the numbers are negligible.

Yr1parent · 21/05/2020 18:56

One women’s prison opened a transgender unit after Karen White and at the time, said it would hold 3 inmates, all of whom had GRC’s.

Why don’t other prisons take note and separate trans prisoners? Surely then it’s a win-win of ‘validation’ and safety.

TreestumpsAndTrampolines · 21/05/2020 18:53

According to Fair Play For Women:

fairplayforwomen.com/transgender-prisoners/

Some claim that the figure of 125 trans prisoners is too low, because the MoJ does not count prisoners on short sentences, people with a Gender Recognition certificate or people who do not declare they are trans. They say 60 sex offenders does not represent half of the trans population in prison, it’s a much smaller fraction.

So it wouldn't include those with a GRC

PaleBlueMoonlight · 21/05/2020 18:46

Are there any records of how many transwomen with GRCs there are in the women’s estate? Or is it something unknowable because it is not/cannot be recorded?

ILikeSardines · 21/05/2020 18:45

Also for 'balance'

TreestumpsAndTrampolines · 21/05/2020 18:41

I was surprised they mentioned Karen white.

You've got to season your misdirection with a little bit of truth - makes it easier to swallow.

ILikeSardines · 21/05/2020 18:34

I mean the message they want people to get is v obvious.

I was surprised they mentioned Karen white.

ILikeSardines · 21/05/2020 18:33

The interesting bit was that they were keen to point out

'The total number of transgender victims far exceeds the number who were suspected of carrying out sex attacks, with only one such case in 2019.'

FWRLurker · 21/05/2020 18:30

Oh also, I am guessing that many of the remainder of the assaults on women are by male prison officers and other staff, not other women, but the information is not provided to assess this. Also some men are assaulted by male prison officers.

FWRLurker · 21/05/2020 18:27

Important questions:
what proportion of gay men are assaulted in prison in the same period?

What proportion of natal male trans prisoners were assaulted in the same period in the male and female prisons?

What proportion of natal female trans prisoners were assaulted in the same period in male and female prisons?

I suspect male trans prisoners will have experienced assault in the male estate at a similar or possibly higher frequency than gay male prisoners but both will be higher than straight male prisoners.

Female trans prisoners in the male estate are very rare I think so may be hard to interpret.

Obvious Solution is a third space for all vulnerable male prisoners. Gender “identity” is no way to segregate people for safety.

NeedToKnow101 · 21/05/2020 18:26

They should be comparing sexual assaults against transgender to sexual assaults against other men.

FWRLurker · 21/05/2020 18:21

It’s all “lies, damn lies, and statistics” is it not?

Floisme · 21/05/2020 17:59

I'm sure any vulnerable male would be at risk in a men's prison. If I had a close relative or friend there I would be out of my mind with worry. But however the numbers stack up, it is still not up to women to protect them.

Oncewasblueandyellowtwo · 21/05/2020 17:28

Your're doing a great job Kan

Why are they making it out like it's 7 trans prisoners since 2010.
It makes sense if they start allowing men to self identify & be moved to female prisons around 2016, since Stonewall started to included the T in 2015.

Kantastic · 21/05/2020 16:50

Now I think about it the evidence that they are 21x more likely to assault other prisoners is pretty close to the findings in the Swedish study (that the author tried to disappear by breaking her population into subgroups where N was too small for statistical significance.)

Weren't transwomen approximately 20 times more violent than actual women in that study? That was a study of the general population not the prison population so it's quite interesting that the ratio is the same.

ScapaFlo · 21/05/2020 16:47

Ragemaths - love it Grin

Kantastic · 21/05/2020 16:45

BW i think I have got that sum wrong while doing ragemaths- I think transwomen are "only" 21 times more likely to assault women prisoners, not 83 times.
I have ADHD and can be pretty careless with my arithmetic sometimes but seriously FUCK the BBC , that article pissed me off too much to think straight.

QuentinWinters · 21/05/2020 16:39

I think this is a result of PR by some transgender charity (looks like stonewall)
They are basically saying a trans woman is more likely to be assaulted than to commit assault (7 assaults by TW vs 11 on TW) and anyway women get assaulted in prison by other women too (117 over 5 years - plus the 7 by TW makes 124)

I am suspicious it might be like when mens rights charities compare rates of domestic abuse rather than domestic violence. I'd want to check the assaults are comparable (e.g.are they comparing criminally recorded assaults with reports of sexual harrassment).

As PP says, I'd also want to know how many men are assaulted in mens prison as I think that's more likely to be the problem than "gender identity".

Kantastic · 21/05/2020 16:37

I've seen TRAs use the stats of 7 sexual assaults by trans women and 124 by women to say that women are more at risk by "cis" women.

They are lying loathsome bastards. Fuck them.

Oncewasblueandyellowtwo · 21/05/2020 16:34

Kan

That makes a massive difference.Thanks for that.

I've seen TRAs use the stats of 7 sexual assaults by trans women and 124 by women to say that women are more at risk by "cis" women.

Kantastic · 21/05/2020 16:30

A little bit more context - the BBC says there are 34 transwomen prisoners in women's prisons.
There are 3641 female prisoners as of March this year.

So 17% of the sexual assaults are committed by

Kantastic · 21/05/2020 16:20

Oh, the Daily Mail provides a little more context. Transwomen first started moving to women's prisons in 2016.

So.124 sexual assaults in women's prisons 2010-2018. Let's assume the yearly figures are constant, in the absence of other evidence.
That would mean 41 sexual assaults in the years 2016-2018.

Of those, seven, or 17%, were committed by transwomen without a GRC.

Fuck off, BBC.

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