Mary Harrington - Why are so many transgender prisoners sex offenders?

Yes, that one Swedish study from 2011 did find a slightly higher risk for pre1989 medically transitioned FtMs. It was also a very small sample size of 133 transmen.

The authors also stated that any differences in crime rates compared to birth sex controls only applied to pre1989 transitioners:
Crime rate. Transsexual individuals were at increased risk of being convicted for any crime or violent crime after sex reassignment (Table 2); this was, however, only significant in the group who underwent sex reassignment before 1989.

So if you look at the whole picture of all international studies to date and leave out the very few transmen who have transitioned before 1989 in Sweden- my summary is correct as we understand things now.

Hmmm, I think you're being very generous here. I get that in the past people have done a lot of odd things to assuage guilt, like fasting for days, wearing horsehair next to the skin, or parading through town whipping themselves with cat'o'nine tails. But would guilt (which presupposes some measure of self-awareness) cause a bloke to don a dress and force his way into women's spaces? Naaaah.

@GuanYinShanxi
"The purpose of the assessment is to determine if they are transgender or lying about being transgender."

LOL gimme a break. There are ZERO measurable markers or signs for being 'transgender'. As with most mental illnesses, diagnosis is made on patient report.

With the best will in the world, you're not very science-literate are you? No shade on that, there's certainly more research needed on the sudden recent search in self-reported gender dysphoria, why it's happening, and what social / cultural / psychiatric forces drive it.

Yeah, we should fund research on this. Objective research. Without fear or favour from the TRAs. Oh wait....

I think there's a possibility that guilt is a driver for some transitioning. If I had an underlying feeling of guilt for the way I had treated one or more women, and I associated that feeling with 'toxic masculinity', I could perhaps persuade myself that stopping being a man would assuage my guilt. Maybe the experience of being found guilty could reinforce this.

But I would be very surprised if this hypothetical mechanism is the main factor driving transition.

What is the definition of someone who is 'actually transgender' as opposed to someone who is just pretending to be transgender? Is there an official definition which is used by the prison service?

Are you saying that males are more likely to be violent purely down to socialisation? That biology plays no part?

The purpose of the assessment is to determine if they are transgender or lying about being transgender.

I agree in separate transgender blocks or wings of prisons, but that is another matter.

I really don’t agree with self-ID and in a way as we are tracking # transgender offenders by crime, shouldn’t we at least try and ensure that someone who is logged as transgender is actually transgender?

It similar to the concern that crimes by female women should only be counted as such if the offender was actually a female woman?

If accuracy is right for us, it’s right for transgender women too- for all people for that matter.

I don’t think it’s wise for all of society to just not care about paedophiles faking their way into a trans block/wing to avoid most (and probably the worst) of their punishment. Where is the deterrent to not reoffend?

I don't think anyone seriously believes that having a penis makes you violent. However it is extremely well established across the evolutionary-biology community that testosterone is causally linked with higher patterns of confidence, competitiveness, sexual appetite, promiscuity, aggression and risk taking.

When this is coupled with men's significantly greater muscle mass (40% more than women in the upper body alone), which also lends greater confidence and willingness to get into confrontation, plus men's greater susceptibility to fetishistic and paraphiliac sexualities, coupled with the patriarchal society that exists in many parts of the world, it's not surprising that male violence, towards other men and to women, is far greater than the female tendency to violence.

”I think it’s pretty well established in numerous U.K., US anc Swedish studies that females socialised from birth to be placid and nonviolent (be kind) and then transition as FtM will retain the female pattern of criminality.”

This point is incorrect. In the Swedish study that examined this, FtM people undergoing medical transition were found to have increased rates of criminal offending compared with other women.

Male offending rates (including violent offending) did not decrease with medical transition.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016885

Yes, whether someone has identified as trans for decades or only discover their inner woman after they are charged with a crime they should be in the estate for their sex. I was going to write natal sex but there is no other type of sex as it can't be changed.

Wasn't there a recent statistic in Scotland that the vast majority of trans prisoners no longer identify as trans after release?

I do think a few paedophiles are abusing the system and self identifying as MtF

This is likely true. But also I think the comorbidity of paraphilias is also a factor.

Sometimes more than one thing is happening at the same time.

@GuanYinShanxi whats the purpose of the assessment? To see if they should be moved to a women’s prison?

have a trans wing of the men’s estate - there’s enough of them. No assessment needed, if you say you feel trans off you go. I’ll bet it’s less popular

I do think a few paedophiles are abusing the system and self identifying as MtF when they are not actually transgender at all specifically in a bid to be in safer custody. Child rapists don’t thrive in a male prison. I think anyone who post arrest ‘comes out’ as a transwoman should have to undergo psychological assessment to gauge the veracity of their claims just like anyone after arrest who claims diminished responsibility due to mental illness has to undergo court appointed psychological assessment for the same reason. When it comes to anything of or internal to the mind, and that includes identity, we cannot simply take a suspects bare faced claims at face value.

I think it’s pretty well established in numerous U.K., US anc Swedish studies that females socialised from birth to be placid and nonviolent (be kind) and then transition as FtM will retain the female pattern of criminality. And that males socialised from birth to be aggressive and violent (toxic masculinity) and then transition as MtF will retain the male pattern of criminality.

Criminality isn’t biologically inherent although this Victorian belief is tenaciously holding on amongst many who believe in all seriousness that a penis makes you violent. Criminality patterns and rates of offending by different demographics are the product of socialisation, inequality, poverty and other factors caused by the forgoing like mental illness.

Worth remembering that the organisations demanding that society ignore this evidence are currently all over our schools and the NHS demanding that men claiming to be women must be allowed into changing rooms, showers, hospital wards and anywhere where women and girls who are vulnerable can be found.

From what I've read sex offenders are the lowest of the low in prison. So if IDing as a woman keeps them just a tiny bit safer I can see why they might give it a try. We've already seen some sex offenders receive suspended sentences rather than custodial ones once they ID as women so this tactic obviously works in some instances.

The prefential treatment includes the opportunity to move to a female prison, which obviously for a sex offender is quite appealing.

The link between paraphiliac / perverted (for want of a better word) fetishes and becoming an MtF trans is pretty clear imho. You look at a lot of these MtFs and their journey to 'coming out as trans' and there are so many red flags in common - porn addiction, especially trans and sissification porn (the latter is especially insidious), misogyny, a deeply sexist idea of what women are or should be (see andrea long chu), often also they are self-excluded from society due to mental illness or lack of education / employment. Many of them also previously identified as incels.

A significant proportion of serial killers are KNOWN to have cross dressed as a way of getting off on their sexualised misogyny - Peter Sutcliffe, Hadden Clark, Paul Denyer, Douglas 'Donna' Perry, BTK, Jerry Brudos, 'Beate' Schmidt, Ed Gein, Reginal Arthurell. This is not an exhaustive list by any means.

Then we get men like Barbie Kardashian.

A form of misogynistic violence fetish, is how I would describe it.

And yet we're not allowed to research it!

Mary addresses this very question about whether they are in prison for prostitution.

“MoJ data suggests not. Of the 97 trans prisoners in UK jails in 2022, 44 were jailed for rape and a further 14 for sexual offences related to children. Not exactly the multiply-oppressed street martyrs”

Sex offenders are more likely to face violence and abuse from other prisoners than the general prison population - I can can see the appeal of trying to opt of of a male prison if you a sex offender. But as we are repeatedly told no one would claim to be T if they aren't this can't be the case.