Conflating sex and gender in crime statistics

[cheeseismydownfall]

For the first time since I peaked, I have encountered situation where my GC views are relevant in a professional situation (I work for a small company and don't have to deal with any pronoun shit or mixed sexed toilets etc). Without wanting going in to too much detail, my company is working with a UK police force in the area of communications / victim engagement.

I've been proofing some of their proposed materials this morning and it is all about fucking gender. No mention of sex anywhere. Part of the project will include capturing data from people and yup, once again, they are asking a people to specify their gender and not their sex.

How the fuck is this possible??? Can anyone, ANYONE, read a straightforward explanation such as this one www.understanding-inequalities.ac.uk/news-and-blog/data-matters-recording-sex-and-gender-identity-in-the-criminal-justice-system and not see that we absolutely need to understand both sex AND gender as two distinct characteristics? Where are we going to be in five, ten years time when we have absolutely no idea any more about how sex impacts both crime and the victims of crime? When the TRAs claim that trans women represent to threat to natal females, there will be nothing, nothing at all, to fall back on because their crimes will be recorded as female crimes. Well, apart from actual rape I suppose, because of course you need a penis for that.

I am beyond angry. There is nothing I can do in this particular situation - it is well outside of our company's remit to challenge it. What the hell can be done?

trans women represent no threat

Gah it’s terrifying how the police are rubbish about this!

Is there no way you can challenge it from the angle of ‘doing you a favour here police force but it’s really important from an engagement/communication POV that you record accurately whether it’s people’s sex you need or their gender identity. If you don’t differentiate you’ll be spending all this money & the findings will not give you the info you need’

I don't know, OP. I think this has to come from the courts.

Can you contact Fair Cop and tip them off? They might have contacts who are in a position to challenge it.

If you are actually proofing the material, why don't you correct - or at least query - the use of the word gender? They may not listen, but it sounds as though you could drop in your opinion in a fairly non-confrontational way. Ie, in course of proof-reading, I just checked the legislation, and it does appear that the correct word ought to be 'sex', not 'gender' - no need to draw attention to anything other than correction of terminology.

I'm a big wussy coward at work but I think I'm even more scared of losing this particular battle. I believe it would be possible to fight for and reclaim some lost spaces but, if we lose the tools to highlight male violence and rape, then we're in deep shit.

So I think I would take a deep breath and email my manager to say, 'I've checked this info and legally the protected characteristics concerned here are sex and gender reassignment. Should I use both terms or, if it's one or the other, which one?'

Hopefully they would concede they were just being lazy or prudish about the word 'sex'. But if not then at least they would have to spell out what their game was and I'd have it in writing.

It is pointless to focus on telling the OP to do something to challenge when clearly the company cannot in this case, she has said that. I think the suggestion of contacting Fair Cop is good

The UK Police Force is tied in to Stonewall and therefore it is not an impartial organisation. This is where the challenge is. I wrote to my County Constabulary. This is part of the reply which is relevant

Police Regulations do not allow police officers to play an active part in politics and this is an issue that officers are very aware of. I note your comment regarding Stonewall terms overriding the law. Stonewall may campaign to have laws changed, e.g. Section 28 and equal ages of consent being notable examples but legislation is a matter for Parliament, Stonewall certainly doesn’t override it.

Clearly the Police are aware they must remain impartial but it's hard to believe when there is so much thrown at them from Stonewall & Mermaids and it is unbalanced because it is about transrights rather than across the board LGBT rights

The met police have been recording the self identified 'gender' of criminals and not their sex since 2009.

Thank you all. I know its frustrating but I really can't do anything. I've been vague but essentially the data has already been gathered as gender, not sex, and so obviously has to be presented in those terms. So even if it was within my remit (which it honestly isn't) the horse has bolted on his occasion.

On the upside - I shared my frustration with DH (we are both WFH) and he was apoplectic that this is happening (he had no idea whatsoever). I showed him an FOI request from West Mids police that confirmed they have been recording self identified gender in place of sex since 2011 and he practically spat out his coffee. Wait till I tell him about the Met.

It was quite funny, actually - he is an engineer and said "this is like me knowing that a problem with one of our engine designs is due to the size of the cylinders, but being told that I mustn't ask about the size of the cylinders on failed engines in case the engines are offended. So I have to ask in a general way about the size of the engine, which is of course subjective, and I end up with no useful data and massive fucking problem."

He got even crosser at that point

This is something which I find particularly terrifying. It's hard enough to get people to acknowledge that the vastmjoriity of violence and sexual crime is committed by men, even with the stats to back it up. In a few years the stats will show that'women do it too' and it will be the perfect tool to shut pesky women up.

Does anyone know if the latest crime statistics been published? The national ones that are going to show significant increases in sexual offences by "women"?
Or are they being hidden for... reasons??

Sorry op I misunderstood. I thought the police were providing funding for the project but that your company had some control. That's really shit.

I can't believe this is anything but a deliberate concealing of the data on male violence by men. And IIRC at least some UK police have been doing this since 2009.

It is interesting the way that if a TW commits a crime it is recorded as being committed by a woman, whereas if a TW is a victim of crime they are recorded as a TW meaning that statistics show that TW are the victims of crime, but never ever the perpetrator....

@cheeseismydownfall

Pm'ed you

Crime stats for England & Wales y/e 2020 are on the ONS website.

'Sexual offences and domestic abuse-related crimes recorded by the police do not provide a reliable measure of trends in these types of crime. Improvements in police recording practices and increased reporting by victims have contributed to increases in recent years, although this effect is thought to be gradually receding'

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2020#other-types-of-violence

On sexual offending:

'Given the different factors affecting the reporting and recording of these offences, police data don’t provide a reliable indication of current trends in sexual offences. '

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/sexualoffendingvictimisationandthepaththroughthecriminaljusticesystem/2018-12-1

Having a look through these papers and other links - have found victims apparently classed by 'sex' but not offenders, yet.

Unclear whether they are using the terms 'sex' and 'gender' interchangeably.

So far, I can't find any mention of offenders classed by sex. Might just be looking in the wrong place, I'm sure when I've looked at these stats before it's been there quite clearly.

If you are actually proofing the material, why don't you correct - or at least query - the use of the word gender? They may not listen, but it sounds as though you could drop in your opinion in a fairly non-confrontational way

Good idea. Also, as Kantastc says, contact Fair Cop (I’d do it anonymously if possible, in case of a TRA informer).

@ItsAllGoingToBeFine

It is interesting the way that if a TW commits a crime it is recorded as being committed by a woman, whereas if a TW is a victim of crime they are recorded as a TW meaning that statistics show that TW are the victims of crime, but never ever the perpetrator....

😭 this is all so upsetting. I had dystopian dreams about all this last night ... like it was the beginning of Gilead. I just don't understand what the end game is 😟. Do people want to go out of their way to oppress women this much?? Probably a naive question!

I also just don't understand how this is remotely legal, given that in England we don't have legislation about self-ID but we do have sex as a protected class. Surely this can be challenged by someone somehow??!!