Source: Women are Human
UK — . According to Ministry of Justice figures, 20 convicted murderers told prison authorities last year that they are transgender, more than doubling the number who made this claim in 2016 (nine convicted murderers claimed to be transgender four years ago). The Daily Mail notes that these figures “will intensify suspicion that some violent criminals may be identifying as trans in the hope of getting better treatment in jail or being transferred to a women’s prison.”
The number of convicted murderers who are transgender is double the number of transgender people who have been murdered over a ten-year period, according to data compiled by Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide. Their figures indicate that a total of 10 transgender people were killed in the UK between 2008 and 2018.
The increasing number of murderers identifying as transgender mirrors a growing transgender prison population overall. In 2016, when data on the number of transgender inmates was first collected, 70 prisoners said they identified as transgender. Three years later, estimates of the number of prisoners saying they were transgender had soared to roughly 1,500.
This rising transgender prison population coincides with a 2016 change in policy allowing inmates in a men’s prison to ask to be transferred to a women’s prison. A year after this policy change, Fair Play for Women (FPFW) published a report estimating that at least 41% of transgender prisoners were convicted sex offenders – much higher than the proportion of sex offenders in men’s prisons as a whole (17%). The FPFW noted that if these sex offenders “all transferred into women’s prisons this would increase the total sex offender population by a further 50%, meaning that this would result in 1 in 3 sex offenders in the women’s prison having been born male.”
Using Ministry of Justice documents obtained via Freedom of Information requests, a BBC analysis confirmed FPFW figures, chronicling that close to half (60 of 125 transgender prisoners) were convicted sex offenders. The BBC noted that the 125 transgender prisoners identified only included those who had had a prison case conference, meaning that the actual number of trans-identifying prisoners was undoubtedly higher than official figures.
It should be noted that instances in women’s prisons of transgender prisoners assaulting female prisoners are not only committed by convicted sex offenders, such as Karen White (convicted of pedophilia and intimate partner violence) and Jessica Winfield (convicted of raping two young girls). For example, an unnamed transgender prisoner accused of sexually attacking and bullying female prisoners in New Zealand had no convictions for sexual offences.
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