Police have been criticised for saying they will record rapes by offenders with male genitalia as being committed by a woman if the attacker “identifies as a female”.
Police Scotland said that they would log rapes as being carried out by a woman if the accused person insists, even if they have not legally changed gender.
The move, reported by The Scottish Sun on Sunday, comes ahead of proposed new laws to make it easier for people to self-identify as whichever sex they want, which are opposed by some feminist groups. The Scottish government wants to remove medical checks for those seeking a gender recognition certificate and shorten the time people have to live as their new gender before it is legally recognised.
In correspondence seen by the newspaper Kenny MacAskill, the former Scottish justice secretary, asked Police Scotland how it would deal with recording rapes after the new laws take effect. Gary Ritchie, assistant chief constable, set out scenarios where a rapist could be recorded as a woman.
They included “where a person born male obtains a full gender recognition certificate and then commits rape” and “where a person born male but who identifies as a female and does not have a full GRC . . . commits rape”. The Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 defines rape as nonconsensual penetration with a penis, so it cannot be committed by someone without male genitalia.
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MacAskill, who is the Alba party MP for East Lothian, having defected from the SNP, said: “As a lawyer for 20 years and justice secretary for almost eight, I’ve seen some legal absurdities. But this tops it all and is dangerous. It’s physically impossible and is about dogma overriding common sense. Women prisoners are being harmed by this and vital crime statistics rendered useless.”
Plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act were shelved by the SNP government last parliamentary term amid internal divisions and concerns about women’s rights, but the SNP and Greens’ power-sharing deal at Holyrood commits them to completing the process by the middle of next year.
The policy analysis group MurrayBlackburnMackenzie is campaigning for Police Scotland to be required to accurately record the sex of people charged with rape or attempted rape. Lisa Mackenzie, a member of the group, warned: “For such offences, it will only take a few misclassified cases to skew the statistics.”
Detective Superintendent Fil Capaldi said: “The sex/gender identification of individuals who come into contact with the police will be based on how they present or how they self-declare, which is consistent with the values of the organisation. Police Scotland requires no evidence or certification as proof of biological sex or gender identity other than a person’s self-declaration, unless it is pertinent to any investigation with which they are linked.”
