Sexual Offences: Gender Recognition
(asked on 24th May 2021) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether an individual who is convicted of (1) rape, or (2) sexual assault, is recorded in crime statistics under their (a) gender identity, or (b) biological sex.
In the courts proceedings database we use binary sex rather than gender, because the binary classification better reflects how individuals are generally reported or managed through the CJS. Sex refers to whether someone is male or female based on their physiology, with ‘gender’ representing a social construct or sense of self that takes a wider range of forms. For example, prisons are either male or female institutions, with prisoners normally placed based on their legally recognised gender. However, given the range of recording practices throughout the CJS, it is likely that most recording includes a mixture of physiological and personal identity.
The recorded sex of defendants dealt with for rape and sexual assault offences can be found in our outcomes by offence tool here (search the drop down list in ‘offence’ and ‘sex’):[DXW1]
Offences of aiding, abetting, or conspiracy to, rape are recorded as rape offences in our outcomes by offence tool, but are not separately identifiable.