Rape suspects can choose to self-identify as female
Rape suspects are able to self-identify as female, it was revealed after a freedom of information request by a feminist policy think-tank. Police Scotland sai
Rape suspects are able to self-identify as female, it was revealed after a freedom of information request by a feminist policy think-tank.
Police Scotland said that if a rape or attempted rape was perpetrated by a “male who self-identifies as a woman . . . the male who self-identifies as a woman would be expected to be recorded as a female on relevant police systems.”
Campaigners claim that the position could lead to a “distortion” in society’s understanding of crime and the measures needed to tackle it. They also say the policy is at odds with what Humza Yousaf, the justice secretary, has said should be legal proof that a suspect is female.
The issue is the latest in the controversial debate around sex and gender identity and Scottish government attempts to change the law and follows concern over moves by public bodies to “erase” biological sex data from official records.
Dr Kath Murray, of the Edinburgh-based policy analysts Murray Blackburn Mackenzie, said that a person’s sex at birth was hugely relevant information in the case of rape.
