A new Freedom of Information release has revealed that police forces across the United Kingdom have been incorrectly classifying male rapists as “women” based on their self-declared gender identity at booking. This is despite the fact top government officials ordered police forces to accurately record the sex of criminals last year.
According to a new report by The Telegraph, police have been incorrectly categorizing numerous suspected rapists as women, contrary to guidance from Home Secretary Suella Braverman. Data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act has now revealed the extent of this practice for the first time.
In the past four years, police across the United Kingdom have referred 260 “women” to the Crown Prosecution Service for potential rape charges. Additionally, 209 suspects have been marked as “unknown” gender, likely referring to those who refused to declare a sex, or referred to themselves as non-binary.
In the United Kingdom, the criminal act of rape can only be perpetrated by a biological male as it requires the “intentional penetration of another person’s vagina, anus or mouth with [a] penis.” Yet despite this definition, 1.5% of rape suspects referred for a charging decision since 2019 were recorded as being “female.”
Between January and March of this year, 19 “female” rape suspects were referred and five were charged.
The issue of male rapists being classified as “women” has been a hot topic issue in the United Kingdom since Harry Potter creator JK Rowling brought attention to it last year.
In March of 2022, a public hospital came under scrutiny after it was revealed that a female patient had been sexually assaulted by a transgender male patient on what was meant to be a single-sex ward.
The victim was told by staff at the hospital, which went unnamed, that she “had not been raped” as there were no men on the ward who could have committed the sex-specific crime. The victim went to police, and, upon questioning, the hospital affirmed that “no men” were on the ward, so no rape could have occurred.
After one year of investigations, including the review of CCTV footage and interviewing of witnesses, the hospital finally admitted that there had been a biological male on the ward.
