The earliest data I could find on this matter comes from the UK and was collected by Fair Play For Women. In 2017, Fair Play For Women conducted its own analysis of prison inspection reports and concluded that roughly half of “transgender” inmates in England and Wales were serving time for sex offenses. This estimate was later confirmed through a Ministry of Justice Freedom of Information request which showed that 60 out of 125 trans-identified inmates did indeed have at least one conviction for a sexual offense.
Meanwhile, we were starting to see similar numbers over in Canada. By this time, Heather Mason, an advocate for women in prison, had started speaking out. In an important article for Women Are Human, Mason revealed that a meeting about the transfer of prisoners with “gender considerations” took place on May 23, 2019 (she also posted meeting notes to her X account). During the meeting, former Deputy Commissioner for Women, Kelly Blanchette, reported that half of all requests for transfers from male to female prisons came from sex offenders. This was in contrast to the 20% rate of sex offenses in the general male prison population.
Around the same time, data was coming out of New Zealand. I have found requests for information from the Department of Corrections which, when taken together, show similar trends to the UK and Canada. The first request, made in April 2019, was for a breakdown of trans-identified people in New Zealand prisons. The response showed a total of 43 such prisoners: 3 “transgender men,” 32 “transgender women,” 1 “non-binary,” and 7 “unspecified.”
A few months later, a second request asked for a breakdown of the offenses of currently incarcerated transgender prisoners. The response showed that, of the 35 prisoners who “identified as transgender” (so, excluding the non-binary and unspecified categories), 15 had a sexual offense.
In 2021, Keep Prisons Single Sex USA showed us that the higher rate of sex offenses among trans-identified men in prison holds true in the States as well. The group made a public records request to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and received data that showed the “sex offenses” rate among “trans male to female” inmates was 48.47%. This is compared to a rate of 11.2% in the general prison population (including both men and women) and just 4.71% for trans-identified females.
Doing the math, this means that 46% of trans-identified males, or men who identified as something other than male in Canadian federal prison, had committed sex offenses. Buttons also pointed out that 92% had been incarcerated for violent crimes. This is in stark contrast to just 25.8% of the general male prison population serving sentences for violent offenses.
In 2023, we also got a look at some data coming out of Australia. Fair Go for Queensland Women reported that, as of June 30, 2023, there were 65 trans-identified men in the Queensland male prison estate. Of that number, 55% were held on the most serious charges of sexual or violent offenses (compared to 48% for males and 35% for females).
Now spanning several years and several countries, these stats show us that about half of men in prison who say they are transgender are sex offenders. This is anywhere from twice to four times the rate of male prisoners who don’t claim a trans identity.
Many Western countries are transferring men into women’s prisons and calling this violation of women’s human rights “progress.” Yes, this is really happening, and it’s been happening for a while. Actually, in some places, it’s been happening for decades. There did used to be some semblance of safeguards in place, mainly that the man in question was required to get “bottom surgery” before such a transfer could take place. While a castrated man is not a woman and has no more claim to womanhood than an uncastrated one, this at least created a barrier to entry and kept the transfers few and far between. With the introduction of sex self-identification, this is no longer the case.