Interesting data

This tweet with data from the UK has gone viral. It does raise some interesting questions.

Firstly it is important to note that the vast vast majority of all three groups are not incarcerated sex offenders.

99.9997% of UK women are not incarcerated sex offenders, 99.96% of UK men are not incarcerated sex offenders and 99.8% of transwomen are not.

The data should not be treated as precise as the population of transwomen in the UK is not known precisely. But what you can conclude is that men are far far more likely than women to be in prison for sexual offending, and transwomen are as likely or more likely as men to be in prison for sexual offending.

Sentencing discrepancies could explain some of this – but not enough to close the huge gap between men and women. And it is of course no surprise to anyone that more men commit sexual offences.

The imprisonment rate for transwomen is arguably more surprising. Now again we’re only talking 2 in 1,000 so it is only the relative rate which is high, not the absolute rate. One possible explanation is that the data only reflects people’s current gender identity, and not their gender identity when sentenced. Could a number of inmates have changed their gender identity after conviction, so that they are moved to a different prison? What proportion of the 92 offenders are in a women’s prison, and did they start their sentence in one?