Trans people may come into contact with the criminal justice system

As victims of crime (in particular, hate crime), witnesses or as suspects
or offenders.
UK research indicates that around 62% to 73% of trans people have
experienced harassment or violence because they were identified as
trans. This included verbal abuse, threatening behaviour, physical
assault and sexual assault. Poorer trans people were more likely to
experience violence. Some research29 also suggests that trans people
are over-represented in prisons but it is not clear why.

All criminal justice agencies need to ensure that they consider the needs
of trans people regardless of whether they are victims, witnesses or a
perpetrator of crime.
It would be particularly important for criminal justice agencies to ensure
that their policies and practices comply with their equality and human
rights obligations with regard to:
• Addressing trans people appropriately to ensure that it is always done
using people’s acquired or preferred gender, for example ensuring
that police officers taking witness statements have clear guidelines
on how best to address a person who is ambiguously gendered.
• Communicating with others in relation to a case involving trans
people to ensure that their right to privacy is maintained at all times,
for example when considering disclosing information to other criminal
justice agencies, when communicating with family members and
employers, when reporting a case to the media, or when talking to
other prisoners.
• Searching trans people in a dignified way, for example if it is possible,
to accommodate the detainee’s request to be searched by an officer
of their choice.
• Facilitating for trans people to continue or start the gender
reassignment process, for example allowing trans people to attend
court in appropriately gendered dress without comment, ensuring
prompt access to medical services to maintain continuity of gender
reassignment treatment.
• Housing trans suspects or offenders to ensure that they are not put
at risk of transphobic hate crime and that their right to privacy is
maintained at all times, for example ensuring that trans people are
placed in a bail hostel facility appropriate to their gender role or
allowing personal bodily privacy when showering for those serving
a custodial sentence, while avoiding their complete isolation.
Trans people as victim or witness of crime
As the Equality and Human Rights Commission Trans Research Review
highlights, despite the research suggesting that a high proportion of
trans people experience hate crime, much of it may go unreported.
Underreporting seems to arise from a lack of trust in police or from the
fear that pursuing a prosecution may necessitate the disclosure of one’s
gender identity, which may have negative consequences.

One of the main issues faced by trans people when interacting with
the police as victims or witnesses of crime relates to disclosing their
previous name as it also discloses their previous gender. It is important
for police forces to have clear guidelines on how to do this in a sensitive
way, for example by ensuring that such questions are not asked
in public.
Police forces also need to consider the need to have clear policies in
place with regard to addressing trans people, particularly those trans
people who look ambiguously gendered.


The concerns that trans people have regarding privacy and dignity are
heightened further if involved as witnesses or victims of crime in the
prosecution process. For example, many will simply not report that they
have been victims of transphobic hate crime as the nature of the crime
would involve outing themselves as trans. If they are living permanently
in their preferred gender role, they may well be afraid of their
neighbours, employer, faith community or others discovering they are
trans. If they are not living permanently in their preferred gender role and
have not disclosed their status to their partners, spouses or employer,
they may be afraid of losing their home, their marriage or their job.
Trans people can also feel particularly vulnerable in appearing in court
as witnesses or victims of crime. Some fear that this might place them at
risk of future harassment and discrimination from others in their
community (from the local journalists to their neighbours or employers).
Others, particularly those who appear in court as victims of trans hate
crime might fear reprisals from their attacker and/or associates.
To assist with fair treatment, the interests of justice and the best quality
of evidence, prosecutors increasingly are using special measures and
courts are placing reporting restrictions on disclosure of name and
personal details of trans people in court.

Trans people may also fear that officers in the criminal justice
system and in the judiciary may be unsympathetic to their personal
circumstances and regard them as responsible for experiencing
transphobic hate crime, that is: ‘you have caused the problem because
you are a trans person’. It is important for public autho rities to find ways
to build trust among their local trans community. In recent years, many
police forces in Great Britain have engaged with their local trans
community to this effect – for example by involving trans people in
independent advisory groups.

Trans people as suspects or offenders
Trans suspects and offenders also experience issues within the criminal
justice system. These range from not being housed in the appropriate
prisons in terms of gender, which can greatly affect their personal safety,
to experiencing breaches of their basic rights to privacy and dignity.
A trans person who is arrested and put into custody whether in a police
station or a remand unit will be extremely anxious about being searched
by an officer of the wrong gender (for example a trans woman whose
preferred or acquired gender is female being searched by a male officer)
or one who is uncomfortable with being in close contact with a trans
person. To avoid such issues, police and prison officers should follow
clear guidelines on how to search trans people.


On being placed on remand, or being convicted trans prisoners who
have not taken with them any medication and a note from their doctor
about their need for their hormone therapy may find that they have to
wait several days without their hormone therapy before an appointment.
Similarly those who do not disclose their trans status and their hormone
therapy or surgery dates will find that appropriate information, including
details of ongoing medication, does not follow them into the system at
the start of their sentence, and consequently problems regarding
housing and other issues will arise.
Probation officers in England and Wales must prepare a post-sentence
report to highlight any special needs that offenders may have, such as
those associated with undergoing gender reassignment. Criminal Justice
Social Workers in Scotland should also carry out post-sentence court
social work interviews to identify urgent needs.

There may be particular issues for trans people in prisons. As research
suggests,32 trans prisoners who are pre-gender reassignment will almost
certainly be incarcerated with people from their natal sex, and this may
make it extremely difficult to continue living as their chosen gender. If
they do attempt to, they make themselves vulnerable to bullying, sexual
assault and violence. Furthermore, those receiving hormone therapy will
be likely to have their treatment stopped, at least in the short term.
In order to avoid such issues, a recent court case33 suggests that the
prison service in England, Wales and Scotland must consider how best
to house trans prisoners to ensure that the establishment they are
placed in is suitable for their particular gender identity. For similar
reasons, the probation service should also consider how best to house
trans people released on parole and ensure that they are placed in a
facility of appropriate gender role.
Prison officers should also note that:

Putting trans people in solitary should never be considered as a
reasonable option to ensure their personal safety. In effect, human
rights law would consider such approach as double punishment
without cause, which exists solely because the prisoner’s trans status
is inherently seen as a problem.
• It is not appropriate to disclose a person’s trans status to others in
custody as it could put this person at risk of violence.
Stephens and Whittle34 attempted in 2001 to map out the needs of trans
suspects and offenders within the criminal justice system. The tables
they produced could be used as a starting point by criminal justice
agencies in England, Scotland and Wales to assess the impact of their
policies and practices on trans people.

WOMEN'S JAIL SHOCK Transgender lag ‘sexually abused four female prisoners’

 

More trans front page sensationalism,   mis-reporting.

 

 https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6804433/transgender-lag-sexually-abused-four-female-prisoners-days-after-arriving-at-west-yorkshire-jail/

 

The prison authorities decide where a prisoner is incarcerated, judges can only make recommendations, if the person has a GRC, then legally they are female and must be interned in a woman's prison, under the law and the EHRC one cannot be forced into corrective surgery, to gain that entitlement.

 

What I am trying to say is men abuse women, men abuse men, women abuse men and they also abuse other women, why do newspapers emphasise Transgender as if one has to be transgendered  do these despicable things, 

 

 

This post was edited by Cristine Jennifer Shye. BL at July 18, 2018 1:36 PM BST