Pangender terrorists and policy capture

‘At the risk of stating the obvious, it is hard to understand what possible operational value there is in knowing that a Registered Sex Offender or a person convicted of terrorism may think of themselves as neutrois, pangender, or other such obscure terms.’   

Introduction

How the police and other criminal justice agencies record data on sex and/or gender has become one flashpoint in the ongoing debate about sex and gender identity. As shown in the recently published Sullivan Review of Data, Statistics and Research on Sex and Gender, there is clear evidence that police forces and other criminal justice agencies (see Table G.01) have lost sight of sex as a key determinant of offending, via the quiet introduction of unstable policies that variously provide for recording based on a person’s self-declared gender identity, gender presentation, and sex.    

Adding to that evidence base, this blog looks at offender data recording options under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements, known as MAPPA. In brief, this refers to a set of statutory partnership working arrangements, designed to protect the public from serious harm by certain categories of sexual and violent offenders, including those convicted of terrorism or terrorist related offences.¹

Drawing on a recent Freedom of Information response, we show the imprint of gender identity principles on the Home Office data recording system that supports MAPPA – to the extent that police officers across the UK are provided with 51 options to record the gender identity of high-risk offenders, including terms such as pangender, neutrois, and genderqueer.

We suggest that these recording options, which lack any coherent or stable meaning, are unlikely to fulfill any useful operational purpose. Instead, their main purpose is to promote and normalise a gender affirmative worldview across the criminal justice system. To this aim, they reflect the privileged access to government enjoyed by those who promote gender identity principles, their ability to persuade officials to further promote these, and a lack of independent, critical thinking within government.

Violent and Sex Offender Register

Data storing and information sharing under MAPPA is supported by a UK-wide secure national database called ViSOR (Violent and Sex Offender Register). As outlined below, this allows for co-operative working between Responsible Authorities.

ViSOR provides a central store for up-to-date information about individuals managed under MAPPA in the UK that can be accessed and updated by the Responsible Authorities.

ViSOR is a Home Office system that operates in other UK jurisdictions and is potentially a vital component for any cross-border transfer discussions. In addition to the responsible authorities in Scotland, it is used in England and Wales by police, Probation Trusts and HM Prison Service. ViSOR is also used in Northern Ireland, and by the British Transport Police and the Royal Military Police.

Source: Scottish Government, ViSOR, 31 March 2022

Sex offenders without a sex

Published statistics on MAPPA offenders indicate that for the purposes of data recording, the ViSOR database conflates sex and gender identity. Accredited Official Statistics published by the Ministry of Justice (England and Wales), along with some regional Scottish statistics, show a third ‘other’ category, in addition to male and female. Ministry of Justice data tables on MAPPA eligible offenders describe the ‘other’ category as covering ‘any other gender such as gender fluid or non-binary gender’ (see Table 1b and Sullivan Review page 127).

MAPPA offenders by Gender, March 2023

MAPPA category and management level	Males	Females	Other*
Category 1: Registered sex offenders	446	9	3
Category 2: Violent offenders	421	20	6
Category 3: Other dangerous offenders	489	34	3
Category 4: Terrorist/Terrorist risk offenders	82	5	3
Total	1438	68	15

‘’Other’ covers any other gender such as gender fluid or non-binary gender.’                    

As explained in the blog linked below, this identity-based approach to recording suggests that trans identified male Katie Dowlatowski and recorded sex offender is likely to be shown as female in Scottish MAPPA statistics. The same principle is also likely to apply to double-rapist Adam Graham/Isla Bryson, on his eventual release.

The 51 MAPPA genders

A recent Freedom of Information response from the National Police Chiefs Councils (NPCC) adds to this picture. It shows that as well as allowing some offenders to be recorded as neither male nor female, an update to the ViSOR database in February 2022 (v34.0) saw the addition of a separate optional ‘gender identity’ drop-down menu. This sets out 51 recording options, from agender through to transmasculine, as shown below.²

The 51 MAPPA genders

Agender	Gender Fluid	Trans Man
Androgyne	Gender Nonconforming	Trans Person
Androgynous	Gender Questioning	Trans Woman
Bigender	Gender Variant	Trans*
Cis	Genderqueer	Trans* Female
Cis Female	Intersex	Trans* Male
Cis Male	MTF	Trans* Man
Cis Man	Male	Trans* Person
Cis Woman	Male to Female	Trans* Woman
Cisgender	Neither	Transfeminine
Cisgender Female	Neutrois	Transgender
Cisgender Male	Non-binary	Transgender Female
Cisgender Man	Other	Transgender Male
Cisgender Woman	Pangender	Transgender Man
FTM	Trans	Transgender Person
Female	Trans Female	Transgender Woman
Female to Male	Trans Male	Transmasculine

Operational need and public value

It is a core principle of data collection that it should have a clear purpose. This is of particular importance in the public sector, where all data collection comes at a cost to the public purse. To justify the costs of data implementation, collection and processing, there needs to be public value and a clear use. At the risk of stating the obvious, it is hard to understand what possible operational value there is in knowing that a Registered Sex Offender or a person convicted of terrorism may think of themselves as neutrois, pangender, or other such obscure terms.   

This is not an argument against collecting separate data on transgender identity in the criminal justice system. Outwith data collected under hate crime legislation, there is a dearth of simple, discrete data on offending and victimisation among individuals with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment or gender identity more broadly defined. Because of this, claims commonly made about the experiences of people in this group, as either victims or offenders, are put beyond proper scrutiny.   

Affirmation and normalisation

On one reading, the list of MAPPA genders can be understood as a simple exercise in personal affirmation. This may help explain why the menu provides so many interchangeable or overlapping options. There are for example, multiple options for males who identify as women, including ‘Trans Woman’, ‘Trans* Woman’, and ‘Transgender Woman’. These differences in terms are so marginal as to be farcical, unless they are understood as something other than an ordinary data collection exercise.

On a more strategic reading, the list of MAPPA genders can be understood as a vehicle to promote and/or normalise gender identity principles. Whether intentional or not, by lending state authority to fringe ideas and neologisms more commonly found on Reddit discussion boards or Tumblr, the Home Office is saying that it believes in the validity of these terms enough to think it is worth police forces and other agencies recording the data. Otherwise, it would be guiding them to collect data that it believes to be meaningless and/or useless.

Policy capture and institutional vulnerability

With no apparent purpose beyond the promotion of a controversial worldview, the MAPPA genders can be viewed as further evidence of policy capture within the public sector.

We think the list reflects the privileged access to government enjoyed by those who promote gender identity principles, and their ability to persuade government officials to further promote these.

By the same token, it suggests institutional vulnerability, and a lack of critical, independent thinking within government. That this influence has extended to data recording – specifically in the context of sexual and high-risk offenders, including those convicted of terrorist offences – makes this case even more extraordinary.

Notes

1. While the legislative framework underpinning MAPPA differs between England and Wales, and Scotland, the basic principles and aims are the same. In both jurisdictions, designated Responsible Authorities, such as police forces and the prison service, are required to work in partnership to risk assess and manage serious offenders.  
2. The list of MAPPA genders is similar to the data coding framework recently published by the Scottish Government’s Chief Statistician, on the recommendation of a ‘Working Group on Non-Binary Equality’. Aimed at public bodies, this equally unhelpful and confusing framework provides for 24 genders, including barely used terms such as ‘autigender’ and ‘demigender’.