Jury Still Out On Male Pattern Violence
First, a few cautions; at WOMAN Means Something we are not arguing that Male-to-Female transgendered women are more violent than other women. That would be a sweeping statement that would need tremendous support to substantiate. What is clear in the peer-reviewed medical literature, however, is that we cannot say that they are not. A Bill like Bill C-16 is not only premature, it goes against some significant findings in the early stages of the literature.
Second, studies on transgenderism or the transgendered are exceedingly difficult due to low prevalence, a lack of definition of terms like “transgendered”, and the relatively recent changes in which society has interacted with the trangendered (sex re-assignment surgeries, for instance). Thus, every study in this field has to be taken with a grain of salt.
Thirdly, I have no particular education in fields that would relate to this study. I am not an expert. But I have read over 100 peer-reviewed medical journal articles on LGBT matters, and am increasingly comfortable recognizing a better study from a worse one. Dhejne, 2011 is among the very best studies in terms of scope, controls, sample size and time frame on “transsexualism” (the term they use in the study), and I encourage you to read the whole thing. It is very large (n=324) for this field and is a “population-based matched cohort study”.
Much here is interesting and sobering. I want to call your attention specifically to what the authors say about male patterns of criminality and violence.
Second, regarding any crime, male-to-females had a significantly increased risk for crime compared to female controls (aHR 6.6; 95% CI 4.1–10.8) but not compared to males (aHR 0.8; 95% CI 0.5–1.2). This indicates that they retained a male pattern regarding criminality. The same was true regarding violent crime. By contrast, female-to-males had higher crime rates than female controls (aHR 4.1; 95% CI 2.5–6.9) but did not differ from male controls. This indicates a shift to a male pattern regarding criminality and that sex reassignment is coupled to increased crime rate in female-to-males. The same was true regarding violent crime.
There may be other studies that wouldn’t show this. But it is disingenuous to say that “there is no evidence that Male-to-Female transsexuals are any more violent than other women.” There is evidence, and in one of the best studies in the field. Weigh it carefully before settling too quickly on a position on Bill C-16.