Abstract
Abstract The subject of transgender rights has recently come under increasing scrutiny in many parts of the world. Despite this, there has been no research that analyses this issue from the perspective of cis-women living alongside transwomen in prison settings. This paper addresses this omission by analysing the views of fifteen cis-women in prison in Scotland, living on halls of four prisons that also housed transgender women. Findings are analysed across a range of areas incorporating the acceptance, support and solidarity as well rejection, feelings of vulnerability relating to transgender people in custody. Responses analysed highlight a diversity of views, reflective of wider societal perspectives about transgender people. This paper has relevance for prisons systems housing transgender people, and provides unique insights into the complexity of performances of gender within the contemporary prison settings.
Highlights
In order to provide some context for the views expressed in this paper, data are presented from the British Social Attitudes Survey (Curtice 2019), which includes questions providing insights into UK-wide societal views about transgender people
The findings section below complicates the categories used within the British Social Attitudes Survey, reflecting the range of views on transgender people in society, but exploring the ways in which the prison context shapes particular views of transgender people
Views reflected by participants in this study could be interpreted as being simultaneously very prejudiced, a little prejudiced, or not prejudiced at all, as their responses to different questions relating to particular aspects of the experience of living with transgender people within prison illustrate
Summary
Issues relating to transgender people in prison settings are receiving increasing levels of attention within both mainstream media and within criminal justice organizations internationally (Lamble 2012; Jenness and Fenstermaker 2014; Knight and Wilson 2016; Sumner and Sexton 2016; Routh et al 2017; Apter 2018; Beard 2018; Jenness and Gerlinger 2020). 2 The British Journal of Criminology, 2021, Vol XX, No XX Despite this body of evidence, there are no published studies that have analysed the views of people in custody who live with transgender people. This paper seeks to analyse the tensions and contradictions within the views shared in this study, to illuminate the ways that being in prison shaped these views
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