Documentary - CTV
When girls do it: an examination of female sexual predators
45 minutes
The Canadian Children's Rights Council recommends this video documentary to all law makers, police, child protection workers, educators, school teachers and organizations concerned about recognizing female sexual predators.
This documentary originally aired on CTV in August, 2001
Reporter comments about a female sexual predator:
"In September 1997, she was making her first court appearance and I remember the first time I saw her I was immediately flabbergasted because she looked so innocent. She was so slight, small in her build, and so young, and I thought, 'she can't be a sex offender, it's impossible.'"
- Reporter Cheryl Jahn, speaking about convicted sexual offender Crystal Henricks
From the website of "When Girls Do It" ( website search resulted in finding deleted Oct. 2004)
"When Girls Do It" is a 45-minute video examining the motivations of female sexual predators, the destructive effects of their actions on their victims, and the reluctance of victims to come forward.
"When Girls Do It" features compelling testimony and powerful interviews with survivors of abuse by female sexual offenders, therapists, and psychologists. The documentary delves into related issues including the long-held misconception that sexual abuse of children is exclusively a male crime.
Vancouver filmmaker Glynis Whiting produced, a hard-hitting investigation of one of the most under-reported crimes in North America. When Girls Do It: The Story of Female Sexual Predators is a provocative and passionate look at the motivations of women who abuse and the devastating effects of their crime on their victims.
"We're always shocked to hear stories of sexual abuse, but it seems all the more disturbing when the abusers are women," said Whiting, who wrote and directed the groundbreaking documentary.
Maureen Prentice, who produced When Girls Do It with Whiting, added, "There is a long-held perception in society of women as nurturing mother figures. Victims of female sexual abuse are often reluctant to come forward because they fear not being believed."
The most common offenders are relatives, with mothers topping the list. But it could be anyone baby-sitters, neighbours or teachers.
Crystal Henricks, a 19-year-old woman convicted of drugging and molesting children, serves as a case study. The one-hour documentary also includes interviews with a female sexual offender, victims who have survived female sexual abuse, and international experts who provide insight and debate into the crime.
Filmed on location in Prince George, Vancouver, Vancouver Island and Dallas, When Girls Do It explores the human reality behind female sexual abuse. It underscores the urgent need for victims to feel secure in identifying female sexual predators in order to prevent countless other children from becoming victims.
Mother confesses to sex with sons
Had intercourse with 2 teenagers
Pleads guilty to incest charges
A Kitchener woman has pleaded guilty to having sexual intercourse with her two teenage sons on separate occasions.
3 in 4 B.C. boys on street sexually exploited by women
VANCOUVER - Canada's largest study into the sexual exploitation of street kids and runaways has shattered some myths about who the abusers might be - with the most surprising finding being that many are women seeking sex with young males.
"Some youth in each gender were exploited by women with more than three out of four (79 per cent) sexually exploited males reporting exchanging sex for money or goods with a female," said Elizabeth Saewyc, associate professor of nursing at the University of British Columbia and principal investigator for the study conducted by Vancouver's McCreary Centre Society.
"I must admit it wasn't something we were expecting."
Female Teacher jailed for sex with boy
The Guardian, UK
August 16, 2005
A married primary schoolteacher was jailed for 15 months yesterday after admitting having sex with an underage teenage boy.
Hannah Grice, 32, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two counts of indecent assault on the boy, who was aged 14 and 15 at the time of the offences.
Sentencing her at Stafford crown court, Judge John Shand told Grice, from Cannock, Staffordshire, she had abused her position of trust.
"Cases such as this are, of course, made worse by the fact that you were a member of the teaching profession," he told her. "You should have been very sensitive indeed to child welfare issues." Grice was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years. Read More ..
BBC, UK TV
Programme - 1997
The sexual abuse by women of children and teenager
A surprising 86% of survivors of sexual abuse were not believed when they said the abuser was a woman.
Many myths were exposed, such as the one that women only sexually abused when coerced by men - they in fact played the lead part. Also the myth that women are incapable of cruelty - what was shown was beyond belief.
Women commit 25% of all child sexual abuse
250,000 children in UK have been sexually abused by women
Women in our society have been portrayed as victims, but somewhere within their victimisation they have learned that to abuse children gave them a sense of power, control, agency, and therefore they use the abuse of children to gain those things.
Jacqui Saradjiam: (clinical psychologist)
I think people find it so difficult to see that women sexually abuse children
because the whole view of women is of nurturers, carers, protectors - people
who do anything to look after children - and they see the women as victims
rather than enemies or perpetrators of any abuse.
Michelle Elliott: (Director - children's charity Kidscape)
I think the issue strikes at the core of what we perceive ourselves as women
to be. I think that it's easier to think that it's men - men the enemy,
somehow - but it can't be women - it's one thing women can't do. Women can
be equal, we can be free, we can be in charge of companies, but we can't
sexually abuse children - That's a load of rubbish.
Health Canada Publication
The Invisible Boy: Revisioning the Victimization of Male Children and Teens
"... the existence of a double standard in the care and treatment of male victims, and the invisibility and normalization of violence and abuse toward boys and young men in our society.
Despite the fact that over 300 books and articles on male victims have been published in the last 25 to 30 years, boys and teen males remain on the periphery of the discourse on child abuse.
Few workshops about males can be found at most child abuse conferences and there are no specialized training programs for clinicians. Male-centred assessment is all but non-existent and treatment programs are rare. If we are talking about adult males, the problem is even greater. A sad example of this was witnessed recently in Toronto. After a broadcast of The Boys of St. Vincent, a film about the abuse of boys in a church-run orphanage, the Kids' Help Phone received over 1,000 calls from distraught adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. It is tragic in a way no words can capture that these men had no place to turn to other than a children's crisis line."