Laws Overlook Female Offenders
By Julia Hislop, a licensed clinical psychologist, is the author of "Female Sex Offenders: What Therapists, Law Enforcement and Child Protective Services Need to Know" and a co-author of "Female Sexual Abusers: Three Views."
New York Times, U.S.A., February 21, 2013
While no one who has researched sex crimes believes that females comprise more than a very small percentage of all sex criminals, a number of factors conspire to keep these women from being detected and prosecuted.
Studies consistently find that a vast majority of both male and female victims of female sex offenders tell no one. Girls face the task of convincing others that females can be abusive and that touch between females can be sexualized. Males are not socialized to report victimization. Their physiological responses can also confuse the issue of consent, leaving them puzzling to explain how, if an erection was present, there was still abuse, or how, if there was not, that sexual acts still occurred.
Female sex offenders are not easily identified. They do not tend to fit the stereotypes of male sex criminals. It is rare that they offend against strangers or stalk serial victims, for example. An exclusive sexual preference for children is also rarely seen among women.
A witch hunt for female sex offenders is unlikely to benefit society. However, it is important to recognize that they can and do commit serious crimes.
They also do not tend to conform to the titillating stereotypes portrayed in the media of attractive young teachers who've had sexual relations with teenagers. Females have committed sex offenses against infants, children, teenagers and adults, using varying degrees of coercion and violence. Grandmothers have committed sex offenses, as have prepubescent girls.
Laws protecting individuals from sex crimes have not historically considered female offenders. Rape, for example, often carrying more severe penalties than other forms of sexual abuse, has traditionally been defined in terms of forced vaginal intercourse. While some legal definitions have broadened, females have often been legally incapable of committing rape. Similarly, while victims of sexual violence occurring in the context of violent relationships may be protected by laws against domestic abuse, these laws have generally not pertained to lesbian couples; More over, victims in these circumstances have historically risked their own prosecution in coming forward.
As states develop laws for determining which sex offenders are dangerous and need longer prison sentences, and which may be helped by treatment, they are limited by the lack of research concerning female sex offenders. The few studies that exist on the topic have found that overall rates of sexual offense recidivism for females are quite low. However, research to determine whether subtypes have different rates of re-offending is only in its infancy. Studies of subtypes of female sex offenders in general have produced very inconsistent findings.
Females convicted of sex offenses have little by way of research-based treatment available to them, and given the limited demand, may have none at all. Their treatment needs may be different from those of men. For example, across studies, the percentage of female sex offenders who have a history of having been sexually abused tends be about 75 percent. It tends to be severe - starting early, and/or involving multiple or closely related offenders, and/or multiple or intrusive acts. While sexual victimization does not by itself cause offending (if it did, more women than men would be offenders), it is likely to have played a role for most female sex offenders.
Given their comparatively small numbers, a witch hunt for female sex offenders is unlikely to benefit society. However, it is important that investigators recognize that females can and do commit serious sex crimes. Their victims can be seriously harmed. Continued research concerning female sex offenders is needed, and as states certify sex offender treatment providers, education related to female sex offenders should be required.
The biased words highlighted below should be "sexual assault", "raped" or similar type words NOT "sexual relationship" or "had sex"
Female sex offenders reveal cultural double standard
The Seattle Times
September 10, 2007
It all seems so terribly familiar.
A trusted, even respected or beloved teacher is accused of having a sexual relationship with a student.
What used to shock us, but is now much too commonplace, is that the teacher is a woman.
Their names become tabloid headlines: Mary K. Letourneau, Debra Lafave, Pamela Diehl-Moore and others.
And now two more cases, both local.
Jennifer Leigh Rice, a 31-year-old former Tacoma teacher, was charged with having sex with a 10-year-old boy who had been in her fourth-grade class. The boy's father says she lavished the boy with attention until she was told not to come to their house anymore.
So she abducted the boy, police say, drove him to a highway rest stop outside Ellensburg and had sex with him. After her arrest in early August, Rice said she'd had sex with the boy four or five times, including once when she sneaked into his house as his parents slept.
Earlier this year, former Tenino math teacher Dawn Welter, 38, was charged with second-degree sexual misconduct after spending the night at a motel with a 16-year-old female student. Her lawyer explained her relationship with the student as "horseplay that became sexual."
Our Most Popular Web Page
Sex Offenders
Female Sexual Predators
Hundreds of them.... female teachers who sexually assaulted 12 year old boys. Read about a lesbian tennis coach who sexually assaulted her 13 year old female student.
Read how a 40 year old female sexual predator blamed a 7 year old boy whom she claimed was "coming on to me" and whom she "hoped to marry someday." Read More ..
FEMALE RAPISTS STRUCK BEFORE All-woman rape gang who kidnapped man, 23, and sexually abused him for three days linked to at least SEVEN other attacks, South African cops fear
The men are often fed Viagra and one even watched as his semen was put into vials and frozen in a cool box
The Sun, UK, Jamie Pyatt, Corey Charlton, May 30, 2017
DETECTIVES believe a gang of three women who kidnapped a man and put him through a three day rape ordeal may have struck a number of times before in South Africa.
Officers are to look at up to SEVEN cases in recent years where a male has been kidnapped – sometimes at gunpoint – by three women who have then repeatedly raped him.
The men are often fed Viagra in an energy drink to make them perform and one victim of a three woman gang watched as his semen was put into small vials and frozen in a cool box.
One cop involved in one of the investigations said he believe there was a trade in selling the stolen semen to faith healers or "witch doctors" who use it to make "magic" potions.
The latest attack in Pretoria - the country's capital - has led police to appeal for other potential victims to spare their blushes and report it.
Although at least seven cases have been on police files for several years, many more are believed to have gone unreported as men are often too embarrassed to report being raped by women.
The Sun Online told earlier how the latest kidnap victim was found traumatised and exhausted after being dumped in a field semi-naked and told officers about his 72-hour sex ordeal.
The 23-year-old man said he was in a 15 seater communal taxi in which three young women were already travelling and he was told by the driver to sit in the front beside him.
Police spokesperson Captain Colette Weilbach said: "One of the women the allegedly injected him with an unknown substance and he passed out and woke up in an unfamiliar room.
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."
Mom drugged daughter to get her pregnant: police
Associate Press, U.S.A.
April 3, 2009
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A western Pennsylvania mother has been charged with giving her 13-year-old daughter drugs and alcohol so the woman's boyfriend could impregnate the girl without her knowing, police said Thursday.
Shana Brown, 32, is no longer able to have children but wanted to have a baby with her current boyfriend, Duane Calloway, said Uniontown Police Detective Donald Gmitter. The pair decided to drug the girl so Calloway, 40, could have sex with her, he added.
"There's some sick people on this case," Gmitter said.
Brown has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child, turned herself in Thursday and was being held in the Fayette County jail, police said. Brown's attorney did not return a call for comment.
Calloway faces several counts of attempted rape. He was arrested Wednesday and remains in jail. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney.
The three attacks occurred in Brown's home in Uniontown, about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh, according to the criminal complaint.
The Oprah Winfrey Show
Lisa Ling Video Interview of Female Sexual Predator / Offender
This woman raped or sexually assaulted over 100 children by her own account.
Our blind rage at women who abuse
Because we assume women never commit child sexual abuse, we treat one who is accused with disproportionate disgust
The Guardian, UK
June 11, 2009
About 20 years ago, I gave a talk about sexual abuse to the RAF. At the end, a young airman came up to me and said, "It's not just men, you know," before hurriedly walking away. That pulled me up sharp. Up till then, like most people working in the area of sexual abuse, I'd always assumed the abusers were men.
This just isn't so. We can't be sure of the precise prevalence of sexual abuse by women, as there hasn't been enough research into the subject. Academics have just assumed it doesn't happened. But conservative estimates suggest that 5% of girls and 20% of boys who have reported being abused have been abused by women. From my own research - I have had 800 cases reported to me - I believe the more likely figure is that it is 20% of all sexual abuse that is done by women.
It is women themselves who have done most to propagate this conspiracy of silence. It has almost become a feminist axiom that it is men who are to blame for abuse and that if women are in some way implicated, it is only because they have somehow been forced or controlled into doing so against their will. Again, this turns out to be completely incorrect: 75% of the cases reported to me involved women acting on their own. Read More ..
Correctional Services Canada
Service correctionnel du Canada
Female Sex Offenders in the Correctional Service of Canada, Case
Studies
Délinquantes sexuelles sous la
responsabilité du Service correctionnel du Canada, études de cas
LITERATURE REVIEW ON FEMALE SEX OFFENDERS
Although there is an increasing literature on male sex offenders, there is a noticeable dearth of information concerning female sex offenders. Most of the work in the area has come from three of the largest prison programs for female sex offenders in Missouri, Minnesota, and Kentucky.
OVERALL NEGLECT OF FEMALE SEXUAL OFFENCES
For a variety of societal reasons, female sexual abuse is likely to remain unnoticed. Some researchers have found that the incidence of sexual contact with boys by women is much more prevalent than is contended in the clinical literature (Condy, Templer Brown & Veaco, 1987). Despite society's increasing concern about sexual assault, there may be several reasons for the under-reporting of female sexual abuse of both child and adult victims. Traditionally, society has held preconceptions of women as non-violent nurturers. Women in general, and mothers mopre specifically, have more freedom than men to touch children (Marvasti, 1986). Therefore, a man may be mpre easily perceived as abusive when touching a child than when a woman touches a child in a similar manner (Plummer, 1981). Further, sexual offences perpetrated by women are often incestuous in nature and children may be reluctant to report sexual contact with a parent on whom they are dependent (Groth, 1979). Health care workers are often unable to detect mother-child incest as mothers often accompany their children to the doctor's office. This may serve as a barrier to detecting sexual abuse of the child (Elliott & Peterson, 1993). The medical profession is only reluctantly becoming sensitive to the fact that females can, in fact, be perpetrators of sexual abuse (Wilkins, 1990; Krug, 1989).
EXAMEN DE LA DOCUMENTATION SUR LES DÉLINQUANTES SEXUELLES
La documentation sur les délinquants sexuels s'accroît alors que l'information sur les délinquantes sexuelles est clairement déficiente. La plupart des travaux en ce domaine proviennent de trois des programmes les plus importants établis pour les délinquantes sexuelles au Missouri, au Minnesota et au Kentucky.
DÉSINTÉRESSEMENT GÉNÉRAL À L'ÉGARD DES INFRACTIONS SEXUELLES COMMISES PAR DES FEMMES
Pour diverses raisons sociales, les mauvais traitements sexuels infligés par les femmes demeurent généralement cachés. Certains chercheurs ont découvert que l'incidence des contacts sexuels entre des femmes et des garçons est beaucoup plus élevée que ne l'estime la documentation clinique (Condy, Templer Brown et Veaco, 1987). En dépit du fait que la société se préoccupe de plus en plus de l'agression sexuelle, plusieurs raisons pourraient faire que l'on parle moins des cas de mauvais traitements sexuels infligés par des femmes à des enfants ou à des adultes. La société a toujours perçu les femmes comme des nourricières non violentes. Les femmes en général, et surtout les mères, ont plus de latitude pour toucher les enfants que les hommes (Marvasti, 1986). Par conséquent, un homme qui touche un enfant de la même manière que le fait une femme peut être plus facilement perçu comme un agresseur (Plummer, 1981). En outre, les infractions sexuelles commises par des femmes sont souvent de nature incestueuse et les enfants peuvent hésiter à dénoncer un contact sexuel avec un parent dont ils dépendent (Groth, 1979). Les travailleurs du domaine de la santé sont souvent incapables de déceler les cas d'inceste entre l'enfant et la mère car cette dernière accompagne souvent l'enfant au bureau du médecin. Cela peut empêcher de dépister les mauvais traitements sexuels infligés à l'enfant (Elliott et Peterson, 1993). La profession médicale prend à contrecoeur conscience du fait que les femmes peuvent en fait infliger de mauvais traitements sexuels. (Wilkins, 1990; Krug, 1989). Read More ...