In this case the offender sexually assaulted her 12 year old adopted brother and had a child by him. I also wonder at the Judges comment saying the outcome would have been different if the genders were reversed.
MI - Circuit Judge John McBain sentenced a Leoni Township woman to five years probation and 270 days in jail for having sex in 2002 with her adopted brother, who fathered one of her children.
The woman, now 32, earlier pleaded guilty to gross indecency, a felony, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor for providing the boy, who was then 12, with alcohol.
"I know if I chose not to use alcohol, I wouldn't be in the situation I am in now," said the woman, who is not being named in order to protect the identity of the victim, now 18.
When McBain asked her why she involved herself with her brother, she told him she didn't really know how to answer the question accurately.
She called her life before the crimes "very horrible." A relative tried to commit suicide, and she watched her nephew drown in a pool, which turned her to alcohol, she said.
"I don't want to give you the impression none of this is my fault; I know some of it is my fault," she said.
Assistant Prosecutor Allison Bates said instead of expressing remorse, the woman continues to believe she is a victim.
Thursday, he suggested the outcome would have been different had she been a man and the victim was a pregnant, 12-year-old girl. - Read the entire article here
Friday, November 20, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Predatory paedophile - another one
The article that talks about this case makes the comment that "solitary female paedophile were "extremely rare" – occurring in only about five per cent of sex abuse cases." This is the kind of misinformation that is misleading. Later in the article they state "Experts agree that women commit only a fraction of child sexual abuse but as little is known about female offenders, it is difficult to be accurate." So if it is difficult to be accurate how do you know it is rare? Current research is showing that it is not as rare as was once thought. It is extremely under reported though and anyone who has read through the Research/Data tab articles on here knows the % is probably much higher:
UK - A FEMALE former teacher is facing jail after sexually assaulting young children she had followed into public toilets.
Carol Clarke, 46, was described by police as a "predatory paedophile" after she admitted sex attacks on boys and girls – most aged between four and seven – in North East Lincolnshire.
She was acting alone.
However, the offences relate to younger children, dating as far back as 1992.
As far back as 1992. So this behavior has been going on for at least 17 years and she is just now getting caught. 17 years and no reports? Or 17 years and what few reports were made were not believed or dismissed.
On the day she was due to stand trial at Grimsby Crown Court, Clarke admitted following children into public toilets to assault them.
She also admitted two counts of indecently assaulting a child during or before June 1992 in North East Lincolnshire and three charges of sexually assaulting a girl under 13 during or before August 2008.
The exact number of offences and victims is not known, but, the court heard that she told police she had committed about 100 offences on a small number of children.
Over 100 offenses and not caught until now. And then only caught because she told a therapist who reported her.
The court heard her offending came to light after she sought help from mental health teams, who alerted police.
Representing Clarke, David Lee said: "She was recognising the feelings that she had and was trying to get as much therapy as she could."
It only took her 17 or more years to "recognise" the feelings. 17 years worth of victims.
"There are still those members of the general public and even some experts who still ignore women's capacity for sexual abuse.
"Thankfully education is challenging these beliefs." - Read the entire article here
Thankfully people are starting to understand as we see more and more high profile cases show up. I just wonder how many years it will take for the "rare" comments to stop.
UK - A FEMALE former teacher is facing jail after sexually assaulting young children she had followed into public toilets.
Carol Clarke, 46, was described by police as a "predatory paedophile" after she admitted sex attacks on boys and girls – most aged between four and seven – in North East Lincolnshire.
She was acting alone.
However, the offences relate to younger children, dating as far back as 1992.
As far back as 1992. So this behavior has been going on for at least 17 years and she is just now getting caught. 17 years and no reports? Or 17 years and what few reports were made were not believed or dismissed.
On the day she was due to stand trial at Grimsby Crown Court, Clarke admitted following children into public toilets to assault them.
She also admitted two counts of indecently assaulting a child during or before June 1992 in North East Lincolnshire and three charges of sexually assaulting a girl under 13 during or before August 2008.
The exact number of offences and victims is not known, but, the court heard that she told police she had committed about 100 offences on a small number of children.
Over 100 offenses and not caught until now. And then only caught because she told a therapist who reported her.
The court heard her offending came to light after she sought help from mental health teams, who alerted police.
Representing Clarke, David Lee said: "She was recognising the feelings that she had and was trying to get as much therapy as she could."
It only took her 17 or more years to "recognise" the feelings. 17 years worth of victims.
"There are still those members of the general public and even some experts who still ignore women's capacity for sexual abuse.
"Thankfully education is challenging these beliefs." - Read the entire article here
Thankfully people are starting to understand as we see more and more high profile cases show up. I just wonder how many years it will take for the "rare" comments to stop.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Volunteer admits abusing girl
This case is one of where a woman who was a former Boys and Girls Club volunteer admits to sexually abusing a girl:
A former Boys and Girls Club volunteer is awaiting sentencing on sex charges after pleading guilty to having a sexual relationship with a teenage girl.
Giana Burkley, 20, of the 1100 block of Tewes Lane, Beach Park, faces up to seven years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to a single count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a Class 2 felony.
Burkley was arrested in the spring after it was discovered she was having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl she met though the Boys and Girls Club of Lake County in Waukegan. - Read the entire article here
A former Boys and Girls Club volunteer is awaiting sentencing on sex charges after pleading guilty to having a sexual relationship with a teenage girl.
Giana Burkley, 20, of the 1100 block of Tewes Lane, Beach Park, faces up to seven years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to a single count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a Class 2 felony.
Burkley was arrested in the spring after it was discovered she was having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl she met though the Boys and Girls Club of Lake County in Waukegan. - Read the entire article here
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Female sexual abuse of boys often goes unreported
Another study/article I wanted to post a brief article on and add to the site:
Female sexual abuse of boys often goes unreported: public health problem: women offenders typically use persuasion rather than force in pedophilic acts.
Clinical Psychiatry News November 01, 2003 Frieden, Joyce
SAN ANTONIO -- Sexual abuse by females is a public health problem that needs to be addressed, Dr. John Bradford said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.
"Sexual abuse of boys by female perpetrators is not as uncommon as people think," said Dr. Bradford, director of the Sexual Behaviours Clinic at the Royal Ottawa Hospital, and professor and head of the division of forensic psychiatry at the University of Ottawa.
Dr. Bradford and his colleagues first became interested in this problem when they were recruiting normal male controls for another study. They eventually came up with 150 normal controls, all of whom had answered "No" when asked whether they had been sexually abused as a child.
Despite the fact that they had answered "No" to that question, Dr. Bradford was surprised to find that a significant percentage of the controls had had sex with a woman aged 20 or older when they themselves were 13 or younger.
"That left us with the impression that [these subjects] had been the victims of pedophilic acts by women but in fact didn't see it as sexual abuse," he said.
Sexual offenders are usually thought to be males who offend against women and children, Dr. Bradford said. But a few studies of female offenders have been done, with interesting results. For instance, studies of childhood sexual abuse have found that 1%-3% of perpetrators were female.
Among convicted sex offenders who were abused as children, the percentage gets much higher: one study found that 33% of incest offenders had been sexually abused by women, he commented.
Much of the information about female abusers and their victims is conflicting, according to Dr. Bradford. For instance, "one of the studies showed that victims of female perpetrators were younger than victims of male perpetrators, and another study showed that they were the same age," he said at the conference. The same goes for the female abuser's relationship to the victim, with one 1990 study indicating that nearly half of 19 convicted female abusers were biological mothers or stepmothers to their victims, while other studies found that females generally abuse unrelated males.
Female sexual abusers of children tend to abuse girls who are related to them and boys who are known to them but not related.
Two trends are clear, however. One is that, contrary to popular belief, abuse by females often involves invasive acts. In a study of 249 sex offenders who had been abused as children, Dr. Bradford found that a "significantly larger" portion of females used some form of penetration--either anal or vaginal--in the course of the abuse, compared with their male counterparts. A larger proportion of male abusers used oral sex.
Another trend involved the mechanisms used to force victims to cooperate. "Persuasion seemed to be the predominant way that female perpetrators were operating," While male abusers used force more often, he said.
Three-quarters of the offenders who had been abused by females reported being "willing participants" in the abuse--a significantly higher proportion of subjects compared with those abused by males, and a possible explanation for why so many male victims of female abusers don't consider the acts abusive, Dr. Bradford said.
The age of the victims of abuse in Dr. Bradford's study ranged from 2 to 15 years, with no differences between male and female abusers in the average age of the victim--11.42 years--when the abuse was stopped.
The number of times victims were abused ranged from 1 to 100 and did not vary by gender of the abuser; more than half of the men reported being abused one to three times.
Looking at the overall numbers, if 10% of child molesters are female, that would mean approximately 500,000 Canadians have been abused by girls or women, "a much higher number than anybody would imagine," he said. And extrapolating the data on the number of child molesters in the Canadian population to the United States, that would mean there were approximately 15 million child molesters in the United States, he said.
"The bottom line is that pedophilia is a very serious public health problem," Dr. Bradford said.
Female sexual abuse of boys often goes unreported: public health problem: women offenders typically use persuasion rather than force in pedophilic acts.
Clinical Psychiatry News November 01, 2003 Frieden, Joyce
SAN ANTONIO -- Sexual abuse by females is a public health problem that needs to be addressed, Dr. John Bradford said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.
"Sexual abuse of boys by female perpetrators is not as uncommon as people think," said Dr. Bradford, director of the Sexual Behaviours Clinic at the Royal Ottawa Hospital, and professor and head of the division of forensic psychiatry at the University of Ottawa.
Dr. Bradford and his colleagues first became interested in this problem when they were recruiting normal male controls for another study. They eventually came up with 150 normal controls, all of whom had answered "No" when asked whether they had been sexually abused as a child.
Despite the fact that they had answered "No" to that question, Dr. Bradford was surprised to find that a significant percentage of the controls had had sex with a woman aged 20 or older when they themselves were 13 or younger.
"That left us with the impression that [these subjects] had been the victims of pedophilic acts by women but in fact didn't see it as sexual abuse," he said.
Sexual offenders are usually thought to be males who offend against women and children, Dr. Bradford said. But a few studies of female offenders have been done, with interesting results. For instance, studies of childhood sexual abuse have found that 1%-3% of perpetrators were female.
Among convicted sex offenders who were abused as children, the percentage gets much higher: one study found that 33% of incest offenders had been sexually abused by women, he commented.
Much of the information about female abusers and their victims is conflicting, according to Dr. Bradford. For instance, "one of the studies showed that victims of female perpetrators were younger than victims of male perpetrators, and another study showed that they were the same age," he said at the conference. The same goes for the female abuser's relationship to the victim, with one 1990 study indicating that nearly half of 19 convicted female abusers were biological mothers or stepmothers to their victims, while other studies found that females generally abuse unrelated males.
Female sexual abusers of children tend to abuse girls who are related to them and boys who are known to them but not related.
Two trends are clear, however. One is that, contrary to popular belief, abuse by females often involves invasive acts. In a study of 249 sex offenders who had been abused as children, Dr. Bradford found that a "significantly larger" portion of females used some form of penetration--either anal or vaginal--in the course of the abuse, compared with their male counterparts. A larger proportion of male abusers used oral sex.
Another trend involved the mechanisms used to force victims to cooperate. "Persuasion seemed to be the predominant way that female perpetrators were operating," While male abusers used force more often, he said.
Three-quarters of the offenders who had been abused by females reported being "willing participants" in the abuse--a significantly higher proportion of subjects compared with those abused by males, and a possible explanation for why so many male victims of female abusers don't consider the acts abusive, Dr. Bradford said.
The age of the victims of abuse in Dr. Bradford's study ranged from 2 to 15 years, with no differences between male and female abusers in the average age of the victim--11.42 years--when the abuse was stopped.
The number of times victims were abused ranged from 1 to 100 and did not vary by gender of the abuser; more than half of the men reported being abused one to three times.
Looking at the overall numbers, if 10% of child molesters are female, that would mean approximately 500,000 Canadians have been abused by girls or women, "a much higher number than anybody would imagine," he said. And extrapolating the data on the number of child molesters in the Canadian population to the United States, that would mean there were approximately 15 million child molesters in the United States, he said.
"The bottom line is that pedophilia is a very serious public health problem," Dr. Bradford said.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Women emerge as child sex abusers
I wanted to post another study and this brief article about it:
Women emerge as child sex abusers.
Youth Studies Australia September 01, 2006 Gross, Kate
Some studies estimate that female perpetrators are responsible for 20% of sexual abuse cases involving children and teenagers, according to Victorian psychologist Rebecca Deering. Dr Deering recently completed a PhD study of victims of female-perpetrated child sexual abuse. The study, conducted through Deakin University, focused on a group of 10 male and five female victims, all of whom experienced severe abuse. These victims suffered serious negative consequences as a result of the abuse, such as depression, drug and alcohol abuse, aggression, anxiety disorders and suicidal thoughts, both as children and into adulthood. Victims expressed 'disgust and outrage' at society's refusal to acknowledge the seriousness of female-perpetrated child sexual abuse. Dr Deering said that explanations of why women commit these offences 'tend to evoke sympathetic reactions, which lessens the moral culpability of the females' (Australian Financial Review, 25/5/06, p.60; Courier Mail Focus supplement, 29/7/06, p.1).
Gross, Kate. "Women emerge as child sex abusers.(Brief article)." Youth Studies Australia. 2006. Retrieved September 20, 2009 from accessmylibrary: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-152373775/women-emerge-child-sex.html
Women emerge as child sex abusers.
Youth Studies Australia September 01, 2006 Gross, Kate
Some studies estimate that female perpetrators are responsible for 20% of sexual abuse cases involving children and teenagers, according to Victorian psychologist Rebecca Deering. Dr Deering recently completed a PhD study of victims of female-perpetrated child sexual abuse. The study, conducted through Deakin University, focused on a group of 10 male and five female victims, all of whom experienced severe abuse. These victims suffered serious negative consequences as a result of the abuse, such as depression, drug and alcohol abuse, aggression, anxiety disorders and suicidal thoughts, both as children and into adulthood. Victims expressed 'disgust and outrage' at society's refusal to acknowledge the seriousness of female-perpetrated child sexual abuse. Dr Deering said that explanations of why women commit these offences 'tend to evoke sympathetic reactions, which lessens the moral culpability of the females' (Australian Financial Review, 25/5/06, p.60; Courier Mail Focus supplement, 29/7/06, p.1).
Gross, Kate. "Women emerge as child sex abusers.(Brief article)." Youth Studies Australia. 2006. Retrieved September 20, 2009 from accessmylibrary: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-152373775/women-emerge-child-sex.html
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
We stereotype sexual predators, and we get it wrong
Here is an article from the UK that is titled “We stereotype sexual predators, and we get it wrong” that talks about one of the most horrific cases of child sexual abuse they just had. The piece I most agreed with is the last line where it says:
but making unjustified assumptions based on gender, class, sexual orientation or public achievements allows abusers to remain free.
And of course this applies to not just sex offenders but to abusive, hurtful, toxic people period.
UK - Vanessa, Colin and Angela: they sound like inoffensive neighbours whom you might invite round for a drink. In fact, they're three of the worst paedophiles ever convicted in this country.
Sickening details of their assaults on babies and toddlers emerged at Bristol Crown Court last week, when Vanessa George, Colin Blanchard and Angela Allen admitted 38 charges of child abuse. They appear to have made contact through the internet, and engaged in a competitive form of exhibitionism which involved exchanging sadistic fantasies and pictures of children and babies being abused.
Such cases inspire revulsion and agonised soul-searching about what kind of society we have become. As in the case of the murder of the toddler James Bulger, aspects of human nature are revealed that seem scarcely credible, reinforcing anxieties about a "broken" society which is, on occasion, incapable of protecting its most vulnerable members.
When one of the perpetrators turns out to be a 39-year-old woman, the mother of two daughters who passed a criminal records bureau check to get her job at Little Ted's nursery in Plymouth, the public reaction is disbelieving as well as outraged; on Thursday the judge explicitly rejected the suggestion that Blanchard was the prime mover in the assaults, although George and Allen seem to have regarded each other as rivals for his attention. They all objectified their victims to an extraordinary degree; the infants in the pictures taken on George's mobile phone haven't been identified, leaving parents who used the nursery in the agonising position of not knowing if their children were abused. - Read the entire article here
but making unjustified assumptions based on gender, class, sexual orientation or public achievements allows abusers to remain free.
And of course this applies to not just sex offenders but to abusive, hurtful, toxic people period.
UK - Vanessa, Colin and Angela: they sound like inoffensive neighbours whom you might invite round for a drink. In fact, they're three of the worst paedophiles ever convicted in this country.
Sickening details of their assaults on babies and toddlers emerged at Bristol Crown Court last week, when Vanessa George, Colin Blanchard and Angela Allen admitted 38 charges of child abuse. They appear to have made contact through the internet, and engaged in a competitive form of exhibitionism which involved exchanging sadistic fantasies and pictures of children and babies being abused.
Such cases inspire revulsion and agonised soul-searching about what kind of society we have become. As in the case of the murder of the toddler James Bulger, aspects of human nature are revealed that seem scarcely credible, reinforcing anxieties about a "broken" society which is, on occasion, incapable of protecting its most vulnerable members.
When one of the perpetrators turns out to be a 39-year-old woman, the mother of two daughters who passed a criminal records bureau check to get her job at Little Ted's nursery in Plymouth, the public reaction is disbelieving as well as outraged; on Thursday the judge explicitly rejected the suggestion that Blanchard was the prime mover in the assaults, although George and Allen seem to have regarded each other as rivals for his attention. They all objectified their victims to an extraordinary degree; the infants in the pictures taken on George's mobile phone haven't been identified, leaving parents who used the nursery in the agonising position of not knowing if their children were abused. - Read the entire article here
Friday, October 30, 2009
Victims of Female Offenders often minimized
This is a follow up post and article about the Liskey case from the last post:
KS - Nationwide, female teachers who sexually abuse boys get probation more frequently while male teachers go to prison, says Topeka police Detective Heather Stultz-Lindsay.
Why the difference?
People view boys as the "pursuer, boys are the aggressor" and not as the victim, said Stultz-Lindsay, who investigated the Jennifer Dawn Liskey case. "That's not true. The woman can be the sexual aggressor."
"In society, we look at boys and pat them on the back and say, 'Good scoring with a woman,' " said Stultz-Lindsay.
Put another way, people minimize boys as victims of sexual assault when the perpetrator is an older woman, said Susan Voorhees, a doctor of clinical psychology whose patients include child victims. People smirk when word gets out an underage boy had sex with an older woman.
"Everyone has their fantasies," Voorhees said, as in, " 'It would have been nice to have had some older woman teach me the ways of the world.' "
Often the perpetrator is a member of the family or someone trusted by the family, and for the child, the abuser "may be one of the kindest people in their lives." In the Liskey case, there was a double whammy because she was a paraprofessional in the victim's gifted education program at Robinson Middle School and the best friend of the boy's mother, Voorhees said.
"It's not the face of evil," the psychologist said of abusers. "It's the actions of evil."
It is to bad the judge did not see it that way.
In sentencing Liskey to probation, Shawnee County District Court Judge Jan Leuenberger said there was no evidence the victim suffered in the relationship. The judge also said the youth is "dealing with the situation fine," and concerns by his parents that he might "crash" in the next four to six years are "speculative."
"Sexual abuse has lifelong implications for the mental health of both victims and their families," Voorhees said in a letter dated Sept. 14 to Chief Judge Nancy Parrish to express her "grave concern" about the Liskey sentencing. - Read the entire article here
The Judge really needs to be taken to task for comments like that. As the study I posted previously on here called Long Term Effects of Sexual Abuse by a Female showed that the Judge is dead wrong and Ms. Voorhees is correct.
KS - Nationwide, female teachers who sexually abuse boys get probation more frequently while male teachers go to prison, says Topeka police Detective Heather Stultz-Lindsay.
Why the difference?
People view boys as the "pursuer, boys are the aggressor" and not as the victim, said Stultz-Lindsay, who investigated the Jennifer Dawn Liskey case. "That's not true. The woman can be the sexual aggressor."
"In society, we look at boys and pat them on the back and say, 'Good scoring with a woman,' " said Stultz-Lindsay.
Put another way, people minimize boys as victims of sexual assault when the perpetrator is an older woman, said Susan Voorhees, a doctor of clinical psychology whose patients include child victims. People smirk when word gets out an underage boy had sex with an older woman.
"Everyone has their fantasies," Voorhees said, as in, " 'It would have been nice to have had some older woman teach me the ways of the world.' "
Often the perpetrator is a member of the family or someone trusted by the family, and for the child, the abuser "may be one of the kindest people in their lives." In the Liskey case, there was a double whammy because she was a paraprofessional in the victim's gifted education program at Robinson Middle School and the best friend of the boy's mother, Voorhees said.
"It's not the face of evil," the psychologist said of abusers. "It's the actions of evil."
It is to bad the judge did not see it that way.
In sentencing Liskey to probation, Shawnee County District Court Judge Jan Leuenberger said there was no evidence the victim suffered in the relationship. The judge also said the youth is "dealing with the situation fine," and concerns by his parents that he might "crash" in the next four to six years are "speculative."
"Sexual abuse has lifelong implications for the mental health of both victims and their families," Voorhees said in a letter dated Sept. 14 to Chief Judge Nancy Parrish to express her "grave concern" about the Liskey sentencing. - Read the entire article here
The Judge really needs to be taken to task for comments like that. As the study I posted previously on here called Long Term Effects of Sexual Abuse by a Female showed that the Judge is dead wrong and Ms. Voorhees is correct.
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