In this case the woman was actively involved in sexually abusing a 3 year old child as well as downloading and trading pictures of children being sexually assaulted. The prosecutor requested 7 years but the Judge only gave her 4 years:
According to federal prosecutors, Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators came to believe Rebecca Stubblefield had been trading child porn online after Canadian authorities served a search warrant on a Victoria, B.C., home and discovered online chats using the Google service, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle said in a statement.
Chat logs gathered from computers seized at the home showed that, contrary to her claims that she was involved only because of her boyfriend's urging, she was actively involved in the abuse of a 3-year-old child.
"Those chats do not depict a reluctant young woman, participating half-heartedly in this conduct just to please her boyfriend," Assistant U.S. Attorney Vince Lombardi said in court documents. "They instead depict a person fully engaged in, and thoroughly enjoying, the sexual exploitation of very young children. - Read the entire article here
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Abusive Mother sentenced
This is an article about a mother who was lucky to have received such a light sentence after what she did to that baby:
A Lancaster County judge berated a mother Thursday for placing her 16-month-old son in a scalding-hot shower in 2007, causing second-degree burns and permanently scarring the boy.
Judge Dennis E. Reinaker told Itza Figueroa-Saez she was given the break of a lifetime when a jury Monday acquitted her of felony aggravated assault, which carried a potential 20-year prison sentence. The jury convicted Figueroa-Saez of misdemeanor reckless endangerment. Thursday morning, Reinaker handed down the maximum prison sentence for that misdemeanor — 1 to 2 years in prison, minus one day.
"I don't know that I've ever seen, and I hope I never do see, a case before me that is as despicable as this one," Reinaker told the 23-year-old defendant. "The jury in this case cut you the biggest break you'll ever get in your life.
"If you'd been convicted of (aggravated assault), you would be going to prison for a very long time, which, in my mind, is exactly where you should be."
According to trial testimony, the Lancaster city woman placed her son in a scalding shower after he was acting "fussy." The woman left the bathroom to check on her other children, and when she returned the boy had blisters, and his skin was peeling off his back, according to investigators.
The boy, who now lives with foster parents, requires ongoing medical treatment. Reinaker criticized Figueroa-Saez for not inquiring about her son or his foster parents since the boy was taken from her after the incident.
Figueroa-Saez has four other children, none of whom live with their mother, who was eight months pregnant at the time of the scalding incident.
At Thursday's sentencing, she read, through an interpreter, a letter to the court. In the letter, she mentions her own suffering from not being allowed to be with her son and fears she'll never see him again. - Read the entire article here
Her suffering? I suspect that this "suffering" is akin to the "suffering" of not being able to have her object, her possession when and how she wants it.
A Lancaster County judge berated a mother Thursday for placing her 16-month-old son in a scalding-hot shower in 2007, causing second-degree burns and permanently scarring the boy.
Judge Dennis E. Reinaker told Itza Figueroa-Saez she was given the break of a lifetime when a jury Monday acquitted her of felony aggravated assault, which carried a potential 20-year prison sentence. The jury convicted Figueroa-Saez of misdemeanor reckless endangerment. Thursday morning, Reinaker handed down the maximum prison sentence for that misdemeanor — 1 to 2 years in prison, minus one day.
"I don't know that I've ever seen, and I hope I never do see, a case before me that is as despicable as this one," Reinaker told the 23-year-old defendant. "The jury in this case cut you the biggest break you'll ever get in your life.
"If you'd been convicted of (aggravated assault), you would be going to prison for a very long time, which, in my mind, is exactly where you should be."
According to trial testimony, the Lancaster city woman placed her son in a scalding shower after he was acting "fussy." The woman left the bathroom to check on her other children, and when she returned the boy had blisters, and his skin was peeling off his back, according to investigators.
The boy, who now lives with foster parents, requires ongoing medical treatment. Reinaker criticized Figueroa-Saez for not inquiring about her son or his foster parents since the boy was taken from her after the incident.
Figueroa-Saez has four other children, none of whom live with their mother, who was eight months pregnant at the time of the scalding incident.
At Thursday's sentencing, she read, through an interpreter, a letter to the court. In the letter, she mentions her own suffering from not being allowed to be with her son and fears she'll never see him again. - Read the entire article here
Her suffering? I suspect that this "suffering" is akin to the "suffering" of not being able to have her object, her possession when and how she wants it.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Another lone female pedophile?
Not much information was given in the article. I wanted to post this as another example of a prepubescent child being molested by a solo adult woman. So when the question of are their female pedophiles out there comes up this case shows the answer to be yes:
GOSHEN — A Port Jervis woman has pleaded guilty to repeatedly molesting a 10-year-old boy.
Brandy Decker, 21, pleaded guilty Monday in Orange County Court to course of sexual conduct against a child, a felony. In exchange, she will get eight years in prison, with 10 years of post-release parole, when she is sentenced in July.
Decker pleaded guilty to subjecting the boy to sexual contact two or more times between September 2007 and May 2008. She is in Orange County Jail in lieu of $5,000 cash bail or $15,000 bond, pending sentencing. - Read the entire article here
GOSHEN — A Port Jervis woman has pleaded guilty to repeatedly molesting a 10-year-old boy.
Brandy Decker, 21, pleaded guilty Monday in Orange County Court to course of sexual conduct against a child, a felony. In exchange, she will get eight years in prison, with 10 years of post-release parole, when she is sentenced in July.
Decker pleaded guilty to subjecting the boy to sexual contact two or more times between September 2007 and May 2008. She is in Orange County Jail in lieu of $5,000 cash bail or $15,000 bond, pending sentencing. - Read the entire article here
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Female on Female murder and domestic violence
This case below is an example of another area often overlooked or dismissed by some. Female on Female intimate partner violence, sexual assault and murder are not topics you often find at trainings for domestic violence professionals or any mental health professionals. But they should be taught along side the tradtional DV trainings:
May 5, 2009 (WHEATON, Ill.) (WLS) -- A jury returned a guilty verdict Tuesday in the murder trial of a Villa Park woman. Nicole Abusharif was accused of suffocating her longtime domestic partner and putting her body in the trunk of their car back in 2007.
Prosecutors said Abusharif suffocated Rebecca Klein so she could pursue a relationship with another woman. Prosecutors also say insurance money was a motive for the murder. - Read the entire article here
May 5, 2009 (WHEATON, Ill.) (WLS) -- A jury returned a guilty verdict Tuesday in the murder trial of a Villa Park woman. Nicole Abusharif was accused of suffocating her longtime domestic partner and putting her body in the trunk of their car back in 2007.
Prosecutors said Abusharif suffocated Rebecca Klein so she could pursue a relationship with another woman. Prosecutors also say insurance money was a motive for the murder. - Read the entire article here
Monday, June 15, 2009
A case of unspeakable torture
What to say about a case like this. Anytime someone makes a comment that a woman could not be as abusive or hurtful as a male you need only point them to this case (FYI she was found guilty and faces up to 75 years in prison):
Late Nov. 10, as 13-month-old Christopher Thomas lay in intensive care struggling to remain alive, two detectives at Milwaukee police headquarters sat at a metal table with the woman who would be charged in the child's fatal beating.
For most of the interview, Keith spoke without inflection as she described, in excruciating detail, the abuse she had inflicted on Christopher and his 2-year-old sister.
Keith, who turns 25 on Thursday, is accused of killing Christopher and torturing his 2-year-old sister. A recording of her statements to Jacks and Detective James Hutchinson was played Wednesday at her trial.
Christopher and his sister were removed from their mother's home in March 2008 and placed with Keith and her husband by the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare in June. The bureau was responsible for sending caseworkers to the Keiths' home at least once a month. While a state Department of Children and Families report says caseworkers noticed no physical abuse, Crystal Keith told the detectives she began to abuse Christopher's sister within weeks of her arrival.
How sad is that? These poor children were removed from an abusive home only to be sent to torture and death for one of them.
Jacks: "Did you know what you were doing was wrong?"
Keith: "I knew it was wrong, but I never knew I could take it this far. I never did. I knew that in my heart I was going too far and so because I tried to stop, but it was just getting on my nerves so bad I could never stop."
Most of Wednesday's testimony focused on the injuries suffered by Christopher's sister, who survived what Lynn Sheets, a nationally recognized expert on child abuse and medical director of Child Advocacy and Protection Services at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, called one of the worst cases of abuse she had ever seen.
Photographs of the girl's wounds were shown to the jury while Sheets provided a kind of narrative of the child's torment.
Twenty-one photographs of the child's burned, beaten and broken body were projected onto a large screen. A few jurors turned their heads, unable to look. A few observers sitting in the courtroom gallery wiped tears from their eyes. Some left the room.
The child's left leg had been broken in three places. A bone in the left arm was broken clean through just beneath the shoulder. She had ligature scars on her arm, neck, torso and leg. She had suffered burns from her head to her toes, some so deep that they had to be covered with skin that doctors shaved from her thighs.
A drawing of a human body was projected on the screen. It was covered with notes and arrows. Sheets said she had attempted to document all the girl's injuries but ran out of room.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams asked Sheets what kind of pain the girl would have felt.
"I don't know how you measure pain," Sheets replied. "She would have been in agony." - Read the entire article here
And remember she did this to these poor children because they were getting on her nerves. This is cruelty taken to the extreme and nothing can excuse it.
Late Nov. 10, as 13-month-old Christopher Thomas lay in intensive care struggling to remain alive, two detectives at Milwaukee police headquarters sat at a metal table with the woman who would be charged in the child's fatal beating.
For most of the interview, Keith spoke without inflection as she described, in excruciating detail, the abuse she had inflicted on Christopher and his 2-year-old sister.
Keith, who turns 25 on Thursday, is accused of killing Christopher and torturing his 2-year-old sister. A recording of her statements to Jacks and Detective James Hutchinson was played Wednesday at her trial.
Christopher and his sister were removed from their mother's home in March 2008 and placed with Keith and her husband by the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare in June. The bureau was responsible for sending caseworkers to the Keiths' home at least once a month. While a state Department of Children and Families report says caseworkers noticed no physical abuse, Crystal Keith told the detectives she began to abuse Christopher's sister within weeks of her arrival.
How sad is that? These poor children were removed from an abusive home only to be sent to torture and death for one of them.
Jacks: "Did you know what you were doing was wrong?"
Keith: "I knew it was wrong, but I never knew I could take it this far. I never did. I knew that in my heart I was going too far and so because I tried to stop, but it was just getting on my nerves so bad I could never stop."
Most of Wednesday's testimony focused on the injuries suffered by Christopher's sister, who survived what Lynn Sheets, a nationally recognized expert on child abuse and medical director of Child Advocacy and Protection Services at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, called one of the worst cases of abuse she had ever seen.
Photographs of the girl's wounds were shown to the jury while Sheets provided a kind of narrative of the child's torment.
Twenty-one photographs of the child's burned, beaten and broken body were projected onto a large screen. A few jurors turned their heads, unable to look. A few observers sitting in the courtroom gallery wiped tears from their eyes. Some left the room.
The child's left leg had been broken in three places. A bone in the left arm was broken clean through just beneath the shoulder. She had ligature scars on her arm, neck, torso and leg. She had suffered burns from her head to her toes, some so deep that they had to be covered with skin that doctors shaved from her thighs.
A drawing of a human body was projected on the screen. It was covered with notes and arrows. Sheets said she had attempted to document all the girl's injuries but ran out of room.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams asked Sheets what kind of pain the girl would have felt.
"I don't know how you measure pain," Sheets replied. "She would have been in agony." - Read the entire article here
And remember she did this to these poor children because they were getting on her nerves. This is cruelty taken to the extreme and nothing can excuse it.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Female sexual predator article
And to follow up the last two articles I wanted to post part of an article from Momlogic.com. Note the use of the Teacher/Lover category (you can read the entire article here):
Dr. Michelle Golland: It seems almost every day we are hearing about another young teenage boy seduced into an "affair" with an older woman who was his teacher, coach, or the mom of his best friend. Make no mistake: these women are sexual predators and it is high time our society starts treating them as such.
First, you must know that the women who fall into the "Teacher/Lover" category of female sexual offenders are highly manipulative and groom their victims in a similar way to male sexual predators. They pick vulnerable kids who are looking for attention and approval that may seem lacking within their own home environment.
These female sexual predators want power and control and admiration from their victim. The young prepubescent or adolescent boys are easily manipulated due to their own lack of self-esteem and confusion and insecurities that many teens experience. The fact that adolescence is when they pull away from their parents and want to forge a new identity makes teens easy prey for these abusive women.
Dr. Golland is a USC graduate and a licensed Clinical Psychologist (PSY#16974). She works with adults, teens and is an expert in the field of marriage and relationships. Dr. Golland has given her expert advice on CNN, HLN, MSNBC, ABC, and Fox news. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and wonderfully exhausting two children.
I would add that you will find that there are male offenders who fit this same category and want power, control and admiration from their victim. In fact if you just flip the genders mentioned it would be right for some cases. I agree with Dr. Golland but I wonder when or if anyone is ever going to point out how offensive and potentially hurtful calling one's abuser a "teacher/lover" can be and how they may want to change that title to something else.
Dr. Michelle Golland: It seems almost every day we are hearing about another young teenage boy seduced into an "affair" with an older woman who was his teacher, coach, or the mom of his best friend. Make no mistake: these women are sexual predators and it is high time our society starts treating them as such.
First, you must know that the women who fall into the "Teacher/Lover" category of female sexual offenders are highly manipulative and groom their victims in a similar way to male sexual predators. They pick vulnerable kids who are looking for attention and approval that may seem lacking within their own home environment.
These female sexual predators want power and control and admiration from their victim. The young prepubescent or adolescent boys are easily manipulated due to their own lack of self-esteem and confusion and insecurities that many teens experience. The fact that adolescence is when they pull away from their parents and want to forge a new identity makes teens easy prey for these abusive women.
Dr. Golland is a USC graduate and a licensed Clinical Psychologist (PSY#16974). She works with adults, teens and is an expert in the field of marriage and relationships. Dr. Golland has given her expert advice on CNN, HLN, MSNBC, ABC, and Fox news. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and wonderfully exhausting two children.
I would add that you will find that there are male offenders who fit this same category and want power, control and admiration from their victim. In fact if you just flip the genders mentioned it would be right for some cases. I agree with Dr. Golland but I wonder when or if anyone is ever going to point out how offensive and potentially hurtful calling one's abuser a "teacher/lover" can be and how they may want to change that title to something else.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Long Term Effects of Sexual Abuse by a Female
In a recent case in Texas a defense attorney, according to the media, made the following statement (the victim was 13):
Winfield told jurors that if given probation, Cosgrove would not be a risk, and that the boy enjoyed the attentions of an older woman and was not traumatized.
“It’s different with boys and girls,” she said. “I don’t believe he’s going to be scarred for life.” - Read the entire article here
Comments like that are all to common in cases like that. In another case an attorney said "In my opinion he's an advanced 14-year-old,". Comments like these and others are simply wrong and offensive. Because I am seeing more and more reported comments like this I wanted to look at parts of a study that talked about the long term effects of sexual abuse by females. It has some interesting points that I would like to highlight (note all emphasis is mine):
The Long-Term Effects of Child Sexual Abuse by Female Perpetrators: A Qualitative Study of Male and Female Victims
Myriam S. Denov
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Oct 2004; vol. 19: pp. 1137 - 1156
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Oct 2004; vol. 19: pp. 1137 - 1156
Despite the minimal research dedicated to addressing the long-term effects of female sexual abuse on victims, emerging studies have revealed that the general public and professionals working in the area of child welfare perceive sexual abuse by women as relatively harmless as compared to sexual abuse by men. Broussard, Wagner, and Kazelskis (1991) asked 180 female and 180 male undergraduates their perceptions of the effects of child sexual abuse on the victim. Participants tended to view the interaction of a male victim with a female perpetrator as less representative of child sexual abuse. They also believed that male victims of female offenders would experience less harm than if the victim was a woman or girl and the offender was a man. Similarly, Finkelhor (1984) found that his survey participants tended to view the sexual offenses of women as relatively insignificant. When he asked 521 parents about the seriousness of different types of sexual abuse, they rated adult female perpetrators’ actions with male and female victims as less abusive than those of adult male perpetrators with male or female victims.
Now this might be expected of the lay person but professionals who work in the area of child welfare should know better. But then again think of how many of these professionals have the mother present when they are asking questions about sexual abuse to a child. How many of them even think to ask if the child has been sexually abused by a woman?
Research on professional attitudes to different types of sexual abuse reveals comparable perceptions to those of the general public. For example,Hetherton and Beardsall (1998) identified gender biases in the decisions of socialworkers and police working in child protection. The authors presented police officers and social workers with identical case vignettes of sexual abuse involving either a male or female perpetrator. Both professional groups considered that social service involvement and investigation were less warranted when the perpetrator was a woman. Case registration and imprisonmentof the male perpetrator was considered more important by both professional groups. Denov’s (2001) research explored psychiatrists’ and police perspectives on female sex offending. The study found that both professional groups viewed sexual abuse by women as less harmful than sexual abuse by men. Moreover, efforts were made by psychiatrists and police officers, either consciously or unconsciously, to transform the female sex offender and her offense, realigning them with more culturally acceptable notions of female behavior. This ultimately led to a denial of the problem.
And this group of professionals should know better also. Because of this many people who do mention they have been sexually abused by a woman are disbelieved or are told they are mistaken.
If you want to see how this denial plays out just look at one label that is used for some female sexual offenders. They are called Teacher/Lover. Yet there is no corresponding label for male offenders. Is it not offensive to call someone who sexually assaulted a child a "lover"? I do not think it would go over well if they tried to put that label on some male offenders.
This next piece is very important:
The professional assumption that sexual abuse by women is less harmful than similar abuse by men has potentially dangerous implications for victims of sexual abuse by women and their offenders. If professionals fail to recognize sexual abuse by women as potentially serious and harmful, child protection plans will not be made. Consequently, children in the care of or in contact with a female sex offender may be at risk and remain outside of the realm of professional attention and statutory intervention. In addition, such professional belief systems may work to diminish the level of harm inflicted on the victim. As a result, the experiences of victims who come forward to disclose sexual abuse by women may be trivialized, leading to delayed referral to social services, or failing to provide victims with the care and the necessary support services that they require (Hunter, 1990; Denov, 2004). Moreover, professional minimization or disbelief of victims’ allegations of female perpetrated sexual abuse may actually exacerbate the negative effects of the sexual abuse, ultimately inciting secondary victimization (Denov, 2003b). In a similar vein, female sex offenders who are perceived by professionals as largely innocuous will not be held accountable for their actions and may be allowed to drop out of the child welfare and/or criminal justice system without warrant. In such circumstances, female abusers will not gain insight into their behavior and may continue to pose a risk to children.
This next part looked at some of the data from the study:
The average age of onset of the female sexual abuse was age 5 and ended, on average, at age 12, with the average duration being 6 years. 36% reported being sexually abused more than once per week, 21% reported being abused once per week; 29% reported being abused once per month. 14% reported a single incident of abuse.
In total, 64% reported severe sexual abuse, while 71% reported moderate sexual abuse. 100% reported experiencing mild sexual abuse.
93% reported that the sexual abuse was highly damaging and difficult to recover from:
However, all of the victims who reported sexual abuse by men and women declared that the sexual abuse by women was more harmful and more damaging than the sexual abuse by men.
For example, one female participant, whose father attempted sexual intercourse with her at age 5 and had intercourse and oral sex with her until the age of 11, reported that her father’s actions were the least invasive of all the sexual abuse that she had experienced. To her, the sexual abuse by her mother and her grandmother was far more traumatic:
The [sexual abuse] done by my father was the least invasive. . . . The abuse by the females had far more of an effect on me than he did. . . . When looking at the big picture and the layers of hurt . . . out of all that happened to me, what my mother did was the absolute worst . . . far worse than what my father had done.
There is a deeper sense of betrayal [with a female perpetrator]. It’s like there’s no safe place. How can a woman face a world that belittles and condemns us because we’re women . . . and still turn her hand against her own sex? That’s a bitter betrayal.
100% reported a strong mistrust of women as a result of the sexual abuse experience.
29% reported having sexually abused children at some point in their lives. The men were charged and convicted. The sexual abuse by the women was never reported.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Female Offenders - Why the reported numbers are wrong
I wanted to post some pieces of a study that talk about an issue at the core of female offenders and why their officially reported numbers seem so low compared with their actual numbers. The study is:
Female Sex Offenders: Exploring Issues of Personality, Trauma, and Cognitive Distortions
Susan M. Strickland
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Apr 2008; vol. 23: pp. 474 - 489.
Cultural resistance has hindered the identification of sexual crimes committed by women. Although cases of female sexual abuse of children have been documented since the 1930s (Bender & Blau, 1937; Chideckel, 1935), women sexual offenders have remained well hidden. In cases of female sexual abuse, either the abuse is not found out for many years, or if discovered, it is dismissed or disbelieved. It has been only since the mid-1980s that a small sample of female sex offenders have been described in the scientific literature and only since the 1990s that this group has been studied more systematically (Hislop, 2001). Historically, these crimes have been underreported and unidentified by victims and easily dismissed by adults (Allen, 1991; Hislop, 1999). Sexual abuse by women tends to be minimized and justified as an extension of the women’s nurturing role, rather than as harmful or assaultive (Denov, 2001).
Traditional sexual scripts, depicting women as incapable of committing sexual offences, are responsible for the lack of recognition of the abuse (Denov, 2003; Dunbar, 1999; Mendel, 1995). These scripts exclude males as victims of sexual coercion, simultaneously excluding women as aggressors of sexual assault (Byers & O’Sullivan, 1998; Denov, 2003; Mendel, 1995).
Monday, June 1, 2009
Are there female pedophiles article
The BBC News magazine had an article back in the end of April that asked the question Are there women pedophiles? It is good to see more articles being posted about this subject. I wanted to look at a few parts of the article:
Colin never knew innocence as a child. His earliest memories are of his mother sexually abusing him. In the bath, in his bed and in the night. Until he was 13.
Twenty years later, after a young life derailed by truancy, drugs and violence, he is still deeply affected by what he says happened.
"It's only now that I realise the impact it has had on me. From the age of 14, as soon as it got dark I would have panic attacks and that fuelled my drug-taking because doing it, I felt safe again.
"I couldn't sleep at night and I'd get flashbacks of my mum on top of me. I couldn't hold down a job and I was scared of girls."
The fact the perpetrator was the person who gave birth to him made it harder for him to identify and accept it as abuse, he believes.
"I found it hard to even say it was sexual abuse because of the way society views mothers, and quite rightly - 99% are loving but I was just unlucky to get one that wasn't.
"That's what stopped me from getting help for a long time. I couldn't even acknowledge it myself and there was a worry about being believed and speaking out against my mother. I felt like I was doing something wrong."
If you speak to men and women who have been sexually abused by a woman you will hear stories that are similar to this. Sadly there are many people who have had their lives destroyed and have not survived their abuse to speak out.
Yet Colin is not alone in experiencing this particular kind of trauma, says Steve Bevan, who for nearly two decades has run a support group for male victims of all forms of sexual abuse. Out of 18 men currently getting individual and group support, five say they were abused by women, three of them exclusively so.
"Over the years we've had lots of men abused by mothers, sisters, aunties and baby sitters," says Mr Bevan.
Women can commit a wide range of sexual offences, he says, including rape. And their victims commonly experience sexual confusion and a fear of intimacy. Anger can manifest itself as violence towards a wife or girlfriend in later life.
Sexual abuse by women is much more common than some people think.
In 2005, the NSPCC raised concerns about how disbelief of female paedophiles was hindering detection. Its report said child protection professionals too often met allegations of abuse by females with incredulity, dismissing them as fabrication and allowing women to continue to offend.
It also said that victims suffered a peculiar sense of isolation and stigma because this form of abuse was not so widely recognised.
The stories that some victims have related as to the reactions of people and how they were treated when they tried to speak up is truly awful. Many victims of female sexual abuse report being disbelieved (at best) when they tried to speak of what had or was happening to them. This just caused more pain and suffering.
Eight-hundred victims of female sexual abuse have contacted Michele Elliott, founder of children's charity Kidscape, since she wrote her controversial book, Female Sexual Abuse of Children, in 1992. Three-quarters of the cases feature women acting alone.
"One of the issues of controversy is the thinking that if women do this, it's because men made them do it," says Ms Elliot.
"I disagree with that. I think there's no difference in the motivation between men and women, which is sexual gratification and power over a child. It's very selfish."
I agree with her. Male or female both are human beings. Now this next part is a bit more disturbing:
Like male paedophiles, many female offenders convince themselves they are not harming children, says psychologist Sharon Lambert who this month presented her research on the subject to the British Psychological Society's annual conference.
She contacted a number of people through a website specifically aimed at women. There were no indecent images posted but there were stories and poems about their sexual fantasies with children and a forum for women to discuss their feelings and how they could avoid detection.
"They would say they're not as bad as men because they're more loving with their impulses, and a male involved with a child is more abusive." - Read the entire article here
To discuss how they could avoid detection? That right there speaks volumes.
Colin never knew innocence as a child. His earliest memories are of his mother sexually abusing him. In the bath, in his bed and in the night. Until he was 13.
Twenty years later, after a young life derailed by truancy, drugs and violence, he is still deeply affected by what he says happened.
"It's only now that I realise the impact it has had on me. From the age of 14, as soon as it got dark I would have panic attacks and that fuelled my drug-taking because doing it, I felt safe again.
"I couldn't sleep at night and I'd get flashbacks of my mum on top of me. I couldn't hold down a job and I was scared of girls."
The fact the perpetrator was the person who gave birth to him made it harder for him to identify and accept it as abuse, he believes.
"I found it hard to even say it was sexual abuse because of the way society views mothers, and quite rightly - 99% are loving but I was just unlucky to get one that wasn't.
"That's what stopped me from getting help for a long time. I couldn't even acknowledge it myself and there was a worry about being believed and speaking out against my mother. I felt like I was doing something wrong."
If you speak to men and women who have been sexually abused by a woman you will hear stories that are similar to this. Sadly there are many people who have had their lives destroyed and have not survived their abuse to speak out.
Yet Colin is not alone in experiencing this particular kind of trauma, says Steve Bevan, who for nearly two decades has run a support group for male victims of all forms of sexual abuse. Out of 18 men currently getting individual and group support, five say they were abused by women, three of them exclusively so.
"Over the years we've had lots of men abused by mothers, sisters, aunties and baby sitters," says Mr Bevan.
Women can commit a wide range of sexual offences, he says, including rape. And their victims commonly experience sexual confusion and a fear of intimacy. Anger can manifest itself as violence towards a wife or girlfriend in later life.
Sexual abuse by women is much more common than some people think.
In 2005, the NSPCC raised concerns about how disbelief of female paedophiles was hindering detection. Its report said child protection professionals too often met allegations of abuse by females with incredulity, dismissing them as fabrication and allowing women to continue to offend.
It also said that victims suffered a peculiar sense of isolation and stigma because this form of abuse was not so widely recognised.
The stories that some victims have related as to the reactions of people and how they were treated when they tried to speak up is truly awful. Many victims of female sexual abuse report being disbelieved (at best) when they tried to speak of what had or was happening to them. This just caused more pain and suffering.
Eight-hundred victims of female sexual abuse have contacted Michele Elliott, founder of children's charity Kidscape, since she wrote her controversial book, Female Sexual Abuse of Children, in 1992. Three-quarters of the cases feature women acting alone.
"One of the issues of controversy is the thinking that if women do this, it's because men made them do it," says Ms Elliot.
"I disagree with that. I think there's no difference in the motivation between men and women, which is sexual gratification and power over a child. It's very selfish."
I agree with her. Male or female both are human beings. Now this next part is a bit more disturbing:
Like male paedophiles, many female offenders convince themselves they are not harming children, says psychologist Sharon Lambert who this month presented her research on the subject to the British Psychological Society's annual conference.
She contacted a number of people through a website specifically aimed at women. There were no indecent images posted but there were stories and poems about their sexual fantasies with children and a forum for women to discuss their feelings and how they could avoid detection.
"They would say they're not as bad as men because they're more loving with their impulses, and a male involved with a child is more abusive." - Read the entire article here
To discuss how they could avoid detection? That right there speaks volumes.
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