What about when MOM is the abuser?

I was reading through a paper (Levine, K. L.(2006). No Penis, No Problem. Fordham Urban Law Journal, Emory Public Law Research Paper No. 05-37.) and wanted to post something from it that chips away at some of the stereotypes:

For example, in a large survey of college-aged women,109 while almost all of respondents had at some point initiated sexual contact with a male, their initiatives often were not benign. More than 30% of the subjects admitted getting their partners drunk or stoned to have sex, just under 30% admitted having taken advantage of a teenager, 28% admitted having threatened physical force, and about 25% admitted having obtained sex by abusing their position of authority.110


109 Peter B. Anderson, Women’s Motives for Sexual Initiation and Aggression, in SEXUALLY AGGRESSIVE WOMEN: CURRENT PERSPECTIVES AND CONTROVERSIES 79-93 (Peter B. Anderson and Cindy Struckman-Johnson eds., 1998). His sample was composed of 461 undergraduate women volunteers in New York,New Jersey, and New Orleans. All students were enrolled in courses on human sexuality. Id. at 87.


110 Id. at 88-89. Note that 20% admit having used physical force to get sex, and 9% admit using a weapon.

The last piece may surprise some.  20% admit having used physical force and 9% admit using a weapon.

I have received a few e-mails asking, in general, if there have been studies done on looking at sentencing male vs female sex offenders.  In response here is one of the newest ones from Australia:

Sentencing of Male and Female Child Sex Offenders: Australian Study

Abstract
Research suggests that, in line with the chivalry hypothesis of female offending, a range of mitigatory factors such as mental health problems, substance abuse, and personal experiences of abuse are brought into play when women who offend against children are brought to trial. This is reflected in sentencing comments made by judges and in the sanctions imposed on the offenders, and as a result female offenders are treated differently to male offenders. The current study investigated this in an Australian context. Seven cases of female-perpetrated child sexual abuse were identified over a 6-year period through the Austlii database. Seven cases of male-perpetrated child sex abuse matched as far as possible to these were identified. Court transcripts were then located, and sentencing comments and sanctions imposed were analysed. All offenders were sentenced to imprisonment, but in general the women were more likely than the men to receive less jail time and lower non-parole periods because their personal backgrounds or situation at the time of the offending (i.e., difficulties with intimate relationship, male dependence issues, depression, loneliness and anger) were perceived as worthy of sympathy, and they were considered as likely to be rehabilitated. Further investigations are needed to support these findings.

One of the studies recently added to the bibliography on http://www.female-offenders.com/ is:


Lambert, Sharon and Hammond, Sean (2009) "Perspectives on Female Sexual Offending in an Irish Context.," Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies: Vol. 9: Iss. 1, Article 9.


I would like to post a few pieces here:


A number of key findings emerged. With reference to the prevalence rates of female perpetrated child sexual abuse in Ireland it was surprising that such a large number of respondents reported having contact with the victims of female sexual abuse as this is not reflected in statistics of organisations such as those that fall under the Criminal Justice System. These were interesting findings as it illustrates that Ireland does have women who sexually abuse children and that a large number of victims have disclosed this abuse.

The findings from the section exploring the characteristics of female sexual abusers and their victims revealed that boys and girls are equally likely to be the victims and the abuse tends to be interfamilial. There are large discrepancies between studies. Many argue that in general girls are more likely to be the victims of female perpetuated sexual abuse. Rudin et al.’s (1995) comparative study of male and female sex offenders revealed that 62% of the female perpetrators’ victims were female. Faller’s (1987) study revealed that over 64% of the victims of female perpetrators were female. However, Faller’s (1995) study showed that 50% of her sample of female perpetrators had abused both male and female children, 40% had abused females only and 10% had abused males only.

Participants also supplied information regarding the relationship of the abuser to their victim. The current findings that the abuser was more likely to be related to the victim supports the current literature (Saradjian, 1996; Denov, 2004; Elliott, 1997). Allen’s (1991) comparative study of male and female offenders found that 70% of the female’s victims were immediate family members or close relatives, in comparison to 59% of the male offender’s victims. The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (2005) reported that where a caller identified their offender as a female it was always a parent or other female relative.

The most significant finding in this section was the rating of typologies. Previous studies of professionals conclude that female abusers are more likely than male abusers to be classed as ‘mad’ or not in control of their behaviours (Hetherton, 1999). Others have argued that training of professionals about the issue would reduce this misconception (Bunting, 2005).

Interestingly, current typologies do not make reference to ‘sexual deviance’ in females but here it was rated higher than the labels of ‘teacher/lover’ and ‘male coerced’, two categories that dominate the typology literature. The category of ‘experimenter’ was also ranked quite highly. It is a problematic category for a number of reasons. If the abuser is labelled an ‘experimenter’ does it have an effect on how the seriousness of the behaviour is perceived and does this have implications for how the abuser is dealt with? In their study of professionals, Hetherton & Beardsall (1988) noted that female offending behaviours were classed as inappropriate as opposed to criminal and argue that this is due to an unwillingness to view female abusers as analogous to male abusers. These findings illustrate the need for debate and development of a new typology that incorporates the full scope of the different kinds of female abusers.

The participants in the current study have reflected Hetherton’s (1999) findings that abuse by females is perceived as less serious and thus difficult to detect. This has implications for current understandings of typologies and prevalence rates as the evidence suggests that this is a significantly under-reported and under-recognised problem. Other researchers have argued that attitudes of professionals also contribute to the lack of disclosures and under-recognition (Denov, 2001). A number of researchers have argued that victims of female sexual abusers have more difficulty disclosing, men are assumed to be the perpetrators and thus they feel a greater sense of stigma and isolation (Elliott, 1997; Denov, 2004).
 
It has been argued in the introduction that adopting an approach where the abuser is primarily viewed as a victim, is harmful to both the offenders and the victims. The minimisation of responsibility may have an effect on the type of treatment an offender may receive. In respect of the victim, minimisation in these cases makes them feel more isolated as the abuse they suffered is viewed as being not as serious as abuse perpetrated by males. The effects of this have been discussed in a study conducted by Denov (2004) who investigated victim’s experiences of disclosing female perpetrated abuse to professionals. Participants reported a number of negative responses including minimisation and disbelief.

Another recent study added to http://www.female-offenders.com/ is this one:


Female Sex Offenders: A Controlled Comparison of Offender and Victim/Crime Characteristics

Abstract The current study was a chart review of 31 female sex offenders (FSO), 31 male sex offenders (MSO), 31 female violent offenders (FO), and 31 male violent offenders (MO) using a 2 (female or male) by 2 (sex or violent offender) design. This is the first known study to employ three control groups when researching female sex offenders. Multiple variables appeared related to gender and crime. However, some variables emerged as FSO specific. They reported the least alcohol abuse history and had fewer admissions of guilt to the crime than the two violent offender samples. More FSOs knew their victim and were biologically related to their victim than MSOs. Lastly, the FSO sample was the least discriminating as to their victim’s gender and had the highest overall rate of sexual victimization.

It is interesting what this small study found that was FSO specific.  Fewer admissions of guilt, knew their victims and were biologically related to their victims more than MSO's and was the least discriminating as to their victim's gender.  This may be one of reasons, but not the only one, why offenses by FSO's are so under reported, even more so than offenses by MSO's.

One of the studies added to the bibliography on http://www.female-offenders.com/ is titled:

"Professional response and attitudes toward female-perpetrated child sexual abuse: a study of psychologists, psychiatrists, probationary psychologists and child protection workers."

Here is the abstract:

Previous studies have suggested that lay people and professionals both tend to deny or minimise female-perpetrated sexual abuse of children. However, such abuse has been shown to have negative impacts on the victims. This study investigated whether professionals who might work with victims or perpetrators of childhood sexual abuse show a bias in processing scenarios and making decisions when confronted such abuse. A sample of 231 psychiatrists, psychologists, probationary psychologists and child protection workers responded to variations in vignettes in which women and men offended against children, and completed a questionnaire assessing attitudes to women's sexually abusive/offending behaviour toward children. All professional groups regarded cases involving female perpetrators of child sexual abuse as serious and deserving of professional attention. However, while there were some differences between groups, female perpetrators were more likely than male perpetrators to be considered leniently, suggesting that minimisation of female-perpetrated sexual abuse of children may persist in the professional arena. As a result, both female perpetrators of sexual abuse and their victims may go untreated, and in the case of perpetrators, their behaviour may go unsanctioned. Training for professionals to enhance their understanding of the seriousness of sexual abuse perpetrated by women is indicated.

This study confirms what previous studies have shown and that is that there is a minimization of female-perpetrated sexual abuse of children by professionals who work with this population.

One of the new studies added to http://www.female-offenders.com/ bibliography page is titled "Recidivism Among Female Child Molesters."   Here is the abstract from it:

During recent years, research about female sexual offender recidivism rates using official criminal justice records has increased. Although informative, rearrest or conviction rates may be insufficient for this population. This study examines two potential outcome measures for accurately studying recidivism among 57 female sexual offenders; a criminal recidivism measure based on formal legal charges and a reported recidivism measure based on child welfare reports. Based on the criminal recidivism outcome measure, 10 (17.5%) women were charged for a subsequent sexual crime. The broader reported recidivism measure identified six additional women with subsequent contact with police or child welfare agencies for sexually inappropriate behaviors. There were no significant differences found between the 41 nonrecidivists and the 16 recidivists. The implications of these findings are discussed.

If my math is correct the recidivism rate for women who were charged with another sex crime is 17.5% and 28% for women who had subsequent contact with police or child welfare agencies for sexually inappropriate behaviors. 

As time goes on and more studies are done it will be interesting to see if these numbers play out when larger sample sizes are used.

In 2005 the article titled "Female Perpetration of Child Sexual Abuse:  An Overview of the Problem" by Lisa Lipshires was written.  Here are some excerpts from that article:


Betsy K. and Marcia Turner are part of a small, growing number of people confronting the issue of female-perpetrated child sexual abuse. Many feel they are fighting an uphill battle against societal denial and cultural stereotypes of women and men.

In her 1993 doctoral dissertation, "Female Sex Offenders: Societal Avoidance of Comprehending the Phenomenon of Women Who Sexually Abuse Children" (University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI), Boston psychologist Laurie Goldman analyzed the ways society minimizes the scope and impact of sexual abuse by women.

Goldman initially planned to conduct in-depth research of female perpetrators. To that end, she distributed 315 letters to therapists and clinics, took out an advertisement in a major newspaper, and contacted several clinicians who treated sex offenders. She also placed 10 poster advertisements in highly visible locations. Her eight-month search yielded only one woman who was willing to discuss what she had done. Goldman knew from reliable sources that female offenders were being treated, but clinic administrators insisted that no such women were under their care.

In addition, within 48 hours of having been hung, all of her posters had been removed. Unable to obtain subjects for her study, Goldman decided to focus on the societal denial that makes female perpetrators such an elusive population.

These next pieces speak to just how much denial is at work still in society about this issue:

Goldman discovered that denial of female perpetration is woven into the very systems meant to protect children. She learned that one of her new female clients had previously disclosed that she had sexually abused a nephew, but the Massachusetts child protection agency had not referred the case to the Attorney General's office. In fact, Goldman's client subsequently admitted that she had abused two other children since her first disclosure.

This treatment of the problem by the State of Massachusetts is not unique. In the State of Washington, for example, one human services professional reported that when an accused female offender was brought before a judge, the judge declared, "women don't do things like this," and dismissed the case. In another case, a New England prison warden told Goldman that she had only one woman in her system who had been convicted of child sexual abuse because "public sentiment did not allow for such charges to be brought to trial in her conservative state."

Iowa State University sociologist Craig Allen, who conducted a study Of 75 men and 65 women who had been convicted of sexually abusing a child, refers to this process as a form of societal "gate keeping." By the time female offenders could be referred to a therapist for treatment, he writes in Women and Men Who Sexually Abuse Children: A Comparative Analysis (Brandon, VT: Safer Society Press, 1991), "only those women would be left whose behaviors were so deviant" that their abusiveness could not be denied "at any of the preceding 'gates' in the system." Allen's gate keeping hypothesis could account for why female perpetrators appear so rarely in therapists' case studies and why, when they do, they are generally described as psychotic or otherwise severely disturbed.

Ruth Matthews, a St. Paul psychologist who has worked with 50 adolescent and 70 adult female sex offenders, says another major reason why adult female perpetrators are rarely seen in treatment is that many are mothers. In such cases, she says, dependent children are generally reluctant to turn in their mothers.
 
If children -- whose disclosures still provide the primary means of reporting offenders -- are being abused by mothers who are single parents or who carry out the abuse with male partners, disclosure would cause them to be removed from their homes and placed in foster care. By contrast, when there is an offending father and a non-offending mother, a child's disclosure would not mean "as much of a loss," says Matthews. "They still will have their home, they still will have a parent, and their family will stay intact."

There is much more in the article.  Even though the article is starting to be a bit old it is still a good read about the subject. 

As much as the issue of female offenders is often not thought about or discussed there is another aspect that is even thought of less.  That would be woman to woman rape and abuse.  There is not a lot of information or help out there for those that have suffered sexual assault and violence at the hands of a woman.  Even less when it comes to the lesbians, bisexual or heterosexual women abused by another woman.  Lori B. Girshick, Ph.D. has written on this issue numerous times over the years.  Here are a few excerpts from a paper she wrote titled NO MORE DENYING:  FACING WOMAN TO WOMAN SEXUAL VIOLENCE.

Woman-to-woman sexual violence is an invisible form of sexual violation because of our denial that women are sexual perpetrators and because violence among lesbians and bisexual women is hidden. But once we face that it exists--as sexual abuse and rape in battering relationships, as date and acquaintance rapes, as sexual abuse by professionals we trust, and as sexual harassment by co-workers--we must admit that our denial has sacrificed the well-being of survivors for the perpetuation of a myth.


I agree.  Violence and abuse of any kind is wrong and every person deserves help.  People should be treated as people.  We are all human beings and that is what matters. 

Studies over the past two decades on lesbian sexual violence show a range from a low of five percent to a high of 57 percent of respondents claiming they had experienced attempted or completed sexual assault or rape by another woman, with most studies finding rates of over 30 percent.
 
These studies confirm that there is a need for resources to help both the victims and perpetrators.  A need I know is not being met in many areas. 
 
The denial and legal wording issues that she discusses also still occur today.  For example one state has the following language for definitions for a crime reporting system and the data:
 
FORCIBLE RAPE = The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will. Assaults or attempts to commit rape by force are included here; however, statutory rape (without force) and other sex offenses are not included.
 
The problem?  "Carnal knowledge" wording is the problem.  This means that a woman forcibly raping another woman would not be covered under this category and is a form of denial.  There is another site that talks about this issue and it is HERE.  In the excerpts below from that page they say:

Although the majority of rapes are committed by men, women can and do rape.1 As with sexual assaults committed by men, the perpetrator may be a partner, an acquaintance, or a stranger, and it can happen to any woman, regardless of her sexual orientation.

The experiences of women who are sexually assaulted by other women are not widely enough known or discussed. This silence makes it harder for those of us who are sexually assaulted by women to get appropriate health care and support. Service providers, media, educators, and assault survivors can help end this silence by talking more openly about this abuse.

Legally, definitions of rape and sexual assault differ from state to state. Some states define rape as an act perpetrated by a man against a woman. Others use an inclusive definition of sexual assault that does not state the sex of the victim or perpetrator and that lists a range of behaviors such as penetration by object, fingers, or penis.

Because of the widespread ignorance and denial surrounding sexual assault of women by women, those of us who are abused by other women may experience a different sort of shock than women who are raped by men. We also may feel that no one will believe us, and therefore be reluctant to seek help.

Because society does not widely recognize female-perpetrated sexual assault, women who experience it are less likely to call crisis lines or go to therapists immediately after the assault.


All good points.  This is an area that needs a lot more resources, trainings, awareness and professionals. 

In preparation for the Oprah show on Monday 2/15/10 I wanted to do a quick post of some information and hopefully the show will touch on some of this:


Approximately 95% of all youth reporting staff sexual misconduct said they had been victimized by female staff. In 2008, 42% of staff in state juvenile facilities were female. (Bureau of Justice Report)

One in six adult men reported being sexually molested as children, and -- in a surprise finding -- nearly 40 percent of the perpetrators were female, a new study found. (Source Link)

In a study of 17,337 survivors of childhood sexual abuse, 23% had a female-only perpetrator and 22% had both male and female perpetrators. ( Dube, Shanta R et al. “Long-Term Consequences of Childhood Sexual Abuse by Gender of Victim.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine. (2005):28(5), p 430 – 438.)

According to a major 2004 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education - In studies that ask students about offenders, sex differences are less than in adult reports. The 2000 AAUW data indicate that 57.2 percent of all students report a male offender and 42.4 percent a female offender with the Cameron et al. study reporting nearly identical proportions as the 2000 AAUW data (57 percent male offenders vs. 43 percent female offenders).. (Source .PDF Download)

Dr. Christine Hatchard of MDSA states the following on her site:

In our society, mothers are automatically given special status, and certain characteristics, such as “nurturing, caring, protective” are attributed to them. The truth is, at her core, a mother is a woman and a human being, and like any other human being, is capable of the same range of violence, hate and autonomous behavior. To view women or mothers any differently, is to not realize their full potential as human beings, for better or for worse.


Those are just a few pieces of information that show this problem is not so "rare" as some claim. Finally for those interested there is a documentary that was done in 2002 titled "When Girls Do It":


When Girls Do It

Directed by Glynis Whiting
Produced by Maureen Prentice and Glynis Whiting
Whiting Communications
46 minutes • 2001
Available on DVD and VHS

When Girls Do It takes an unflinching look at the motivations of female sexual predators and the devastating effects on their victims. This documentary reveals the human reality behind sexual abuse by women; healing those who have survived abuse, treating female offenders and preventing countless other children from becoming victims. Featuring powerful interviews and compelling testimony, it shows how important it is to acknowledge the enormity of female sexual offenses, and encourages victims to speak out against this devastating crime.

The Bureau of Justice has released a special report on sexual victimization in juvenile facilities. When many people think prisons or correctional facilities and inmates being sexually victimized they think of inmates being the main cause as well as males being the ones doing so. Two key points from the report are these:

That the majority of sexual victimization reported by youth in juvenile facilities is done not by other youth but by staff members.

Approximately 95% of all youth reporting staff sexual misconduct said they had been victimized by female staff. In 2008, 42% of staff in state juvenile facilities were female.

For many people this may be hard to believe. And remember this is talking about juvenile facilities not adult facilities. You can read the entire report here.

Below is a listing of various research studies, articles, and publications about the issue of female offenders and their victims. I am hoping to maintain this list and add to it as I find more studies. I would ask ask that if anyone has some material that is not listed to please feel free to send it to me or post it in the comments section of this post and I will add it.


PLEASE CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE NEW PAGE FOR THE CURRENT BIBLIO.

This article below talks about an another area that is almost never talked about when the discussion comes around to the internet and sexual predators:


Women go online to share child sex-abuse fantasies
By Nina Lakhani

Days before three women are to be sentenced, an IoS investigation suggests thousands may share their interests


Thousands of women appear to be using the internet to share sexual fantasies of abuse involving children.

An investigation by The Independent on Sunday found a series of websites that depict female-perpetrated child abuse as "natural, educational and enjoyable" for children.

Users log into online forums to meet other "like-minded" web users and to share personal childhood experiences about sexual acts with adults that they say include mothers, teachers and babysitters. User profiles on one website monitored by the IoS claimed to be those of teachers, doctors and retired grandmothers with an interest in "young girls" and "lesbian incest".

The postings on such sites - assuming they are not posted by men - run counter to the widely held belief that female abusers are either anomalies or feel forced into such depravity by abusive men. Many of the users appear to have easy access to children and describe deriving sexual gratification from sharing their fantasises.

This information agrees with other similar information from a few studies. Female abusers are often able to groom and obtain victims much easier than males because most people do not expect a woman would do such a thing.

The IoS findings are supported by research carried out in a study in Ireland, which found that women were using such websites to justify their feelings as "natural". Many of the women used the forums, chatrooms and "frequently asked questions" to share tips on how not to get caught - for example, by exploiting situations such as bath time or breastfeeding.

They share many of the same beliefs as men who abuse children: that having sex with a child is educational and children are sexual beings.

An excerpt from one website reads: "If you are a female child lover we want you to know there is nothing wrong with you. The biggest problem is the teachers, therapists, cops, clerics and parents who force their stale morality on the young people in their custody. For children, experiencing sexual pleasure is not damaging at all, they enjoy it ... just like we do." A discussion forum on another website details myriad claims of abuse. "Julie", 32, wrote: "My first real kiss was from my mom, I was about 6/7, she had been on her own a long time I guess ... it was a bit scary, but she was so loving and I just loved the way she held me ..." - Read the entire article here


I am trying to locate the study mentioned in the article but have not been successful in finding it yet.

This is part 4 of the BBC program Panorama:

This is part 3 of the BBC program Panorama:

This is part 2 of the BBC program Panorama:

This is the start of a 4 part series of videos of the BBC program Panorama from 1997. The written transcripts of this program are else where on this blog and I wanted to add the videos

Part 1 -

The following excerpts are from an article in which a man talks about his experiences being sexually abused by his foster mother when he was a child (age 6):


It seems unthinkable, but ChildLine says calls from boys abused by women have doubled in a year. This deeply disturbing investigation reveals the terrible impact of a crime that society has never dared to confront.

Bill Jenkins's memories of the childhood abuse he suffered are as sharp as the pain that accompanies them.

He remembers the diamond pattern on the linoleum bathroom floor tiles, the Moby Dick mural on the wall, the door handle which seemed so high up next to his six-year-old frame.

What took place in the bathroom of that house in Sussex 50 years ago is shocking enough, but what makes it even harder to comprehend is that Bill's abuser was his foster mother - a woman entrusted with caring for him when his own parents couldn't.

'I was always frightened of her and what she forced me to endure affected the rest of my life, but as a society we have a mental block about female abusers. We are shocked when we see it happens. We can't believe that women are capable of such things.'

It is a sad day when these things happen and hopefully as more and more stories are made public more and more victims will feel it is safe and acceptable to come forward and speak up.


But the stereotypical belief that sex abuse is a male crime was shattered last week by an astonishing report from ChildLine which revealed that the number of children reporting sexual abuse by women has doubled over the past year.

The latest figures from the children's telephone helpline show a 132 per cent rise in complaints of female sexual assaults. Where the children specified the gender of their abuser, nearly a quarter of all calls involved women assailants and the majority of those involved the callers' own mothers.

For those interested you can view the posts I have made previously on mother/daughter sexual abuse and mother/son sexual abuse.

'Years ago, people were very shocked to hear that children were abused at all,' says child psychotherapist Diana Cant, who works with the victims of female sex abuse.

'The same is now true about female sex abuse. People can hardly bear to think about it or get their minds around it. We want to push it away. It flies in the face of the image of mothers as carers.

'It's important for people to realise that it does happen and, as we do that, it becomes easier for survivors to talk about it. Many children go through life believing they are the only people to whom this has happened. There's an enormous therapeutic benefit in realising that they are not alone.

'For it to be more publicly recognised is enormously important in helping people get help.'

Experts have known for years that women are just as able to abuse children as men are. Detective Chief Inspector Graham Hill, of the Child Exploitation And Online Protection Centre in London (CEOP), has interviewed several female sex abusers.

'There's this cultural perception of women as the home-makers, and that men are the sexually aggressive ones,' he explains. 'Society as a whole has bought into that and the law has been shaped around that. The reality is very different. But those attitudes are ingrained.

Years ago some people made comments along the lines of saying that child sexual abuse was so rare as to be 1 case in a million. We all now know how untrue that is. The same type of things have been said about people sexually abused by women. We are just now starting to prove how untrue that is also.

'When you start to talk about this subject, people tend to not want to know. They shut off because it's a subject they don't think is very common. They don't think it's something that warrants serious debate. As such, women tend to fly under the law enforcement radar.'

Yet DCI Hill insists 'ChildLine's findings are very much in line with our own'.

He adds: 'We come into contact with lots of female sex offenders and we know that there are a number of women who have a sexual interest in children and that they do sexually abuse children. The idea that's it's always a woman being coerced by a man is a myth.

When we can get people to change their perceptions and see abuse as a human issue rather than a gender issue we will begin to make much better progress.

Disturbingly, he adds: 'The majority of women we speak to will have abused their own children. Women tend to sexually abuse children who are close to them.'

This makes reporting such crimes even more difficult for child victims, who know that by doing so they may be kick-starting a process which will ultimate tear apart their family and, in all likelihood, see them being put into the care system.

'If you are being sexually abused by your mother, there's such a profound and primitive confusion,' says Diana Cant. 'It completely confuses sex and care-giving for both boys and girls.

'They stand to lose everything and they fear that, if they report it, everything they know, their family, will be taken away.

'And it's not just their lives, it's the lives of their siblings. There is also the issue that while one child may feel ready to disclose abuse, their brothers or sisters may not and may deny it, so there's guilt and confusion there.'

Some of the many reasons it is so under reported.


No doubt many will still struggle with the idea that women are capable of such despicable behaviour.

But until attitudes change it is also clear that female abusers will continue to hide behind the benign image of mother, aunt or family friend and that this tiny minority of wrongdoers will escape notice.

And the damage done to girls and boys will continue to go on with little to no help for the victims or their abusers. This last piece drives it home:

This is an extract from a letter written by Tony, an adult struggling to come to terms with the abuse he suffered at the hands of his aunt from the age of three.

'I know that the experts say that female sexual abuse is rare,' he writes. 'Don't believe it. There are many out there like me who were abused and who are now causing more abuse.

'I sometimes wonder how different my life might have been had my mother or someone else listened to the pain of a small boy. - Read the entire article here

The BBC radio had a show about a month ago on the topic of female sexual offenders. The show covered a decent range of subjects and is something I wanted to add to the site for people who may want to listen to it in the future.


You can download and listen to the program by clicking HERE

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.

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