Words: 2978
Although there is not an abundance of research on female sexual offenders, throughout recent history a lot more cases have been brought to the public eye about females committing sexual offenses specially against young males. The majority of the attention that is strictly focused on sexual offenses is more pinpointed on males being the offenders in this phenomenon. But in recent years, there have been highly publicized cases involving young females, especially teachers that have committed sexual offenses against their male students.
This plays a major part in the vastly growing attention towards females who victimize children. The principle of the paper at hand is to evaluate in depth the observed journalism of females who commit sex crimes, to develop a summary of what a female offender is and the evidence of the prevalence of these offenders. Second, the goal is to tie in the typologies and stereotypes that aid in the support of these crime and reactions of these crimes. Third, I give an examination of the journalism and statistics of females who victimize children especially.
Fourth, I will bring about the theories, research studies, and policy implications from the research discovered and the future directions, if any, for the development Of broadening the research on women as the perpetrators Of child abuse. Finally, conclude with my opinion about the theory behind females who victimize children. The phenomenon of women being viewed as sex offenders, has not gained this attention until recently. Women may be viewed as the physical abusers, but recently this view as been altered.
Although, the problem with females who victimize children is a minority, its recent highly publicized cases involving, for example, a teacher partaking in a sexual act with a student especially a male student is the crucial basis of this sudden attention outburst. For the past decade give or take, due to society it has been stereotyped and assumed that women on the odd occasion would ever commit sex crimes, especially against children. Thought this is a serious problem, to date, “very few studies have specifically examined women as the perpetrators of child abuse” (Solomon, 1992, p. 474).
Females make of 5 percent of all sexual offenses against children, it may not be a high percentage, but it suggests that females may partake in a much larger portion of these sexual offenses. The percentage stays low due to the very low reporting of these sexual offenses to children. The true extent of this ongoing problem may be more widespread than the current percentage is estimating. There may be a lot more victims out there than anyone knows about due to his underreporting. Underreporting might happen due to the fact that the victims are too young to understand that what happened to them was abuse until they mature in their later years.
Children are sometimes unwilling to admit to the person that is closest to them, mother or father, that they have been abuse. The offender usually comforts the victims and makes that feel that what just happen to them is okay. For example when there is a male victim and a female offender, these sexual acts go unreported due to society’s influences, giving this young male a perception that sex with this older female is a “cool”. When in reality the female sex offender is destroying this young males’ mindset.
The young male victim will most likely drift into self blame, their self esteem will be drastically lowered, could lead to drug use and mental issues. This assumption is believable that females victimize children just as much as their male equivalent, the volume of cases being reported data is still presenting a that females who victimize children are still the minority while, on the other hand males are withholding the majority of sexual offenses. Sex crime information is extremely difficult to obtain due to the drastic amount of underreporting.
Both male and female sex offenders have several things in common. Allen stated, “Many sexually abusive women and men show evidence of poor coping skills, relationship difficulties, cognitive distortions, and victim empathy deficits” (Allen, 1991). Although males and females have many things in common, there are also many things that set them apart. As Dunbar, Grayson & De Luck, Nathan & Ward, and Bandier did research they came up these six differences between males and females: Sexual visualization is more among adult females and young adolescent sex offenders than male sex offenders. Adult women are more keel than men to commit sex offenses with a co-offending female, either willingly or coerced by the male. Offending by adult and adolescent females is more likely to occur within care giving situations. Rape is an act that is not as common among female sex offenders compared to males. The victims of adolescent female perpetrators are young children. Adolescent females are more likely to target both genders, whereas adolescent males are more commonly targeting children of the opposite sex.
Female sex offenders are more commonly assumed to be physically or sexually and emotionally abused as children. Female sexual offenders have frequently themselves been casualties of infancy sexual abuse. In an examination of eleven incarcerated female sex offenders compared with eleven non sexual offenders, it was noticed by Kaplan and Green in 1999 that female sexual offenders reported higher levels of child sexual abuse, particularly pinpointing abuse that happened within a family (Kaplan and Greene 999). Also female offenders are proven less likely than male offenders to use violence within their offenses.
Little still remains known about this particular group of sexual offenders, furthermore sex crimes increased from 990-1996 by 1 19% (Us Department of Justice, 1999). As stated before, most Women victimize children with a male as an accomplice. Though, adolescent female sexual offenders were a different case and acting alone. A review in Missouri, for example, pointed toward that in excess of females who victimize children, about one half, acted with a male accomplice present, versus almost ninety percent of males who victimize children acted alone.
Faller in 1987, reported a similar study in which, seventy two percent of females sex offenders molested children in the company of an adult either male or male, and over eighty percent of males sexually assaulted children solely on their own (Faller 1987). Also there was a study of abuse in day care settings that suggested a comparable blueprint of outcomes to Faller, with seventy three percent of female offenders acting with another person and eighty one percent Of males committing acts independently (Finickier & Williams, 1988).
There are two different types of females who victimize children. First type of females who victimize children is called a passive offender. Passive offenders are women who monitor the incidence of sexual abuse but do not mediate to stop ill-treatment. These women expose children to sexual actions. The opposite is an active offender. Active offenders are women who are women who engage children into various sexual actions. These women partake in cruel occurrences. Research suggests that most women are passive offenders.
Also, research is in favor of active offenders, “date regarding these active offenders indicates that identified female offenders may be involved in a variety of abusive acts ranging from seductive behavior, exhibitionism, or fondling of a child’s genitals at one extreme, to invasive acts of penetration, ritualistic abuse, or group sex (Kruger 1989). Findings also suggest that specific sexual acts may differ with the different sexes. For instance, women may engage in oral sex with a male versus females may be more likely forced into prostitution.
Whereas, other finding prove that both females and males will be victims of sexual intercourse from their female offenders (Marginal 1991 Five percent of females are sexually abused versus an overwhelming twenty percent of males are sexually abused by female sex offenders ( Finickier & Russell 1984). Statistics imply that girls may be the more common victims of female offenders due to the hierarchy of society, claiming that adolescent arils are the most susceptible to mistreatment.
Furthermore, Faller states that offenses of abusive women also suggest that female sex offenders are likely to molest younger children, children for whom they play a care giving role too (Faller 1987). As well as one half of all female offenders were proven to be directors or own their own day care center (Hankerer & Russell 1988). There are many different characteristics of sexual offenders. Most female sex offenders are between their twenty and thirty s. Research suggests that a prevalence of female offenders are not highly educated and have a low socioeconomic status (Spells 2001).
Mayer also did a study taking 1 6 female sex offenders and examined them. Mayor’s information found that a big chunk of abusive women in her study were living in poverty, experienced sexual abuse (Mayer 2006). She also found that there Was a small chunk of female sexual offenders that had attained a high education but still had a low socioeconomic status due to their moderately towering rates of unemployment and the stereotypes of being a homemaker, stay at home mother etc. The history of prior abuse can aid in the characterization of female offenders. These prior abuses can range from sexual, physical to emotional.
Mental health issues and substance abuse and addiction also play a part in leading females to become sexual offenders. Female sexual offenders have the tendency to victim maize younger individual LULAS and to target victims that they know versus someone that they do not know. They may also suffer from cognitive distortions. Research studies from McCarty in 2004, examined the characteristics Of mothers who sexually abused their own children. Research suggested that most findings regarding these female sexual offenders that victimized children, especially their own children had a high occurrence of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in their past.
Many of these women were subjected time and time again in their past to serious sexual visualization of their own, maybe even as adults. There is a very high relationship between being sexually abused in the past and it leading to becoming a sexual offender in the future. In a study of adolescent and young adult molesters, Chow & Choc (2002), found that with a hundred percent of female sexual offenders both adolescent and young adult that abuse young children reported between ages four and twelve being sexually assaulted and thirty one percent reported physical abuse as well (Chow & Choc 2002).
Another study of eleven women in prison or jail for sexual offenses seventy three percent reported physical abuse as children and eighty three percent reported sexual and physical abuse as children. All in all, research has found that being abused as a child aids in factors of becoming a sexual offender in the future. Though these studies may be improved by asking more specific questioning to the women being interviewed, also making in more of a broad spectrum of women, not all women who abuse children were abused when they were little or are incarcerated for abusing a child, they may be in prison or jail or a violent offense.
These researchers should open up the spectrum to a full range of women not just those incarcerated for child sex offenses. There should be different types of studies other than observations and surveys that are held by researchers. There are so many unreported crimes that occur using the LACE or visualization surveys aren’t enough. We need to go deeper in to the thinking of these sexual offenders. We need to figure out their rationale, by putting ourselves in their positions and posing as a sexually offender and seeing the reactions of the victims, to know exactly how the victim is feeling or just to know exactly how the victim may act.
Maybe the victim could encourage this crime to happen and not have the knowledge of it. If we figure things out that pertain to the suggestions above we would be able to possibly steer away the sexual offenders and also subside the temptation. There is a frequency of sexual and physical abuse as a child or teenager that could aid in the outcome of females becoming sexual offenders, but assumptions should not be made that this may be the only reason why girls become sexual offenders as adults, offenders that do not have a history of prior abuse are proven to become sexual offenders as well.
There are three distinctive typologies separating sexual offenders. First is “teacher lover”, this type first and foremost aim is at young adolescent males and “seduces” them into “quasi-consensual” sexual relationships. They are known for struggling with peer relationships. Due to these struggling relationships with peers they find themselves having a romantic and sexual relationship with an under-aged male, show signs of extreme control over their victim. There are many different cases that have been brought to the public eye about these so called “hot teachers”.
Debra Lag-eave was one of the most infamous cases. Also Beech Hill and Tragic Trap were very infamous cases against women who had sexual relations with a male student. Debra Leave, Beech Hill and Tract Trap, were all considered let off the hook. These cases got more media attention that anything a person could imagine which in many people’s opinions aid these women to lesser sanctions. The second type of sexual offender was the predisposed sex offender, as stated before these types of offenders had experienced prior sexual abuse, or experienced psychological discrepancies, or even deviant sexual fantasies.
This type of offender tends to act alone and mix physical and sexual abuse together. Lastly, the male coerced sex offender, is word for word the title, a female who is most likely engaged or forced into sexual abuse by a dominant male person. This type Of offender has a high fear Of abandonment. These typologies are not based on statistics, but were solely based on observations of a sample of 16 women. This observation thus, limited the ability to generalize these findings to a common population (Bandier & Checker 2004).
Briefly there was a study with information gather from official police and court reports, visualization surveys from Canada, K, USA, Australia, and New Zealand, about recidivism of female offenders. The recidivism rate review included a sample of 380 female sexual offenders. Throughout the five places listed above and average of about one percent was proven. There is an extremely low recidivism rate for female sexual offenders. (Kong 2003, IIS Department of Justice 2003, Home Office 2004, Australia Bureau of Statistics 2005, New Zealand Department of Corrections 2003).
There are many implications that go along with this topic of recidivism and also the main topic of females who victimize children. The implication that evaluators should be more concerned about the risk of non-sexual offender recidivism than sexual offender recidivism is the first suggestion of a change in the policy implication. What does it mean to have a low sexual recidivism rate? A low recidivism rate of sexual offenders means that there is an exceptionally outsized model that is needed to be obtained to establish the true valid risk markers for a true recidivism rate. Only time will tell about a true recidivism rate.
All these studies have management implications for both prisons/jails and the community. Each crime that is committed in this world needs a specific treatment for the specific crime. For instance, for sexual related rimes should focus mainly on sexuality, disturbance resolutions, communication skills, and increasing the awareness of suitable sexual encounters. These policies need to focus on how the effects of sexual abuse have on a child or adult. Lastly, the most important policy implication is providing all of civilization will a precise quantity of sexual understanding. Live that the future direction of these cases studies on sexual offending of female will continue, though there will be a steady decrease in the crimes being committed by females offenders. In my opinion I believe that the above tidies are correct. I believe that females who victimize children are mainly ones that have been victimized themselves as young children. Do not believe it is sexist to assume that women learn differently from men. In reality we are both atomically different, who knows it could be that females have estrogen and males have testosterone, males are considered strong and women are considered weak.
Chivalry plays a major part in this view of sexual offenders. Women are viewed as the nurture of the world, a homebody, should be taken care of. Also if a male commits a sexual offense they are often just thrown in ail/prison and looked down upon, not given the time of day to even defend themselves for the act that they were accused of. On the other hand I belief there is a glorification for females who commit the same sexual offenses and are receiving lighter sanctions for the same crime, which is wrong. Women have a deficiency in the essential skills to get their poignant and sexual needs met with the suitable partners.
I believe that everyone has a choice between right and wrong. Whether you chose to go one route or the other you know in fact what you are doing at the moment in time. The studies of females estimating children can be extended in a sparse amount of ways in my opinion. The only thing that would mainly change is the fact that they are only using women who are incarcerated or have been in trouble with the law before; I believe that we should take all different aspects into consideration to get the true rate of sexual offenses across a gender.