Just like most crimes, the number of female sexual offenders is much lower than the number of male sexual offenders. This is especially true about sex offenses. For a while, most people didn’t believe that woman could even commit a sex related crime; besides prostitution. There is still a stigma around the topic; woman are the victims, not the offenders. This is not true though. Female sex offenders have their own category. This is because their motives and actions are different than a man’s. The research done on female offenders can be bias because it is such a small amount compared to the male population of sex offenders.
Woman are thought to make up less than 5% of all sexual offences (Harris, 1979). This is very small compared to the
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That is almost half of the offenders with a drug problem and one third of them with an alcohol problem.
The victims of a female’s sex offender are generally younger than a man’s victim. An investigation was held in Arkansas in 1999 “and reported that 50% of their victims were categorized as 11-16 and 24% were in the 4-10 age range” (Tewksbury, 2004, p 368). Solis and Benedek mention a study that found 60% of males who reported sexual abuse had identified a female as the offender (1993). The female offenders who abuse young boys are suggested that they have a difficult time associating with adult males and they use the boys as a substitution (Solis and Benedek, 2012). This could be because of their own trauma as a child, they do not have healthy relationships with any adult male in their life. So, they go after children. It is also pointed out that females are more likely to victimize other females. One thought on why females victimize other females is because they have a male counterpart, who is attracted to females. According to Tewksbury (2004), the female offender knew the victim:
In Fromuth and Conn (1997)’s study of self-reported sexual perpetrators in a college population, 68% of the victims were identified as family members. Faller (1995) reported that in the sample of 40 clinically-referred perpetrators, 85% were mothers and 55% abused only their own children, whereas 30% abused both their own and other’s children.
Adding on to the general lack of responsibility that society places on female sex offenders for their crimes, there is one typology that appears to absolve the offender of any wrongdoing. Whether it is the Teacher/Lover typology developed by Matthews, Mathews, and Speltz or the current Heterosexual Nurturer typology developed by Vandiver and Kercher, there are many problems with the wording alone (). The key issue with both typologies is that it seems to describe a consensual relationship instead of a sexual assault. Gender double standards prove how these typologies are flawed. We classify a male adult teacher who is having intercourse with a young female student as a sex offender, yet we classify a female adult teacher who is having intercourse
About 43.9% of sex offenders identified both male and female perpetrators as opposed to 9.6% of nonsexual offenders. These individuals were exposed to more severe forms of victimization with a longer duration. Sex offenders endured an average of 5.6 years of abuse while nonsexual offenders experienced 3.9 years. Through the use of logistic regression analyses, Burton, Miller, and Shill (2002) concluded that method of operation and gender of abuser accurately predicts whether an individual will sexually offend. The analysis correctly predicted and placed 78.3% of the sex-offending males into their correct groups.
When I think of a sex offender what automatically comes to my mind is a creepy middle aged white man who lives in close vicinity to their victims. Through my research, I have found that in certain aspects my vision of what a sex offender is right while in other aspects I was wrong. When looking at gender it has been found that sex offenders are overwhelmingly male, however, offenders can still be female with an estimated of 14% of offenders in the cases involving boys and 6% of cases involving girls being female (Statistics). Female sex offenders is a concept that rarely if ever crosses my mind as I am so used to men being portrayed as sex offenders in the media. As for the age of offenders, it can range from young to elderly, but approximately one-third of offenders are juveniles with 23% of reported cases being perpetrated by individuals under the age of 18 (Statistics). Yet again a 17 or 16-year-old sex offender is something I thought could never be
The findings on the website show how female offenders have been perceived as less violent offender compared to males (NCJRS). Although, in the past females were perceived to commit minor offenses, but there has been a rise in females committing violent offense (NCJRS). There has also been a rise in the percentage of female offender overall, which younger girls represent a larger proportion of juvenile arrest (NCJRS). The reason for this could be many younger girls are experiencing trauma, abuse, violence, and poverty issues at home. For example, if a younger female leaves in a home and all she sees is her mother and father fight, which could lead her to think that it’s okay. She also gets beaten by her father and her mother never say anything so she might think it’s a way of life. This cause for whenever this younger female gets into a confrontation at school, she automatically leads to violence. The reason why is that’s all she seen growing up. The victimization that the female offender go through cause them to have different needs compared to male offenders. The findings on NCJRS states how due to the different victimization females go through they are more likely to be addicted to drugs and have mental
with Research conducted on the characteristics of female sexual abusers uses three specific case examples of young girls, ages: ten, twelve, and sixteen. In two of three case examples, the girls had reported being sexually abused at a young age. The third girl, age sixteen, did not explicitly state she had been sexually abused, but has close ties with her father who is a known sex-offender,; therefore it is believed that she has been sexually abused during childhood. A review of adolescent offenders of sexual abuse, under the age of 21, shows: “Chi-square analyses showed significant associations between those who targeted children and being sexually abused or having a family member subject to sexual abuse” The study also reports that those that have experienced sexual assault at a young age, and have been reported to sexually assault other children typically have poor relationships with peers and family members in addition to experiencing two or more instances of
However, the validity of the chivalry thesis is questioned by Box (1981) who reviewed the data from self-report studies in the UK and USA. He concluded that ‘the weight of evidence on women committing serious offences does not give clear support to the view that they receive differential and more favourable treatment’. This claim is supported by Graham and Bowling study which found that females were less likely than men to be involved in the more serious offences. The seriousness of the offence could explain the lower proportions of females among the convicted and cautioned than among self-reported offenders rather than leniency in the criminal justice system.
Most people tend to overlook women sex offenders compared to men who are sex offenders. Women are just as likely to be a sex offender just as men are. Typically, women sex offenders tend to prey on their students if they happen to be a school teacher. This gives them the access to hundreds of under aged children every school year that they can prey on sometimes, be in an intimate relationship with them. When someone hears something regarding a sex offender, we typically automatically assume it is a male who committed the act and the crime. Males tend not to report their victimization, which may affect statistics. Some men even feel societal pressure to be proud of early sexual activity, regardless of whether it was unwanted, according to The United States
In my opinion, sex offenses do receive special attention in the criminal justice system. I believe this because sexual offenses is a very different crime that impacts victim the most. Since it impacts the victim the most, it receives this special attention in the criminal justice system.
There are several risk factors that have been identified and associated with higher incidences of female offending. In 2004 greater attention was put in to place focusing on female offending. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention gathered professionals to explore and further examine the: causes, connections, and outcomes in juvenile female criminal actions to better comprehend and solve this faction of offenders. As we know boys and girls are exposed to several different risk factors. Risk factors of boys and girls relate in some ways and there are a number of dissimilarities as well. Professionals gathered evidence that show female offenders have suffered trauma, trauma pointing to sexual abuse and rape. Which leads
Young women are often the culprit of these crimes since they are more susceptible to rape and other sexual assault than men. Recent studies have revealed that over 25% of all rape cases involved rape cases. Similar studies revealed. The significantly high rate of women offended by male counterparts has received significant attention from scholars (Piascik, 2011). Most of these cases are framed in the context of masculinity. In the
There are interventions and services available to perpetrators in Indianapolis, Indiana. Child abuse in the United States can be defined as “the engaging of child in sexual acts that the child does not understand, to which the child cannot give informed consent or which violate the social taboos of society (Hertherton & Beardsall, 1988).” Based on the understanding of the child sexual abuse, perpetrators of sexual abuse will be referred to as perpetrators and victims of sexual abuse will be referred to as victims.
In our current society, gender patterns play an important role in our vision of male sex offenders, similarly as much as they do to female sex offenders. The stigma of a female sex offender usually revolves around someone in a nurturing position such as teacher who has an inappropriate relationship with a minor. These women are said seduce younger victims with their looks. Similar to men, women can also be sex offenders, despite the fact that a much smaller number of women are sexual offenders. It is not conclusive exactly how many women execute sexual crimes or how many victims exist. The stereotype of the female sex offender as an attractive nurturer who forms a romantic relationship with a minor is ambiguous, despite its portrayal in the
Sexual offending can vary along a broad spectrum of behaviors, from non-contact offences such as exhibitionism to contact offenses such as rape. Much of the research on the nature of sexual offending
Profiling of sex offenders often leads to many misconceptions. Often times an average person would argue that sex offenders are white uneducated males. Also that they are unemployed with a poor family history and past criminal records. This isn’t always the case, a much higher percentage of sex offenders are male but there are female offenders. Examples of female offenses can be a mother who knew that her child was being assaulted and chose not to do
The female offenders is common in the United States during this generation. People predict that only men commit crimes, but the truth is that everything has been changing over the years. Among male offenders,47% were alone, and 51% were with other males when the offense occurred. About 8% of violent female offenders committed their offense together with at least one men, by effect, about 1%of male violent offender committed the offense in the company of a female offenders. The female offenders has grown among the years pass by, and in fact everything of the history has changed, now it's just iconic.