Female Sex Offenders

Female Sex Offenders

The majority of attention on sex crimes focuses on men as the offenders, an increased awareness of females as sex offenders has surfaced in recent years. Highly publicized cases involving inappropriate and illegal sexual contact between female high school teachers and their male students are a primary source of this growing attention. (Center for Sex Offender Management. 2017)Sexual abuse by women of children and teens is a subject most parents and caregivers are not familiar with. Female sexual predators go unreported because of a lack of awareness by the public.Some of the Female sex offenders are among of the staff who are working at daycares, schools, agencies and centers for kids, prepubescent and juvenile institutions. Adolescent girls may be reluctant to disclose experiences of sexual abuse perpetrated by a woman or female peer because they may begin to question and fear that others may question their sexual identity. Similarly, adolescent boys who are sexually abused by an adult woman may feel emasculated and may worry about how others will perceive their masculinity (Hislop, 2001). In addition, particularly if they experienced physiological arousal, adolescent boys may feel ashamed, question whether their experience was in fact sexual abuse, and fear that their disclosures will be met by disbelief or minimization. (Center for Sex Offender Management 2017). Cultural, professional, and research influences create barriers to reporting female-perpetrated sexual abuse at the level of the individual victim. Underreporting is also the result of an interaction between these unique dynamics and various factors already known to negatively impact victim disclosures of sexual abuse in general for example shame, guilt, fear, and threats.

The cases at the juvenile courts for sex offenses has increased significantly between 1997 and 2002, juvenile cases involving female perpetrated forcible rapes, other violent sex offenses, and non-violent sex offenses rose by 6%, 62%, and 42%, respectively. (Snyder & Sickmund, 2006 at Center for Sex Offender Management. 2017)

Sex offender treatment programs across the country indicate that roughly one third of programs provide services to female sex offenders; well over 300 programs served adult women, and more than 250 provided treatment to adolescent girls (McGrath, Cumming, & Burchard, 2003). While nearly 3,800 adult women and 2,700 adolescent girls were served by those programs, (Center for Sex Offender Management. 2017) This is a special population who need to be addressed with the correct treatment to prevent future crimes and to avoid harm others and themselves. The treatment must be provided by mental health professionals who have trained as Certified sex Offender Therapist.

Given the nature and dynamics of sex crimes, it should come as no surprise that individuals who commit sex offenses, regardless of gender, have several features in common. Indeed, many sexually abusive women and men show evidence of poor coping skills, relationship difficulties, cognitive distortions, and victim empathy deficits (Allen, 1991; Denov & Cortoni, 2006; Grayston & De Luca, 1999; Mathews et al., 1989; Nathan & Ward, 2001, 2002). In addition, with adolescents, co-occurring behavioral health needs, delinquency, low self-esteem, substance use, and family difficulties are common among samples of both girls and boys who have committed sex offenses (Bumby & Bumby, 1997; Mathews et al., 1997; Kubik, Hecker, & Righthand, 2002) (Center for Sex Offender Management. (2017).

Female sex offenders, usually, behave as victims after they have committed a sexual crime or sex offense. Female sex offenders switch from offenders to victims after they have committed the sex crime in order to confuse investigators and those who have to collect the evidence.