To a safer place? Victims of sexual abuse by females and their disclosures to professionals (original) (raw)
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Child Abuse Review, 2007
Female involvement in sexual offences against children is more common than is generally thought and has serious implications for the long-term emotional and psychological well-being of victims. Drawing on findings from: a comprehensive review of the literature; an overview of relevant literature and legislation; and an electronic survey of Multi-Agency Public Protection Panels; this paper explores the criminal justice response to female sex offending in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.The literature highlights that the way in which professionals identify and respond to child sexual abuse has been shown to be influenced by the gender of the perpetrator. Equally, whilst similar to male sex offending in terms of the intrusiveness and seriousness of the abuse, some aspects of female sex offending can cause particular problems for professionals. The fact that some sexual abuse can be disguised as childcare can make it difficult for professionals to identify this type of abuse whilst high rates of co-offending bring additional difficulties in determining the degree of female involvement and assigning responsibility. The survey findings indicate that risk assessment tools for female sex offenders is a key area requiring development and point towards small inconsistencies in the current practice of risk assessing females in the community. The survey also identifies the lack of treatment programmes for this group of offenders as well as drawing attention to the need for national policies and procedures, staff training and the identification of areas of good practice. Increased discussion and debate about how best to work with this group of sex offenders is also required. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Child Abuse & Neglect, 2008
Objective: The current study compared a sample of female perpetrators reported to Child Protective Services (CPS) to a sample of women from the criminal justice system. Instead of examining a clinical or criminal justice sample in isolation, this comparison allows a more accurate description of female sexual offending. Methods: Cases were drawn from a Midwestern state's child abuse registry, law enforcement records, and sex offender registry. The CPS sample consisted of 179 women, and the criminal justice system sample consisted of 57 women. All cases were reported to the agencies between 1994 and 2004. Results: Victims ranged in age from 1 to 18 years old (M = 9.98, SD = 4.37). As hypothesized, there were statistically significant differences between the CPS and criminal justice samples. Specifically, the CPS sample had a majority of victims under age 12 (74.9%), while the criminal justice sample had a majority of victims between ages 13 and 19 (73.8%). The CPS sample had predominantly intrafamilial victims (97.8%), while the criminal justice sample had a majority of extrafamilial victims (63.3%). The CPS sample also showed significantly more female victims (63.7%), while the criminal justice sample had mostly male victims (62.1%). Conclusions: There were significant differences in the victim's age, the victim's gender and the perpetrator-victim relationship between cases managed in the CPS and the criminal justice system. The results highlight the need for further research into child welfare and law enforcement collaboration.
Young people who have sexually abused: what do they (and their parents) want from professionals?
Children & Society, 2006
This article presents the findings of a small scale qualitative study of user perspectives in the adolescent sexual aggression field. Twenty four service users who had received intervention from nine different specialist providers completed a structured questionnaire about their experiences of professional involvement. Both young people who had sexually abused and parents identified the kinds of professional intervention which they found useful, as well as practices that they experienced as unhelpful. Young people and their families alike were found to value supportive interventions which gave them an opportunity to gain insight into the nature of sexual abuse as well to address their own feelings about their problems.
Female sexual abusers: Assessing the risk
International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 2010
Successful risk management within child protection is problematic and in many cases is a delicate balancing act between parental and children's rights. Reversing the expected gender roles creates a dynamic that may increase the difficulties of risk assessment even further. This paper focuses on women who sexually abuse children and discusses the particular problems relating to the assessment of risk in professional practice. The data was gathered in the UK and drawn from a series of qualitative interviews with child protection professionals, including 3 police officers, 2 lawyers, 15 social workers, 6 probation officers, 8 health workers and 11 counsellors. The interview data have identified some links between the gendered assumptions and the rationales used by professionals to explain the abusive behaviour.
2000
Researching and writing this report has been a process based on collegiality, friendship, and support from many people and institutions. We would like to acknowledge the following people and institutions for their help: Jackie Pantel, who, as before, efficiently provided accurate transcripts of the interviews, as well as other technical and moral support for the project; Lori Calimente, M.N., A.P.N. student, who helped greatly with the literature review and contributed valuable comments to our team discussions; Klinic Community Health Centre, Inc. and especially Paula Lewis and Maureen Daeninck who oversaw the financial and administrative arm of the project; Women's Health Clinic, Inc., which provided meeting space and other in-kind support. We appreciate the Faculties of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Medical Rehabilitation, and the Departments of Mammography and Dental Hygiene for their help with the informal survey.
Caring for victims of sexual abuse
International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, 2005
Recognizing sexual abuse to be universal, in stable as well as disordered societies and directed predominantly but not only against younger women, this article first considers legal definitions of sexual abuse and the forensic evidence health care providers may be expected to gather. It explores the impact on victims of historic definitions of rape, and legal reforms to dispense with proof of sexual penetration. The WHO 2003 guidelines for medico-legal care for victims of sexual violence are noted, which emphasize the need for physical and psychological care of victims. The guidelines show that goals of treating victims and retaining forensic evidence can create a clinical dilemma. Ethical issues concern management of this dilemma, probing whether patients' psychological disturbance may have roots in past sexual abuse, and the conduct of appropriate research. It concludes that much sexual abuse is symptomatic of women's sexual subordination and disregard of their human rights.
Female Offenders in Child Sexual Abuse
2021
In the United States criminal justice system, female sexual offenders are among the most unrepresented groups of individuals, and they have evaded detection and/or prosecution for many reasons. This chapter explores the characteristics and patterns of female sexual offenders based on the collection of available literature. We will discuss how personal trauma histories, mental health, substance abuse, and motivations of female sexual offenders differ from their male counterparts. Additionally, we cover how social perception presents female sexual offenders in a light that adversely impacts their interactions with the social systems and explore empirically validated myths, risks, and interventions for this population.