An Exploratory Study of Spontaneous Recollections of Female-Perpetrated Childhood Abuse by Men Convicted of Sexual Offenses

Abstract

Female-perpetrated sexual abuse of boys is not especially well understood, but the research into this behavior is steadily growing. Due to a constellation of factors, the little we do know about this phenomenon often comes from survivors, many years after the abuse has occurred. This study contains the interview narratives collected from 71 adult men incarcerated for serious sexual offenses and released in the northeastern United States. Although their experiences of abuse during childhood was not a specific focus of the original questionnaire, three quarters of the sample (75.7%, n = 56) spontaneously reported childhood maltreatment of some kind and a fifth of the sample (20.3%, n = 15) reported specific examples of physical or sexual abuse by one or more women. The emergent themes of female perpetrated sexual abuse, including their experiences of disclosure, and how they have since come to understand their own offending is discussed. Implications for practice and directions for future research are presented.