Abstract
This chapter focuses on females who commit sexual offenses. Female sexual offenders are seldom studied, the most prominent reason probably being that the prevalence of female sexual offending is low. It focuses on adult female perpetrators of hands-on sexual offenses. It uses Dutch data, and under Dutch law hands-off sexual offending comprises a very heterogeneous set of offenses including indecent exposure, producing and possessing child pornography, trafficking of individuals, and brotheling. The chapter examines the criminal histories of a sample of adult female sexual offenders in order to answer the following questions: what are the characteristics of criminal careers of female sexual offenders, in terms of age of onset, offending frequency, duration, and desistance? How do these characteristics vary by offender type and prominent background characteristics within the group of female sexual offenders? It reviews the prevalence of female sexual offending and offenders’ background characteristics based on previous research.
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