Abstract
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.
Highlights
Female sexual offenders [FSO] are among the most radically unrepresented sexual offenders in the criminal justice system
The CDC’s Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study revealed that nearly 25% of females and 16% of males who reported being abused as a child advised that at least one of their sexual offenders was female [4]
The typologies mentioned in this chapter have been built from incarcerated, registered, or otherwise legally identified offenders while keeping in mind there is reason to believe most sexual offenses go unreported
Summary
Female sexual offenders [FSO] are among the most radically unrepresented sexual offenders in the criminal justice system. Among the studies of female sexual offenders, one accepted explanation was that female sexual offenders might have more significant personal abuse histories than their male counterparts [3]. The CDC’s Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study revealed that nearly 25% of females and 16% of males who reported being abused as a child advised that at least one of their sexual offenders was female [4]. Female sexual offenders tend to have young victims, compared to male offenders, which causes a very particular set of problems for these victims, including neurological, behavioral, and other significant outcomes [5, 6]. The impact of female-specific sexual offending is a phenomenon related to, but different from, that generated by male child sexual offenders—the purpose of this chapter to explore to understand female sexual offenders’ characteristics in the literature
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