Abstract
This article provides a short literature overview on female child sexual offenders (FCSO) focusing on the discrepancy between prevalence rates from different sources, characteristics of FCSO and their victims, as well as the societal “culture of denial” surrounding these women. FCSO are a powerful social taboo. Even professionals in the healthcare or justice system were shown to respond inappropriately in cases of child sexual abuse committed by women. As a result, offences of FCSO may be underreported and therefore difficult to research. The lack of scientific data on FSCO lowers the quality of child protection and treatment services. We therefore deem it particularly necessary for professionals in health care to break the social taboo that is FCSO and to further stimulate research on the topic of FCSO. We provide some general implications for professionals in health care systems as well as specific recommendations for researchers. We end with an overall conclusion.
Highlights
A total of 231 Australian psychiatrists, psychologists, probationary psychologists, and child protection workers were presented with a variation of vignettes describing women and men who had sexually offended against children
It is likely that the diverting prevalence rates based on different sources are related to this biased perception and inappropriate handling of female child sexual offenders (FCSO)
FCSO are underreported and difficult to study which leads to insufficient scientific knowledge
Summary
Child sexual abuse implies the image of a male perpetrator sexually abusing a female child. Due to an expanding research field since the 1980s [1], it is well established scientific knowledge today, that part of all child sexual offences are committed by women [2,3,4,5,6]. One reason for the low level of knowledge about FCSO could be that FCSO are rarely registered in official statistics and are difficult to reach for clinicians and researchers. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that child sexual abuse committed by women seems to be a powerful social taboo [18]. In order to encourage the disclosure of FCSO, enhance the thematic research, and improve the quality of child protection and prevention, we deem it necessary for clinicians and researchers in the field of sexual health to overcome this taboo
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