Both are registered sex offendersTypically, when someone thinks of a sex offender, the first thing to come to mind is probably some middle-aged guy such as the one pictured above. However, it is important to realize that females can be sex offenders as well. A growing category of sex offenders is that of female offenders. They currently make up around 10% of registered sex offenders, however it is important there may be more out there who are not registered or who have evaded detection. According to the CDC in 2005, 40% of men and 6% of women disclosed that they experienced childhood sexual abuse by a female perpetrator. Although, later studies have shown that females are just as likely to abuse males as they are other females.
It is a misconception that very few females will commit such acts by her own, not coerced by a male. However, it actually the opposite; women are more likely to commit their offenses alone than with a males (or other females) present. A majority of female sex offenders commit sexual acts against their own children, or other children in their care. While no child sexual abuse is good, child sexual abuse by a female can be especially devastating. In our society, women are commonly viewed as the gender that is more nurturing and safe. For someone in this role to outright abuse a child greatly affects the child's view on the world and their level of trust in people in general. Below is a link to a YouTube clip that speaks of a female teacher having sex with her male student.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEAQ561pDt0
It is important to notice some of the comments made on this video. Many of them are saying that the thirteen year old who she slept with was probably in heaven. It is important to think of it if the situation was reversed though: what if it were a male teacher who slept with a thirteen year old girl? It is this type of gender stereotype and way of thinking that allows female offenders to remain unnoticed, or not receive the punishment, or treatment, that they desperately need and deserve. This need to equally punish male and female sex offenders can be seen in the case of Tanda Rucker. Rucker was a high school coach in Los Angeles. In 2006 she was convicted of 18 felony counts of sexual crimes. She could have received up to 14 years for the crimes she committed, but instead, she was sentenced to one year in a minimum-security facility. Again, if it had been a male that was convicted of 18 counts of sexual crimes, I am certain he would have gotten closer to the maximum time of 14 years. This gender bias against viewing women as true sexual offenders can prevent the recognition and reporting or sexual crimes committed by females. Society, in addition to law enforcement agencies, mental health professionals, child protective services, etc., need to be reject the traditional myths of female sex offenders and replace the myths with the new knowledge that is becoming more readily available.
References:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEAQ561pDt0
http://www.isp.state.il.us/sor/offenderdetails.cfm?SORID=E09B9699&CFID=68646897&CFTOKEN=80933405&jsessionid=ec303ad06e8b0d02af0b3b6d45e2256cb163
Female Sexual Predators: Understanding Them to Protect Our Children and Youths (by Karen Duncan)
A few things here are very interesting to me. One of them being in the video they spoke about those who are sex offenders have some sort of mental disorder. That being said, are sex offenders capable of getting off the hook due to this "disorder"? Also, like you said in your blog, this young man was probably in heaven, which is most likely true. Due to this, I'm guessing a lot of sexual abuse that takes place with attractive older women and younger boys is very rarely reported, much less than an older male with younger children. I am curious about these possible statistics.
ReplyDeleteI think there are certain stereotypes and double standards when it come to women sex offenders. i think most people feel that men always rape or manipulate the young girls and that young boys are just willing or something. It is so true that if a man was charged with 18 counts that his sentence would have been much longer than a year. I think another reason that women offenders may go undetected is because it may be harder to prove than in cases with men because there can be physical evidence.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 100% when people think of sex offenders a male image pops into their head. I glad you brought this issue to hand. I am taking a class at ISU called sex offenders, and our professor talks to us how women can groom their victim better than a male can. So I believe that number of women sex offenders is high they just don’t get caught. They plan out their action better than males do
ReplyDeleteThis is very true and to the letter, people really on see males as being sexual predators. When I think of a sexual predator I think of the same person as yo do some creepy guy with glasses in his 40's and that is about it. But people do not seem to realize that women's incarceration rates are going up more quickly than men's incarceration rates. Then are getting more into crimes of a violent nature, and while not commonly know as sexual predators they are can be the perfect offenders, they are not looked at as much and not suspected of doing sexual predatory crimes.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Serena
When I think of sexual offenders I think of males because they make up the vast majority of them. It is an unfair bias in the criminal justice system but these biases exist in all areas of life. We are supposed to be treated the same according to the law and the lines get blurred. When I think of the rapist lurking in the dark waiting for their next victim I see a crazy looking man, not a woman. The example you used about the coach would not have occurred if the offender was a male. He would have certainly received more time than she did. I had a similar incident happen at my high school. There were rumors around the school that a football player was having sex with the new history teacher who happened to be very young and beautiful. One day they were caught by the police having sex in her car on the street only a couple of blocks from the school. From what I understand the only punishment she was given was that she was not allowed to teach in the public school system anymore but I have heard that she teaches at an all boys Catholic school. Not sure if it is true but it just went away after a couple of weeks. If it had been a male and a female student it would have been completely different.
ReplyDeleteGreat topic, its crazy to know that 10 percent of registered sex offenders are women. Society is very gendered bias in certain cases like Tanda Rucker. Women get away with "murder" generally speaking because they plan out acts and are more careful about it. I would not be surprised if there were a lot of sexual predators out there who were women. Its so sick to even think about.
ReplyDeleteIf you or anyone you know is interested in this topic you should take the CJS sex offender class with Dr. Miller. Obviously we are all graduating so if you haven't taken it then I doubt you will. But the whole point of the class was to understand what a sex offender was and the differences between the terms that are often thrown around. The media just seems to show the middle aged white man in the scary unmarked van going up to little kids saying that he has candy or a puppy. A sex offender is much more than this. It is a 19 year old girl and a 17 year old boy even with his "consent" its still not consented due to the fact that he is underage. It is the creepy middle aged man in a van but I feel like other situations are a lot more realistic then what we see in the movies. It is even the married couple in which one feels like they cant say no to the other because they are married. Very good article pointing this out.
ReplyDeleteFor those interested you can try this site http://female-offenders.com/Safehouse/bibliography-by-year
ReplyDeleteThe bibliography has over 600 entries on this subject dating from 1857 through 2012. There are also articles, links to documentaries, news videos, etc.
Interesting post, it seems like in society today when the topic of "sex offender" comes up everyone always assumes it is a man. As you stated in your article female sex offenders usually victimize children or their own kids, which is a shame in and on itself. However, to read that about 10% of sex offenders are women is pretty astonishing. I don't think I would have ever imagined that the percentage would have been that high. Those types of cases just don't get the media attention that a male sex offender does, but none the less interesting article, good post.
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