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Lack of recognition of perpetrators leading to continued perpetration against victims Lack of understanding and appropriate treatment for victims; victim blaming Lack of understanding of the significance of harm to victims Victims are not taken seriously, or it is suggested that they consented Betrayal of a child by an authority figure Lack of arrest and prosecution of perpetrators Lack of guilty findings; inappropriate findings of insanity and mental health dispositions for female sexual offenders Lack of recognition of recidivism Dearth of research about effective treatment of offenders Female sexual offenders are so rare that their offending is not much of a problem. Female sexual offenders are more likely to be victims of abuse themselves. Sexual behavior by women toward children is benign; women are not sexual. Sexual abuse by women does not harm the victim. Women who sexually abuse children are all mentally ill. Women who sexually offend are always coerced by their male partners. Female sex offending is a single event when it does occur; females do not sexually re-offend. Author, Year Categories Matthews et al., 199131 Teacher-lover Intergenerationally predisposed Male-coerced Salter, 20039 Abuse young children +/− sadistically Teacher-lover Initially coerced Vandiver & Kercher, 200432 Heterosexual nurturers Noncriminal homosexual offenders Female sexual predators Young adult child exploiters Homosexual criminals Aggressive homosexual offenders Wijkman et al., 201033 Young assaulters Rapists Psychologically disturbed co-offenders Passive mothers Understand the literature about the specific gender differences for female sexual offenders. Be cautious about making risk assessment determinations based on male sexual offending risk factors. Know the difference between traditional female sex offenders and females who commit prostitution-related offenses. Recognize the bias in reporting female sexual offenses, and strive for thorough evaluations that do not minimize the impact of female sexual offending. Evaluate for paraphilic disorders, despite the scant data on paraphilic disorders in females. Recognize that female sexual offending often goes unnoticed and that relying on others to supervise or acknowledge the behavior is insufficient.
