Understanding the female sex offender, part 2

August 2015

Women who commit sexual offenses frequently have abusive childhoods. Female dependency on an abusive spouse is frequently an important contributing factor. About half of the women possessed borderline intelligence. Independent offenders, however, could be characterized differently. Many were married as teenagers and lacked feelings of belonging or attachment. About half had substance abuse problems and they all possessed at least average intelligence. Mothers who engaged in incestuous relationships with their sons tended to treat the boys as age mates, whereas those who abused daughters saw the daughters as extensions of themselves.

Nevertheless, sexual abuse by parents is more often perpetrated by males or both parents than by females alone. Such parents tend to have problems with impulse-control, self-esteem and alcohol abuse. One researcher argues that the four components which contribute to the making of a child molester are: sexual arousal, blockage, disinhibition and emotional congruence. It is because of these factors, it is argued, that most child molesters tend to be males. First, the adult must be sexually aroused by the child.

This, the researcher argued, requires a conditioning to sexual activity with children or early fantasy. Next, the adult feels emotional comfort and satisfaction of emotional need. He achieves this through sex with children because of immaturity, low intelligence or problems with self-esteem. Furthermore, there must be disinhibition. This is produced through nonexistent family rules, substance abuse, stress, impulse control problems or psychosis. Finally, there must be "blockage." Age appropriate sexual opportunities are absent due to sexual dysfunction, poor social skills, bad marriages or bad experiences with age appropriate adults. Indeed, many instances of sexual abuse by mothers is an expression of loneliness and extreme social alienation.

Another researcher confirms that such women seem to have extremely infantile dependency needs as well as an emotionally empty or absent marriage. They expect their children to meet their emotional needs. They tend to be overprotective or possessive with their children and prone to alcohol abuse. Some have borderline personality disorder and have experienced sexual abuse, or struggled with substance abuse, in the past.

In a study of 62 convicted imprisoned female sex offenders in England, 63 percent of offenses with individual victims, the victims were typically children. Either the mother or the stepmother was the offender in 9 of these cases. The majority of the cases involved women acting as aiding and abetting a male sex offender. Half of the women had a history of a psychiatric disorder and the women never cited sexual gratification as a motive for their offenses.

In another survey, 625 female college students and 172 female prison inmates were asked about their early sexual contacts with males. 0.5 percent of college women and 7.6 percent of inmates reported early sexual contact and scored much higher on hypomania and schizophrenia scales. Female abusers, in general, tend to have been the victims of severe abuse, as well as perpetrators of the same. They tend to have engaged in physical and sexual abuse, chronic psychiatric problems, and substance abuse problems. ..Source.. by Daniel Calder