Women Who Sexually Abuse Children

Until recently, the topic of female sexual offenders remained under-researched, and many incorrect assumptions and beliefs still surround the subject. This book is organised in to five parts around eleven chapters. It provides a comprehensive overview of the latest research in this often overlooked area and discusses both adult female offenders and adolescents/younger children who commit sexual offences against children. After an in-depth evaluation of research literature, the author then considers a range of treatment approaches and directions for future research.

Foreword ix

Acknowledgements xii

Introduction 1

Part I: The Nature and Prevalence of Sexual Abuse by Women and Our Understanding of it

1 The Prevalence of Sexual Abuse by Women 7

2 How is Sexual Abuse by Women Conceptualised and Understood? 17

3 The Nature of Child Sexual Abuse Committed by Women 25

Part II: Contextualising Sexual Abuse by Women

4 Potentially Relevant Factors in Sexual Abuse by Women 37

5 Male Coercion of Females into Sexually Abusive Behaviour 47

6 What Might MotivateWomen to Sexually Abuse Children? 57

Part III: The Consequences of Sexual Abuse by Women

7 Is Sexual Abuse by Women Harmful? 69

Part IV: Furthering Our Understanding and Developing Work in this Field

8 Aspects of Female Offending in Need of Further Research 93

9 Intervening with Female Abusers: Treatment Needs, Methods and Outcomes 111

Part V: Widening Our Focus

10 Mothers who are Partners of Male Offenders: are they Collusive and therefore Abusive? 129

11 Female Adolescents and Children who Sexually Abuse 149

Concluding Thoughts 167

References 171

Index 189

"The strength of this book is the skill with which Ford leads the reader through difficult and challenging material." (Youth and Policy, Autumn 2007/Winter 2008) Hannah Ford is a Research Psychologist for the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a charity that works with both victims and perpetrators of child sexual abuse. The sexual abuse of children by women is an area that has not, until now, been suitably acknowledged by professionals in the sexual offending field. Over recent years, the number of studies of such women has been growing steadily and this timely book provides an overall picture of our understanding of this issue to date and suggests where research efforts and practice developments could go next.

Women Who Sexually Abuse Children begins by considering the societal and professional understanding of sexual abuse by women and why, until recently, such behaviour in women was widely denied and minimised. The book moves on to discuss what is known about the sexually abusive behaviour of women and some of the potentially contributing factors to this behaviour. It also considers the particular effects on victims of being abused by a woman.

Although researchers are increasing their study of this group of abusers, the knowledge base remains small when compared with their male counterparts and, inevitably, many more questions still remain unanswered. Highlighting these gaps in our knowledge forms the focus of the next part of the book, before it continues to consider treatment needs and approaches with this group of offenders. The final section aims to broaden the reader’s thinking around this issue with a discussion of two related topics: the female partners of sexually abusive males and adolescent female sexual abusers.

This book offers comprehensive and up-to-date coverage for clinicians, practitioners and researchers working in the field of child sexual abuse or those working with offenders.