SHOULD THE STATES PROPOSE A FEMALE SEXUAL PREDATOR ACT?

Should the States Propose a Female Sexual Predator Act?

Sherri L. Warnock

Ø Debra Lefave, 25, pled guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior. She is accused of performing multiple sex acts with a 14 year old male student. She received three years of house arrest and seven years of probation.

Ø Pamela Rogers Turner, 28, pled no contest to multiple charges of sexual battery and statutory rape for having sex with a 13 year old male student. She was sentenced to nine months in jail and supervised probation for the remaining eight years of her suspended sentence.

Ø Danielle Walls, 27, sentenced to one year in jail and five years probation for having sex up to twenty-five times with a tenth grade student.

It is supposed that a Female Sexual Predator Act is necessary to eliminate the disparity in sentencing between male and female offenders by acknowledging that the victims of female offenders suffer much like the victims of male offenders. The Act would provide for the immediate protective and therapeutic needs of these victims. Furthermore, the Act would mandate sentences comparable to those given male offenders in similar circumstances.

Throughout the ages women have been relied upon as the nurturers of our children. “Sugar and spice and everything nice” is what little girls are made of. Well, in nursery rhymes that may be true, but as a society we must come to the realization that women can victimize children and can do so in many of the same predatory ways that a man does. Coming to this realization may be difficult for a conventional society such as ours. Still, we must face the facts for the safety of all children, and rethink how we perceive this heinous crime when the perpetrator is a woman, and sentence her accordingly. However, with a Sexual Predator Act already in place, do we actually need to write one specifically addressing the female offender? No. What we need to do is show public outrage for this double standard, and insist on equal application of the laws that are already in place. A Female Sexual Predator Act would be redundant.

The problem is not in the construction of the Act, but in society’s perception of an offender. The women named above and many others who are not named have various excuses or reasons for their perpetration: “I was going through a divorce.” “I felt unwanted.” Many of these women lend a romantic undertone to their offense, claiming: “I loved him.” “We needed each other.” Regardless, these boys were just that, boys…children, and these women took advantage of them. They initiated or encouraged a sexual bond with these youth, sometimes plying them with alcohol and drugs, for their own selfish needs, sexual gratification, and for the thrill of breaking the rules. Some have admitted that they were even more aroused by the idea of getting away with a shocking and forbidden act. Others have confirmed that they were turned on by the power and control they exerted over these males.

It is not completely understood why women become sex offenders, but the switching of gender roles may be the crux of it. Psychologist A. J. Cooper points out in a Canadian news article that many of these women are immature, dependent, and sensitive to rejection, so they seek out younger people, who are less likely to reject them and they create situations where they are in control. He feels this may be the result of a combination of things such as heightened sexual desires of their own, a lack of impulse control, and an imitation of abuse that they once experienced themselves.

In Practical Aspects of Rape Investigation, Julia Hislop and Janet Warren observe that some women may seek out revenge against an absent male partner, or perhaps the man in their life is unfaithful and the male child becomes a substitute. Regardless of the sex of the child or the sex of the perpetrator, such abuse has long-term detrimental effects on the children. It “serves as a contagion that follows victims into the next generation with repetitious and cyclical traumatization of others.” These authors offer a typology of the female offender:

· Facilitators - women who purposely help men come in contact with children for sexual reasons.

· Reluctant partners – women who have lived with the same man for many years, and who abide by this man’s sexual manipulation of children out of an anticipation of being deserted. They fear that if they don’t cooperate, their significant other will withdraw their “love,” money, or more. The man they are dependant on in so many ways will ultimately leave them.

· Initiating partner – women who desire sex with children and who wish to harm them in this way, whether they do it themselves or watch while another perpetrates the fantasy.

· Seducers and lovers – women who desire child lovers and who develop an intense attachment for their victim. There dominance is sustained through the giving and withholding of their love (sex).

· Pedophiles – women who have an exclusive and sustained sexual interest in prepubescent children.

· Psychotic – women who have inappropriate sexual contact with children as a result of a serious mental disorder.

These authors point out that, women are rarely pedophiles. They are more likely to commit these crimes when coerced by a male partner or as seducers/lovers.

Laurie Goldman, a Boston psychologist, revealed in her 1993 doctoral dissertation, “Female Sex Offenders: Societal Avoidance of Comprehending the Phenomenon of Women Who Sexually Abuse Children” that agencies designed to protect children often reject disclosures of sexual abuse when the accused is female. Goldman quotes a Washington state judge who dismissed just such a case declaring that “women don’t do things like this.” An Iowa State University sociologist, Craig Allen, confirmed Goldman’s findings in his study “Women and Men Who Sexually Abuse Children: A Comparative Analysis.” He refers to this phenomenon as “gate keeping.” It is believed by some officials at the Canadian Children’s Rights Council that Allen’s theory of “gate keeping” could explain how female perpetrator’s make few appearances in clinical case studies and why, when they do appear, they are ordinarily portrayed as psychotic or otherwise severely disturbed. According to Allen, “by the time female offenders could be referred to a therapist for treatment, only those women would be left whose behaviors were so deviant that their abusiveness could not be denied at any of the preceding ‘gates’ in the system.”

Another possible explanation for a lack of clinical referral is a lack of reporting. Disclosures by children still constitute the bulk of offense reporting, and children are often reluctant to report because of their dependence on their mothers, especially in single parent households. Such a disclosure would result in the loss of the only caregiver the child has. Likewise if the female offends in partnership with a male, disclosure would result in the child being placed in foster care. Such a proposition is obviously frightening to a child who has known no other way of life.

Not all offenders are mothers or step-mothers of their victims. In fact, more often then not, female perpetrators are the neighbors, baby-sitters, or other trusted acquaintances of the victim, as revealed in a 1987 New Jersey medical study of twenty-five teenage males, which appeared in the American Journal of Psychiatry. However, this is just one study. In looking at numerous studies on this topic, I was unable to ascertain any results that were remotely similar let alone close enough to make any definite inference. The National Resource Center on Child Sexual Abuse claims that there are too many inconsistencies in research applications, definitions of sexual abuse, and absolutely no standardization in reporting, resulting in inconclusive data regarding this issue. They affirm that the hardcore numbers that everyone is looking for concerning various aspects of the crime and how widespread it is are disappointingly not available.

Finally, another explanation for why female perpetration goes undetected and why its prevalence is so obscured may be in the modus operandi of the offender. Minneapolis psychiatrist, Peter Dimock and Mic Hunter, a psychologist from St. Paul, and author of Abused Boys: The Neglected Victim of Sexual Abuse as well as editor of The Sexually Abused Male (Volumes I and II), agree that there is a pattern in client’s reports of female perpetrated abuse. It seems that approximately twenty-five percent of those abused sexually by a female experienced the abuse as subtle or seductive; the act being very covert and disguised as something other then sexual contact. Something more akin to dating, or care-giving, such as the application of medicinal ointments or the insertion of suppositories or enemas, or exposing herself with the intention of arousal, but all under the guise of normal behavior. Thus, it is difficult to recognize abuse as abuse.

Hunter goes on to describe a societal belief or myth that the male is always responsible for the initiation of sex, which can compound the boys sense of guilty with additional feelings of being responsible for his own humility. Furthermore, there is the fantasy of the rite of passage into manhood which is personified in such movies as “Summer of 42,” “Men Don’t Leave,” and “My Tutor.” During training sessions with prosecutors and district attorney’s, Hunter has observed that when an official attempts to bring charges against women for various acts of sexual misconduct, outside of prostitution, the male attorney’s will inevitably respond with jocularity and reply that tax payers money should not be wasted pursuing an end to this most coveted rite of passage. In response to a sixteen year old babysitters’ molestation of an eight year old boy, one prosecutor is purported to have said, “So he sewed his oats early. No big deal!”

Well, yeah big deal! Victims of child sexual abuse, whether the perpetrator is male or female, experience a myriad of mental health issues ranging from depression, to post trauma stress disorder, to gender identity confusion. Survivors of female abusers find it particularly difficult to reveal specifics about their experiences because they fear they will not be believed. This fear of rejection may increase their feelings of guilt and shame, developing into an even deeper sense of isolation. In our homophobic culture it is even more difficult for someone to believe that a woman might molest a female child. One therapist reported to a child protective agency that she believed her client intended to molest her three year old niece. The client in question was receiving treatment for an eating disorder. She lived with her sister. The client disclosed that she felt her niece was “coming on” to her, and that she had decided that she would have sex with the child because she knew she would be kind to her. The social worker at the agency graciously took the information and said they would look into the matter, but the therapist left with the feeling that the information was taken sort of “tongue in cheek.”

Ellen R. Stapleton, writing for the Associated Press, reported on law suits being filed against an order of nuns that staffed an orphanage in Louisville, Kentucky decades ago. Other similar cases against nuns emerged in Connecticut and Boston. The Catholic dioceses are aggrieved and offering their full cooperation with ongoing investigations. Unfortunately, many of those accused have expired and the rest are very old, living out their remaining days in nursing homes. It is assumed that the nuns perpetrating such acts were exploited by male clergy. Perhaps that is the case for some, but I wonder… Because they are women, we also assume that they want to care for and protect children.

Assumptions aside, the truth is, if we hold males responsible for initiating sexual acts, then in all likelihood an eight year old boy could be charged with raping a sixteen year old babysitter. Far fetched? Not to a Salt Lake City mother who had to come to the defense of her son when a game of ‘truth or dare” got out of hand. Prosecutors claimed that, even though the game was initially the babysitter’s idea, the boy was a willing participant. Yes, the girl had her way with the boy, but the boy was responsible for the act. Ridiculous? The prosecutors eventually dropped the charges, and expressed no remorse. But, this mother remains concerned.

Its time to stop being ridiculous and recognize that women, even pretty women, married women, mothers, teachers, babysitters, and nuns can “cross the line.” Sex provides equal opportunity to both genders. Crime provides equal opportunity to both genders, and is not age discriminate. Its time women were held equally accountable for their sexual nature and it is time to stop ignoring that women have a sexual nature. Every time a woman is shown favoritism in sentencing the American people should be outraged. We don’t need a separate act to bring attention to this matter. Those of us in professional fields responsible for the safety of our children need to stop making assumptions based on biased stereotypes and come to grips with reality. It is time we act with compassion and inclusion seeking justice and fair sentencing.