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Women Accused of Sex Offenses: A Gender‐Based Comparison
Author(s) -
West Sara G.,
Friedman Susan Hatters,
Kim Ki Dan
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.1007
Subject(s) - psychiatry , psychiatric history , criminal history , demographics , sexual history , suicide prevention , sex offense , poison control , injury prevention , medical history , medicine , sexual violence , psychiatric assessment , human factors and ergonomics , psychology , clinical psychology , sexual abuse , demography , medical emergency , criminology , family medicine , anxiety , sociology
Sexual offenses committed by women are likely underestimated and under‐reported. This exploratory study compares and contrasts women accused of sexual offenses and their male counterparts. Data were retrospectively compiled on all alleged female and age‐matched male sex offenders who were referred for psychiatric evaluation to a large Midwestern city's court psychiatric clinic over a six‐year period. Data were abstracted regarding their crimes, charges, demographics, social history, medical history, legal history, violence history, substance use, sexual history, psychiatric history and their victims. Like the men, women were most frequently referred for sexual predator classification evaluations. Ages ranged from 19 to 62 years, and the majority had children. Most had prior arrests. One‐third had a past history of psychiatric hospitalization, and most were given a non‐paraphilic psychiatric diagnosis. The majority of the women reported past histories of sexual or physical victimization. While there were many similarities between female and male sex offenders in this psychiatric sample, women more frequently had victims of both genders. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.