How Can We Understand Women Sexually Abusing Children - Essay Example

?How Can We Understand Women Sexually Abusing Children? Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Women as Child Molesters 4 Theories of Causation 6 Conclusions and Recommendations 10 References 13 16 Introduction Sex based criminal offences and its collective impact caused on the human society today, has certainly become a major issue and thus, has attracted ample attention amid the experts from the larger realm of sociology. Courtesy media publishing and the continually expanding research bases, the world is today much aware of the issue, contributing further to the gradual development and all-inclusive nature of legislative regimes. However, with every new fact disclosed by the media and other informational channels, the completeness of the knowledge and understanding acquired by the societal participants and even the experts in the field gets challenged; as in the case of augmenting numbers of women being charged with the criminal offence of sexually molesting children. Vandiver & Kercher (2004, pp. 121) notes that “Female sexual offenders often go undetected by law enforcement agencies and are overlooked in the sexual offender literature…” Similar skepticisms concerning the completeness of the literature information and aptness of the sex crime related law enforcements can also be viewed in other research studies (Hislop, 2013; Ganon & Cortoni, 2010; Gannon & Rose, 2009). Such disclosure of facts and that too as an on-going phenomenon, also counters the social construction policies as well as the long perceived social norm to portray women as victimized due to sexual offenses and men as the offenders. In this essay, emphasis will be laid on understanding women as the sexual molesters of children, with due reference to causation theories and landmark case instances of the social issue. In accordance with these elaborations, inferences will be drawn with respect to the challenges witnessed by legislative participants in identifying and enforcing effective laws to resolve the problem, besides addressing the consequences faced by the victims in such criminal offences. Women as Child Molesters Somewhat stereotypically, following the conventional social norms and theories, women are usually portrayed as victims of sexual abuse. In majorly reported cases, adult men as well as juvenile boys are alleged for committing sexual offences by molesting females, where the victims ranged from young adolescent girls to adult and matured women. Abusers in such cases were majorly identified as either a family member or someone closely acquainted to the family or social circle of the victims in common cases (Hislop, 2013; Black & et. al., 2011). Notably, while men as sexual abusers committing child molestations remains to be a regular phenomenon, addressing women as child molesters has been a recent and rare observance in the so-called modern society (Thuet, 1994). Arguably, the persistence of these fundamental presumptions, portraying women as victims of sexual offences rather than as offenders of children molestation, has limited the scope of legal enforcers to practice an all-inclusive framework to counter such practices. Arguments have also centred to the debate that laws have been overlooking the fact that women can also be offenders to sexual molesters of children (Hislop, 2013). Certainly, women being usually represented as the guide and protector of children in the society, their involvement in such appalling criminal offences have jolted the sociology experts to identify the root causes that drive women to conduct these crimes. As argued by Robinson (2013), male offenders are most likely to be driven towards committing sexual crimes, preying on women and girls, owing to their sexual intricacies. However, women offenders preying on children to commit sexual offences related to a much wider and severe context of overall social failure. According to the statistical reports published in recent times, an average of 10,000 women, including around 7% of adult females and 27 juveniles, are convicted for committing child sex molestations and other sex crimes every year in the US (Applewhite, n.d.). Again Robinson (2013) reported that female sex offenders convicted for children molestations are very rare, wherein almost 96% of the crime was investigated to be conducted by men molesters as in the year 1999. Nevertheless, the statistical purview of the events reveals that in comparison with males, women are more likely to prey on children aged below 8 years, including both boys and girls, unlike the male molesters who commonly target girls as victims. An in-depth assessment of the issue reveals that around 12% of female molesters targeted children under the age of 6 years, while 3% female offenders were convicted for sex crimes victimising children aged between 6 years to 12 years. Another 3% of female offenders were identified to have targeted adolescents from the age-group of 13-17 years (Robinson, 2013). Similarly, there are other common factors observed in this context that advocates an entirely different paradigm of causation when compared to the commonly reported child sex crimes involving male offenders. As was noted by Carson (2006), majority of female sex molesters target children with whom they are well acquainted with. In the 18 cases studied by Carson (2006), 7 female offenders victimised child relatives with blood relation or marriage while a majority of 12 female offenders targeted their child acquaintances within their neighbourhood or within their social circles. Among the 36 molested children by these offenders, the victims aged between infancy to around 16 years, including mostly boys. The average age of the female molesters were again observed to be around 28.5 years, which indicates that these female offenders depict a similarity with male child molesters, where a majority of the convicts belong to an age group of adults (Carson, 2006). However, in the study of Cortoni & et. al. (2010), sexual recidivism shown by female offenders was argued to be “extremely low” as compared to male molesters. In contradiction to this statement, it must be noted that almost 90% to 95% cases of sexual offences remain unreported, mostly involving juveniles as offenders or child victims of female molesters. In addition, female offenders are also often noted to take benefit of the conventional social norm to prejudice the behaviour of legal enforcers or are overlooked being categorised as not so serious as those committed by male offenders (Vandiver & Kercher, 2004, pp. 121-122). As stated by Vandiver & Kercher (2004, pp. 122), “…females can often disguise sexual offending while performing typical care-taking functions”, which directly implies to the set back of the enforced legislative system as being prejudiced by pre-existing social conventions. It was also revealed by Vandiver & Kercher (2004) that female offenders committing child molestation, as acquaintance to male molesters, are often neglected to be serious enough and therefore, remain unreported. Perhaps, it has been due to these reasons that involvement of females as sexual molesters of children are considered to be rare and their recidivism is marked to be low (Gannon & Rose, 2009). Unarguably, there is a substantial need to identify the motivators for female molesters to commit child sex abuses. Theories of Causation The theories associated with causation in criminology, principally emphasises the causes acting as motivators to criminal offenders in committing the crime. From a generalised viewpoint, there can be a varied range of reasons due to which the offenders might get influenced and motivated to commit the crime (Siegel, 2012; Witte & Witt, 2000). These causes may be related to various paradigms of social framework in which, the offender has experiences involving the dimensions of biological construction deformities, psychological causes along with demographic, sociological, geographic and economic factors (Ministry of Justice, n.d.). Applying this particular notion in explaining the probable causes or driving forces steering the behaviour of female child abusers, it can be observed that gender discriminations and biological desires of the opposite sexes are influential in such kind of crimes. This can be further addressed with reference to the fact that in majority cases, women molesters target boys aged below 16 years, as was revealed in Carson (2006). However, a wider understanding of the scenario reveals that female molesters target both boys and girls, with a common concern of disguising the crime. As justified by Applewhite (n.d.), men, who commit sexual offences, particularly those engaging children and attempt spontaneously, are commonly forced by their sexual desires. But women offenders attempt in a more specifically planned manner, targeting their victims at the time of care deliverance, such as when nursing or providing childcare. This indicates that the psychological causes for female offenders to sexually abuse children are much stronger as compared to biological justifications (Gannon & Cortoni, 2010). As depicted by Gannon & et. al. (2009), female molesters committing sexual abuse on children are not likely to relate sexual desires or concepts with the gender of the victims at common instances. This indicates that biological causes are negligibly significant in motivating female offenders to commit sexual abuse on children. Again, when focusing on a wider research conducted with a motive to understand the causation of females abusing children sexually, it was observed that most convicts had a past experience of traumatic sexual abuse, i.e. being themselves victimised by sexual offenders at a young age. These offenders also decipher another common feature of being deprived in their childhood or witness sexual crime, which ignites a psychological impression within them to commit the same as a mode of revenge on their molesters (Applewhite, n.d.). As revealed by Thuet (1994), females or women who have experienced molestation in their childhood are most likely to commit such crimes. The same notion has been duly agreed by Cossins (1999). Furthermore, in an article published by University of Georgia (2008), it was evidently affirmed that child molesters, especially female offenders were commonly observed to be sufferers of sexual offenses. In comparison with the psychological factors influencing female molesters, the economic, sociological, geographic and demographic causes seem to be quite insignificant. Practice Case Examples As observed in the above discussion, psychological factors play a major cause in influencing the behaviour of female offenders to sexual abuse of children. Under the noted circumstances, the female offenders reflected a common characteristic to be victimised by molesters in their early childhood or being in the influence of any other form of psychological problem, which ignites their motivation to commit such crimes. The inferred notion can further be explained in-depth with reference to two landmark case examples, viz. the cases of Rosemary West and Vanessa George. Illustratively, in the case of Rosemary West, evidences reveal the influence of psychological impression and the other factors related to the causation theories of females committing sexual crimes involving children as victims. In the background of the case, evidences revealed that Rosemary West was involved in 12 murders with her husband, Fred West. In her early life, Mrs. West was brought up by her mother, single-handed in the latter phase of her childhood, while her father was reported to be prone to violent behaviour, which led to the separation of her parents (Crime & Investigation Network, 2011). This suggests that Mrs. West had to lead her childhood in deprivation and also witnessing violence in the family, between her parents (Applewhite, n.d.). Notably, this might have caused significant influence on her mental state, thus influencing her criminal behaviour. Mrs. Rose was also married young with Fred West, who was convicted several times for petty crimes. But it was since her young age that Mrs. Rose began deciphering her violent erratic tendencies from a very young age. In the later period, she was also engaged in prostitution, which altogether gives strong evidences of her psychological imbalance behaviour often victimising their own offspring, including only girls at their adolescence (Crime & Investigation Network, 2011). This indicates that early lifestyle, indicating the sociological and demographic factors also play a major role in motivating female offenders to commit such crime, apart from the aforementioned psychological elements. In another case involving Vanessa George, the other major characteristic observed among the women sexual abusers of children was revealed, which advocated that female molesters are mostly inclined towards targeting children in their acquaintances and/or those in their family relations. Vanessa George was convicted for more than 30 abuse cases in the year 2009. The convict was employed in a nursery school, which rewarded her with ample opportunity to victimise numerous children, both girls and boys (Morris, 2009; Morris & Carter, 2009). While no evidence of her being witnessing sexual abuse or suffering such crime was obtained from her early life records, she was found to be highly moved and influenced by internet medium, showcasing children as sexual objects, which ultimately ignited the criminal behaviour within her (Morris, 2009). In agreement to the fencings obtained through the study of causation theories of these crimes, Vanessa George deciphered common characteristics of female molesters, such as targeting children in their early childhood, as they shall not be able to convey being sexually molested and therefore offer the criminal a disguise (Gannon & Cortoni, 2010). In addition, working in a nursery school and having a positive as well as preferred personality within the parents of the children, she also took advantage of her socio-economic circumstances in taking disguise of her crime (Bexson, 2011). Undoubtedly, the rise of these instances has negatively embarked the formulated and enacted legislative acts to be ineffective in controlling these crimes. It is worth mentioning in this context that the Children Act 2004, following the amendment of Children Act 1989, failed to protect the early years from being sexually abused, perhaps owing to its failure to address females as molesters. To be noted, the act was affirmed to be non-applicable in the case of Vanessa George, which further raises a question on the effectiveness of the legislation in controlling these crimes, involving women as child sex offenders (Reid & Burton, 2013). Conclusions and Recommendations The overall understanding obtained from the study revealed various aspects related to the involvement of female offenders in abusing children sexually. As observed, early evidences of reporting such offenses, involving women as offenders of sexual molestation of children were unsurprisingly absent. It was perhaps due to the prejudices persisting in the legislative framework applied in contradiction to such occurrences, which treated women as the common victims of sexual offenses rather than offenders. The study further revealed that females’ engagement in sexual offences victimising children were supposed to be less serious, which might have contributed to the fact that most of such occurrences remained unidentified in the earlier period. In addition, considering the mostly observed trend in female offenders’ committing sexual abuse on children, it was observed that the offenders mostly attempted to disguise their offenses owing to which they preferred targeting adolescents and often taking advantages of their social replication as protector of children. The case examples of Rosemary West and Vanessa George also revealed similar attributes although the two cases were distinct in comparison under particular categories. It is to be noted in this regard that such abuses affect children severely, as they are often forced to remain silent, given that the female offenders mostly belong to their family or neighbourhood circle, often parents. In the long-run, victimisation of such offenses can cause mental imbalances within the victimised child, and motivate them to commit similar crimes in their later phase of life, as was observed in the case of Rosemary West (Briere & Elliott, 1994). On the whole, the study advocates that the society is also insignificantly aware regarding the issue of women sexual offenders committing child molestation, perhaps being sceptic of its severity and lack of know-how, often considering the issue to be a surprising and once in a while event. However, substantial awareness needs to be generated amid the society in order to deal with the issue, apart from improving the legislative framework. It should be noted in this context that implementation of an all-inclusive legislative framework can only be possible with the aid of a well aware society with regards to the issue involving women molesters, with due significance to the fact that the number of such occurrences are increasing rapidly in the recent phenomenon. References Applewhite, M., No Date. Similarities and Differences between Female and Male Sexual Offenders. The Diocese of Beaumont. 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