The Silence of Female Sexual Offending: A Public Health Issue

The idea that females can engage in sexually predatory behavior against children and adolescence is difficult to convey to the lay pubic since most of society believes the notion defies conventional ways of viewing the gendered nature and roles that women traditionally perform. Despite this, scholars and researchers examining child sexual abuse are beginning to report on silent offenders (women and young females) and their victimizations that have been largely ignored by criminal justice personnel who are responsible for holding sex offenders accountable. We argue that female sex offending is more common than believed and is both a criminal justice and a public health issue. We also argue that until society recognizes that sex offending is not a gendered crime, more cases will escape the attention of both criminal justice and public health systems that are in positions to punish and treat where appropriate.

Children’s Vulnerability to Sexual Violence during COVID-19 in Kenya: Recommendations for the Future

This article discusses the latest research that reveals that children seem to be facing new risks of sexual violence in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patterns of sex offending against children coinciding with the implementation of lockdowns, curfews, and school closures may be shifting since the pandemic began. In particular, emerging evidence from Kenya suggests that child victims are younger, more likely to be victimized by a neighbor in a private residence, and in the daytime, compared to pre-pandemic. We conclude that situational crime prevention strategies that focus on providing alternative safe venues to reduce offending opportunities must be a central part of a public health approach to reduce children’s vulnerability during crises such as COVID-19.

Interpersonal and Affective Facets and Items of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) in Predicting Child Sex Offending*An earlier version of this study was presented at 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology.

Psychopathy of child sex offenders in non-Western and Asian population is not frequently reported. The study examined psychopathic traits assessed by the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) in three groups of male offenders, child sex offender, adult sex offender, and nonsex offender groups. Out of 451 offenders included in the sample, 445 recidivated after a follow up of 11 years: 27 child sex offenders, 174 adult sex offenders, and 244 nonsex offenders. Adult sex offenders scored higher in four facets and total scores compared with nonsex offenders. Child sex offenders had more problems in interpersonal (facet 1) and affective (facet 2) traits than nonsex offenders. More specifically, child sex offenders scored higher in failure to accept responsibility (item 16, Cohen’s d = 0.80) and callous/lack of empathy (item 8, Cohen’s d = 0.59) of facet 2 and pathological lying (item 4, Cohen’s d = 0.58) and glibness/superficial charm (item 1, Cohen’s d = 0.48) of facet 1 than nonsex offenders. Both child sex offenders and adults sex offenders were found to be more psychopathic than nonsex offenders. While facets 1, 2, and 3 did not separate child and adult sex offending, child sex offenders scored significantly lower in antisocial problems (facet 4) than adult sex offenders. Despite the limitation of using a sample of mostly high-risk offenders, our findings indicate that higher PCL-R scores in specific facets (1 and 2) and items (1, 4, 8, and 16) are more predictive of child sex offending and suggest insight for treatment strategies of child sex offenders.

Female Sex Offenders in Ireland: Examining the Response of the Criminal Justice System

This article focuses on the Irish criminal justice system’s response to female sex offending. As in other jurisdictions, very little attention has been paid to female sexual offending in Ireland. However, sexual offenses involving female offenders are occurring and are increasingly being detected and prosecuted. The article provides an overview of female sex offending in Ireland, offering a discussion of available prevalence statistics and an analysis of Irish cases where women have been convicted of sexual offenses. It is argued that, in light of the fact that women are clearly being convicted of sexual offenses in Ireland, it is timely to question whether current laws and policies on sexual offenses and offenders are equipped to deal with female offenders and what types of reforms are likely to be necessary to effectively respond to this category of sexual offending. The potential for reform is considered with reference to three key stages of the criminal justice process: (a) reporting and detection; (b) prosecution and punishment; and (c) treatment and rehabilitation.