Paul Clark
Independent Sexual Abuse Consultant
Independent Assessment & Consultancy
PO Box 128, Carnforth, LA5 5AG
07549 046 121
mail.iac@tiscali.co.uk
www.iac-assessment.com
Understanding male and
female sex offenders
Commonalities, differences
and best practice
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Review core information/models
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Consider practice learning & research
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Male and female offenders –
similarities and differences
Review key issues in managing risk
Historic perceptions
• Denial
• Child blaming – the ‘promiscuous child’
• Family dysfunction - ‘mother blaming’
• A ‘one-off’
• Compulsive/repetitive predatory behaviour
• ‘Beasts’
• But sex offenders not homogenous group
• Multi-factor triggers to sexual offending
Starting with ourselves
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Attitudes to abusers
Emotional comfort
Practice experience & training
Knowledge base
Models and theoretical understanding
Practice skills
Starting with ourselves
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Attitudes to abusers
Impact of the work on us
Our own victim experiences?
Professional Accommodation
Syndrome
(Tony Morrison - based on Roland C. Summit’s
‘Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome’)
Child Sexual Abuse
Accommodation Syndrome
Roland Summit, Child Abuse & Neglect, Vol. 7, 1983, Pergammon Press
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Impediments to disclosure:
Secrecy
Helplessness
Entrapment and accommodation
Delayed partial disclosure
Retraction
Ripples of impact
MANAGERS
CO-WORKERS
SERVICE
FAMILY
USERS
RELATIONSHIPS
FRIENDS
AGENCY
PEERS
COLLEAGUES
Starting with ourselves
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Experience of working with reluctant
service users
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Knowledge base – theoretical models of
sexually abusive behaviour
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Practice skills at our disposal
• motivational approach/enabling style
• managing resistance
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‘Empathic’ approach
Sex Offenders
Specialists or Generalists?
Are female sex offenders different to
male offenders?
Female Sex Offenders - Prevalence
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Official statistics in US, UK & Canada
1.2 – 8% of those charged with any sexual offences were
female
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1.5 – 4% of those convicted of sexual assaults against
children were female
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Finkelhor & Russell 1984
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6% of abuse of females
14% of abuse of males and
13% of abuse of females
24.62% of abuse of males - either alone or with a partner
Prevalence
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Female offenders 1:20
4-5%
Cortoni and Hanson 2005 & 2009
Maybe understates the size of the problem
Female offenders – hidden from criminal
justice by diverting to mental health
system
A significant problem despite apparent
small %
Prevalence
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Adolescents account for about a third of all sex
crime
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Less than 5% of sexual offences against children
are known to have been committed by women
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About 20% of those convicted of sexual offences
against children are reconvicted for similar
offences
Prof. Don Grubin Police Research Paper 1998
Fantasy &
Masturbation
Thinking
errors
Targeting
Grooming
- Environment
Sexual abuse
- Child
Male Offenders
Crossover:
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Male and female victims
Age range of victims
Relationship to victims – intra- and
extra-familial
Victims known to them & strangers
Contact & non-contact offences
Male offenders
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Greater crossover by gender the
younger the age of the victim
Greater gender focus for rapists –
teenage and adult women
R Laws and David Thornton
Female offenders - Typology
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Male coerced -pressured into offending – fear of
abandonment
• Also initially coerced
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acting alone/initiating
Predisposed – acting alone, deviant sexual
fantasies, targeting own children
Teacher/Lover – struggling in relationships,
‘regressing’ and distorted perceptions of romantic
or sexually mentoring relationships with underaged adolescent of their sexual preference
Mathews et al 1989
Male Offenders
Childhood history of:
witnessing sexual abuse
victim of emotional abuse
victim of sexual abuse (studies show 40-80%)
victim of violence
witnessing violence
isolation/emotional separation
family dysfunction
Affecting socialisation and sexualisation.
Significant relationship between sexual abuse in
childhood and subsequently as offender in
adulthood - but not in itself a single explanation
NB. and not a predictor of abusive behaviour
Female offenders
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Histories of childhood maltreatment incl. sexual
abuse
MH symptoms, personality disorders, substance
abuse
Difficulties in intimate relationships (or absence)
Less predatory -Tend to commit offences against
known victims
More likely to commit offences with intimate
partner
Male Offenders
Characteristics:
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Emotional loneliness
Inability to cope with negative feelings
Assertiveness deficits
Poor self-image
Poor problem solving ability
External locus of control
High impulsivity
Above average levels of congruence with children
Above average levels of victim empathy
distortions
Male Offenders
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1.
2.
3.
4.
Finkelhor’s 4 pre-conditions for
sexual abuse
Motivation to sexually abuse
Overcoming internal inhibitors
Overcoming external inhibitors
Overcoming the child’s ‘resistance’
Female & Male offenders
Similarities
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Poor coping skills
Relationship difficulties
Cognitive distortions
Victim empathy deficits
Adolescents – low self-esteem,
substance use, family difficulties
Female & Male offenders
Differences
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Sexual victimisation history more
likely for female offenders – often
more extensive and severe
Female offenders more likely to cooffend
Female offenders more likely to
abuse in care-giving situation
Female & Male offenders
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Rape less common for women – but more
likely to be same gender
Young children more likely victims of
female adolescents
Adolescent females more likely to
victimise both genders. Adolescent males
more likely to abuse single gender.
Female & Male offenders
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Power & control - major issue in
offending
Experiencing power of being in control
Sexual arousal in a ‘safe’ environment
(i.e. feeling unthreatened)
Managing risk
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Gathering information – what is
relevant?
Sources of information
Capacity of partner to act as safe
carer?
Gathering information
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Victims & offenders disclose in layers
– function of denial (situational)
Victim statement (especially if
historical)
Collateral information from other
sources – agency case files, family,
friends
Making initial judgements about
contextual risk
Safe decision-making
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Child protection plan
Remove alleged abuser from family
home where possible until an
assessment indicates otherwise
Contact arrangements
Define specific contact times/venues
Define specific prohibited behaviours
– bedtime/bathtime/cuddles etc
Specialist assessment
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Actuarial assessment where
appropriate (males)
Psychometric questionnaires
Structured guidelines (RSVP) (Males
18+) (or 16+ & females with
considerable caution)
Clinical interviews
Specialist Assessment
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Assessment of risk of sexual harm
Assess partner’s capacity to protect
Assess ability to engage (in
treatment)
Identify treatment needs
• Individual or groupwork
• Offence focused
• For abuser and ‘protective’ carer
Working with reluctance
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Motivational approach to deal with
reluctance and resistance
• Motivational Interviewing – Miller & Rollnick 1991
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Prochaska & Diclemente’s
transtheoretical model of change
Model of change – adapted from Prochaska & Diclemente,
1982
Maintenance
Internalising new
thoughts and
behaviour
Flitting
thoughts
unintentional
Action
Rehearsing new
thoughts and
behaviours
Lapse
Decision
Relapse
expected
Fantasy
Remaining
in high risk
situations
Grooming
behaviour
intentional
Contemplation
Weighing up pros
& cons
Pre-contemplation – defensive, denial,
projecting blame, depressed, unaware
Treatment needs
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Monitoring & control
Child protection issues
Sexual assault cycle/abc matrix
Victim awareness/empathy
Cognitive distortions (thinking errors)
Sexual arousal
Sexual history
Feelings
Intimacy in relationships
Relapse prevention planning
Couple work
Female offenders
Gender responsive intervention:
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Establishing & maintaining healthy relationships
Promoting autonomy and self-sufficiency
• (esp. for coerced offenders)
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Developing positive self-concept
Assertiveness and social competency
Increased emotional management
Reducing self-harming behaviours
Ensuring healthy sexual expression and
boundaries
Center for sex offender management. US Dept of Justice.
Family restoration?
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Outcome of specialist assessments
• Risk
• Capacity to protect
• Capacity to engage in meaningful treatment
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Completion of treatment needs
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Couple work to empower protective carer
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Consideration of child(ren)’s wishes and
feelings
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We are still at an early stage in developing our
thinking about female offenders
Public outrage to male and especially female
offenders – still seen as more deviant from the
typical female role – mother/carer
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There appear to be both significant differences
and similarities
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Neither gender offender is an homogenous group
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Still learning about the sexual offending of both
genders
Paul Clark
Independent Sexual Abuse Consultant
Independent Assessment & Consultancy
PO Box 128, Carnforth, LA5 5AG
07549 046 121
mail.iac@tiscali.co.uk
www.iac-assessment.com