Female child molesters

Statistically, females prosecuted for the sexual abuse of children make up a comparatively low percentage of convicted child molesters. However, due to issues relating to the reporting of sexual abuse and societal views of female sex offenders, trying to ascertain an accurate number of female child molesters is challenging.

Recidivistic female sex offenders make up such a small percentage that little is known about them as a group.

Sexual abuse is defined by C. D. Kasl (1990) as:

Sexual abuse of children by female offenders is starting to be more closely looked into. It is not uncommon for a male who has been sexually abused by a woman in his youth to receive positive or neutral reactions when he tells people about the abuse. Males and females sexually abused by male offenders, on the other hand, are more readily believed.

According to a study done by Cortoni and Hanson in 2005, 4-5% of all recorded sexual abuse victims were abused by female offenders. However, the Cortoni study numbers don't match the official statistics by The United States Department of Justice which found a rate of 8.3% for “Other sexual offenses” for females and The Australian Bureau of Statistics found a rate of 7.9% for “Sexual assault and related offences” for females.

Other studies have found rates to be much higher. For example:

In a study of 3,586 of the cases of childhood sexual abuse, 9% had a female-only perpetrator and other 9% had both male and female perpetrators.

A separate American study found that the sexual abuse of children by women, primarily mothers, constituted 25% (approximately 36 000 children) of the sexually abused victims from a population of over one million abused children. This statistic is thought to be underestimated due to the tendency of non-disclosure by victims.

According to a major 2004 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education - In studies that ask students about offenders, sex differences are less than in adult reports. The 2000 American Association of University Women (AAUW) data indicate that 57.2 percent of all students report a male offender and 42.4 percent a female offender with the Cameron et al. study reporting nearly identical proportions as the 2000 AAUW data (57 percent male offenders vs. 43 percent female offenders), however this report appears to focus on offenders within the education system, and not necessarily offenders in general. According to a 2011 CDC report there are an estimated 4,403,010 female victims of sexual violence that had a female perpetrator.

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