Women accused of sex offenses: a gender-based comparison

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.