“Although concerning sexual practices between adults and children have existed throughout history and across cultures, whether such behavior was conceived of and defined as ‘abuse’ has been dependent on the societal values of the particular period” (Denov, 2004). In today’s society, sex offending has become an increasingly, concerning phenomenon that individuals must become more aware of. Although generally regarded as a male phenomenon, over time, female perpetrators have become equally important as male perpetrators. Due to the lack of public awareness, female sexual predators go unreported. As a result, society must become more aware of female sexual perpetrators, as many incidents of females assaulting both young men and women have gone unreported for some time. The following paper will focus specifically on why female sex offending is an important issue that the public must become more aware of.
Historically, female perpetrators of sex offenses
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The authors received, and analyzed data on 111 cases of female perpetrators, which was obtained from the women after they had been charged with sex offenses. Among the characteristics of the offenders under investigation, it appeared that offenders “emerged as intellectually low in the average functioning group, with a high prevalence of psychiatric or personality disorders, a high prevalence of neglect and (especially sexual) abuse” (Wijkman, Bijleveld, Hendriks, 2010). From the conducted study, it was also evident that the victims of the offenders were relatively young (median age 13) and mostly of the female sex. In 93% of the cases, the victim was either an own child, a relative’s child or an acquaintance. Often, the abuse was carried out with a male partner (Wijkman, Bijleveld, Hendriks,
Megan’s Law was created in 1994 in honor of Megan Kanka a seven-year-old who lived in Township, New Jersey that was coaxed into a known pedophile's house while outside her home riding her bike with the promise of seeing a new puppy. (Schapiro, 2014) Therefore, she was raped and murdered by this known pedophile who lived in her community named Jesse Timmendequas. Megan Kanka’s body was discovered in Mercer County Park. (Schapiro, 2014)
Introduction: When looking at female offenders and the perceptions people form of them, all the contributing factors, such as upbringing, lifestyle, and possible biological differences and/or abnormalities must be looked at. Females have always been perceived, handled and treated differently from men. The case of Stacey Schoeck will be used to compare her experiences with other female offenders as well as the male offender population. Stacey Schoeck’s Background and Criminal Case: The Valentine’s Day murder of 2010 became notorious in the media when it was discovered that the 38 year old wife of Richard Schoeck, 46, had hired a hit man to kill him.
The correlation from the countries highlighted with the issue at hand is society’s global response, which is ignoring the issue. Victims are have self-learned through society’s response towards sexual assault and rape is to keep quiet and to be ashamed that it happened to them. Victim’s result to blaming themselves and thinking things such as: “I drank to much”, “It happened because of what I was wearing”, or “I didn’t fight back hard enough”. In countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Dar Fur sexual assault and rape cases are not talked about or ever recognized, but used as a weapon of war. In Spain and the United States such cases can be brought to trail but are extremely hard to try in court.
To many individuals, sexual predators are stereotyped as “weirdos lurking in the bushes” or as stalkers of “women who walk alone” (106). From a critic’s perspective, it seems as if Card has overemphasized her allegation that rape is an institution. Here, Card is making the aggregate of rape cases into something that it is not. According to Card’s definition of an institution, there are “rules that establish roles and positions” as well as the “distribut[ion] of responsibilities and opportunities” (100). However, rapists and sexual predators do not have a set rulebook that they follow, nor do the rapists have a duty to carry out.
Female experiences are drastically different than male experiences and do play an important role in their motivations to commit crime. Daly (1997) also brings up the issue that the law greatly reinforces gender roles and expected victims. Despite all the work feminist theorists have done to attempt to reconstruct women’s roles as victims, the law is still reinforcing gendered roles of
The article explains how sexual assault continues to be a problem until this very day. When someone is sexually assaulted, it is very hard for them to cope with the fact that someone has touched them in the wrong way. For the ones who commits the assault, it will only become worse for them. A National Study says, “The main source of inmates’ knowledge of prison sex appears to come from their conversations with other inmates”(Response to the Prison Rape Elimination Act). Some inmates could portray the role of acting as if they are there for the victim to talk to, but there are other things that could result from this.
In 1997 the total number of sexual assault cases recorded in Australia was 14,138, 60 percent of victims were aged under 20 and 79% of victims were female. Statistics by ABS show in the year of 2021 there were 11,550 reports of sexual assault, 71% of victims being under the age of 18. 83% of the victims were female, an increase of 4 percent since 1997. Many sexual assault cases go unreported in fear that the justice system will fail the victims, statistics such as recent as 2019 show that 14,994 incidents were reported to NSW Police but only 1,207 finalised charges. This shows that the conviction of sexual assault is also a problem towards the victims. Although with the many law reforms in place, sexual assault is still a continuing issue in todays society with 1 in 4 women having experienced sexual assault in their lifetime.
On April 22nd an article by Reuters titled the “U.S. Conservative Group Boycotts Target Over Transgender Policy” appeared in New York Times. The American Family Association were among the first to disapprove of Target’s policy that allows employees and customers who are transgendered to occupy bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity. Target’s policy is geared towards an inclusive gendered usage bathroom system however, this idea was not shared. AFA claimed that this policy exposed specifically women and girls to sex predators because the policy "means a man can simply say he feels like a woman today and enter the women 's restroom ... this is exactly how sexual predators get access to their victims”.
The article highlights the arguments for and against the theory which maintains that female criminality is a gender pathway influenced by factors such as mental health issues, poverty, trauma and victimization of women. Over the last 30 years (1980-2009) the gender gap in arrests has narrowed and the changing pattern of arrests that lead to narrowed gender gap is not concurrent across the categories of criminal activities. Aggravated assault has accounted for a narrowed gender gap over the past 30 years due to a rise in female arrests which has more than doubled. The reason being said that it is not merely an increase in female offenders that have lead to this but an overall decrease in male arrests.
Written Paper 3: Laws and Order Sex offender legislation is the most important factor to try and keep neighborhoods safe from sexual offenders. Sex offender legislation is a form of prevention or punishment for sex offenders by enforcing different policies and laws that address sexual offending. This type of legislation is created to try and keep the public safe from sexual offenses by regulating the behavior of sexual offenders and by providing resources and support to victims of such crimes.
Feminist theory, argues that the basic cause of sexual assault revolves around the nature of gender inequality; that is, gender inequality for all genders, not just males and females. In the focus of feminist theory we analyze patriarchal norms, gender discrimination as well as sexual objectification. The focus of gender as the key cause, is however, flawed. While this theory does explain a large proportion of sexual assaults and cover both distal and proximal variables, it doesn’t fully help explain the largely under researched topics of same-sex assaults and the factor of vulnerability and power. Structural functionalist theory is also a peculiar choice.
Currently in the United States it is a requirement by federal law that every state have sex offender registries. However, each state has different laws regarding these registries and the requirements in one state can greatly differ in another. Laws have been put into effect requiring that sex offenders place themselves on the registry without knowing if they are truly effective, and whether or not it helps in lowering recidivism rates. There are many myths surrounding sex offender registries and a large percentage of the public is greatly misinformed. Sex offender registries were created to make the public feel safer by knowing where these offenders are, but are not as effective as we may think.
However, from the late 1970s through 2008, rape and sexual assault rates, as measured by the National Crime Victimization Survey, steadily declined (Mears, 2010, p. 82). This survey, however, does not consider all crimes that are considered sexual crimes. There is no existing data on all the various crimes that could be considered sexual crimes. Over the past 30 years, according to a new
Turchik’s article Myths About Male Rape: A Literature Review explores the ways in which mainstream media has satirized male rape and inadvertently created several myths concerning the topic that are widely regarded to be true today. The article further examines how the media promotes heavily stereotyped views of male rape with male rape exclusive to certain people and occurring only in certain areas. Further discussed is the idea that male rape is often depicted as a humorous topic in mainstream media which further promotes male rape ideologies and encouraging the belief that male rape is a humorous topic and something that can and should be taken lightly. Furthermore, Turchik discusses how awareness towards male rape in the media has increased, however, coverage largely portrays stereotypical views of male rape, male rape as consensual rather than forceful, male rape as an exclusive issue towards homosexuals and alleged male victims as liars. The hypothesis as well as the findings provide a solid foundation to my literature review as they provide proof that the acceptance of male rape myths is a very common trend among the general public, media and law
Their businesses make about 650 million dollars a year. Almost every year women, children, and men are trafficked worldwide, including people right here in the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security hosts a media campaign in January every year to raise awareness about this serious subject. It is important to teach children and adults alike about the dangers and threats that could affect anyone when it comes down to the topic of human trafficking.