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Original poster

Are there differences in the perceptions of male and female paedophiles?

31 replies

AgentZigzag · 23/12/2011 17:47

I'm thinking in particular about Vanessa George who was found guilty of sexual assault and distributing indecent pictures of children in a Plymouth nursery (I'm writing an essay/report if you wondered about my motivation, and although it's about children's eyewitness testimony, the case brief we were given made me think about how I felt differently about male and female sexual offenders).

My first thoughts when hearing about women taking part in this type of crime is 'what on earth would make them to do that'? and wonder about the experiences and circumstances that led her up to that point, other peoples influences on her maybe? Possibly abused as a child or adult?

And although I would eventually wonder the same on hearing of a man doing the same, my first reaction would be one of 'you fucking bastard Angry' .

Could society/people/the general public, whatever you want to call us collectively, be less inclined to blame a woman for sexually assaulting a child and diffuse responsibility for her actions on to her environment? Whereas men are assigned more personal responsibility for their actions and could stop if they wanted to?

I've asked it in the feminist section because I think it comes down to the 'caring' role women are seen as having, nobody wants to believe a woman would do such a thing. But if it's a role mostly constructed by and for men, surely the perceptions would be reversed and men would promote more understanding of other men who sexually assault children wouldn't they? (although I'm not saying men or women are 'better' or 'worse' than the other when it comes to assaulting a child, both are despicable).

Do you think society does perceive them differently?

Does it have anything to do with the different roles men and women are perceived to have by some people?

OP posts:
StewieGriffinsMom · 23/12/2011 21:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MillyR · 23/12/2011 21:38

A child sex offender isn't the same thing as a paedophile though. I haven't heard of any cases of female paedophiles, although presumably they must exist. Perhaps there has been a study done on the differences between male and female paedophiles.

Original poster
AgentZigzag · 23/12/2011 21:21

Thanks for your posts.

I've also wondered whether the fact a lot of women are 'unsupervised' most of the time with children could contribute to a sweeping under the carpet of the reality. To acknowledge it happens frequently would mean sefeguards having to be put in place in what is the very private domain of the home, which would be nigh on impossible.

And the majority of people have been at a vulnerable age and at the 'mercy' of their mother, and so maybe prefer to believe mothers hold mystical powers to get it right/be whiter than white at all times?

Your second paragraph LWW, rings true with Vanessa George and Peter Connellys mother, both women who stood by/complied with small children being assaulted and were portrayed as being led astray by the evil men.

Is their choice to go along with them to do with their individual characteristics and experiences do you think? That it just so happened the two people got together and did things that separately they'd never consider? Like James Bulgers murderers, more than the sum of their parts.

OP posts:
LittleWhiteWolf · 23/12/2011 20:31

In part I personally believe that society as a whole still find it difficult to fathom a woman (a potential mother if not one already) from harming children in any way, particularly sexually. I think it doesn't fit in with the stereotype we women are supposed to conform intonuturers, mothers, carers. For a man to do thata hunter--it somehow seems more easy to digest, although still horrific. I also believe that another part of this is to do with the victims being children. Children still do not have a strong voice to be heard, there are often worries of asking "leading" questions thus influencing their stories and of children having good imaginations on which to blame their fanciful stories of attacks and abuse. There is still an awful lot of consideration given to those accused of rape or sexual abuse, both against grown adults and against children.

(the next part of my post is upsetting, just a warning)
On a personal level, I will never forget reading up at work (a male prison) about an offender we had with us who had sexually abused and raped his partners daughter (12 at the time of the arrests) over a number of years. His partner, a woman, the mother of the victim, took part and actively encouraged these events, going so far as to force her own child to perform sex acts upon her. Fortunatly (I use that word hesitantly, but you'll see what I mean) most of this was filmed by the perpetrators and thus convictions were secured. I have to admit that although I was sickened by what the man had done, I was more horrified by the woman. I imagine that had something to do with the fact that the child was her own flesh and blood, but I think that deep down I was shocked by the mere fact that she was a woman. I went over and over it in my head, wondering what drove her to be so cruel in a way that I didn't with the male offender.

Malificence · 23/12/2011 19:36

Even as recently as 20/30 years ago , people would never have considered a woman capable of child sex abuse ( outside of specialised medical/SS), children simply weren't believed - it's only just beginning to scratch the surface of it now, I've read ( can't remember where) that there are probably as many female abusers as male ones.
Perhaps women aren't seen as quite so bad because they can't physically rape? If that's the case then it ignores the very obvious fact that you don't actually need to own a penis to do horrific damage to a child.

Kayano · 23/12/2011 19:29

It's the same when there are child murders in custody disputes. There was a thread about how a man had killed his kids during a custody dispute and the response was 'he did it to spite her, what a selfish bastard, child murdering scum' etc etc

A few weeks later another thread was on AIBU about a woman who did the same thing and there was a lot of posts about 'oh she must have been depressed/ mentally ill' etc and many expressing pity.

It's quite sad that people can't eitrr consider that the man might have been mentally ill, of that the woman may have just wanted to spite her ex etc.

I don't know why the differences exactly but I have seen them on MN and it does make you wonder. Maybe because the majority of us here are women who couldn't contemplate murdering out children so therefore struggle to comprehend how another women could without being 'ill' iyswim. I think it's sad for all regardless of who did it Sad