Case Studies of Female Sex Offenders in the Correctional Service of Canada

• NCJ Number: 172585
• Author(s): F Syed; S Williams
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 54 pages
• Corporate Author: Canada Correctional Service
• Sale Source: Canada Correctional Service
• Language: English
• Country: Canada

Annotation

This study used information obtained from the Offender Management Systems and hard copy files to examine cases of 19 female sex offenders incarcerated in Canada.

Abstract

An analysis of the information showed that characteristics of these women and their offenses generally fit the profile of female sex offenders in the current literature. The findings show that females studied tended to be more violent than expected. Most recent typologies established by Mathews et al. (1989): teacher/lover, male-coerced, or predisposed fit only half the sample. Although many of the women committed sex offenses with men, they did not seem coerced into doing so, and almost half the women seem better classified by Mathews' (1987) typology of male- accompanied. This finding underlines the importance of maintaining "male-accompanied" as a typology. Other categories such as "angry-impulsive" and "male-accompanied familial and non- familial" should be added to provide an appropriate model for those women who committed violent offenses on their own or in the company of males against "unconventional" victims. The existing typologies, along with most of the literature, neglects this population. Thus, the typologies that best fit this population of female sex offenders are teacher/lover (1); angry-impulsive (1); male-coerced (4); male-accompanied familial (3); and male- accompanied, non-familial (2). An examination of the characteristics of victims of female sex offenders revealed that they generally matched those described in the current literature. In treatment, a considerable number of programs were offered to meet the specific needs of the females (i.e., substance abuse, anger management, self-esteem, and family violence). Although 50 percent of the females also received specific sex-offender counseling, the remainder of females did not; however, many were too early in the sentence for all of their treatment needs to be met. There should be further development of programs that target the behavior that resulted in sexual offending. Assessment and treatment issues should be addressed in the context of motivational differences. 50 references