Women Who Sexually Abuse Children

The sexual abuse of children by women is an area that has not, until now, been suitably acknowledged by professionals in the sexual offending field. Over recent years, the number of studies of such women has been growing steadily and this timely book provides an overall picture of our understanding of this issue to date and suggests where research efforts and practice developments could go next. Women Who Sexually Abuse Children begins by considering the societal and professional understanding of sexual abuse by women and why, until recently, such behaviour in women was widely denied and minimised. The book moves on to discuss what is known about the sexually abusive behaviour of women and some of the potentially contributing factors to this behaviour. It also considers the particular effects on victims of being abused by a woman. Although researchers are increasing their study of this group of abusers, the knowledge base remains small when compared with their male counterparts and, inevitably, many more questions still remain unanswered. Highlighting these gaps in our knowledge forms the focus of the next part of the book, before it continues to consider treatment needs and approaches with this group of offenders. The final section aims to broaden the reader's thinking around this issue with a discussion of two related topics: the female partners of sexually abusive males and adolescent female sexual abusers. This book offers comprehensive and up-to-date coverage for clinicians, practitioners and researchers working in the field of child sexual abuse or those working with offenders.