Child sexual assault: prevalence, consequences, and prevention

¶ … gender of the perpetrator has a different impact on male and female police officers' perceptions of child sexual abuse. There were four sources used to complete this paper.

Some of the most difficult cases for police officers to handle involve the sexual abuse of children. Often times when the officer arrives, the child is timid and afraid to talk, while the officer tries to ascertain which adult in the house might help the child feel more comfortable while at the same time trying hard not to choose the adult that ends up being the suspect. While the majority of convicted child molesters are male there are also female perpetrators. A recent study provided evidence and validity to a theory that police officers, both male and female, view the seriousness of child sexual abuse differently depending on the gender of the perpetrator (Tyson, 2004).

The study

The study set out to examine the attitude differences in female and male police officers when it came to investigating child sexual abuse. The study wanted to explore whether men and women officers felt differently about the seriousness of the crime depending on the gender of the person accused of doing it.

Researchers chose 361 police officers in Australia to be participants in the study. The study used a self reporting questionnaire for the purpose of ascertaining the attitudes of those officers when it came to investigating male and female suspects in child sexual abuse cases (Tyson, 2004).

The questions examined the police officer's perception of seriousness of the incident, the police action they would take and the perceived impact on the child (Tyson, 2004). The vignette described the perpetrator as either male or female, with 172 police officers responding to the female perpetrator vignette and 189 responding to the male perpetrator vignette (Tyson, 2004). The results indicated that, unlike overseas research findings in this area, the police officer's gender did not influence their perception of child sexual abuse, their perceived impact on the child, or the police action they would take (Tyson, 2004). The gender of the perpetrator did however influence these factors, with a gender bias in favor of the female perpetrator (Tyson, 2004)."

Statistically, approximately five percent of reported child sexual abuse is reported to have been committed by a female suspect, when the victim is female. In 52% of the cases where the victim was male, females were identified as the suspects in the case (Tyson, 2004).

This is not entirely surprising, however. Western society generally does not acknowledge the fact that females may engage in child sexual abuse. The most obvious example of this is the fact that in New Zealand it is not an offence for a women to have sex with underage boys, whereas it is for adult men (Michael Cowley and Wires, 2003) (Tyson, 2004)."

The research centered on the theory that society may not take allegations of sex abuse by females as seriously as they do when a man is accused.

The study concluded that there are two parts to the lighter hand when it comes to the prosecution of female sex offenders.

The first issue is the gender of the suspect. Research found if the suspect is a female she is les apt to be viewed as a predator, or a threat to children.

This can be noted in several recent cases in the United States in which attractive female teachers have been accused of having sexual relations with their young male students. Jokes abound regarding those cases about whether it was actually sexual abuse or a dream come true for the young men. Had the teacher been male and the victims female, society would not think it was a joking matter.

The study tested three theories:

Hypothesis 1: Female police officers will rate child sexual abuse as more serious than male officers, will take more severe police action than male officers and will view the impact on the child as being greater than will male officers (Tyson, 2004).

Hypothesis 2: Police officers will perceive male-perpetrated child sexual abuse as more serious than female-perpetrated abuse, will take more severe action in relation to male perpetrators, and the impact on the child will be perceived to be greater when the perpetrator is male (Tyson, 2004)."

Hypothesis 3: Male police officers will view male-perpetrated child sexual abuse more negatively than female-perpetrated abuse and female police will view female-perpetrated abuse more negatively than male police (Tyson, 2004)."

Conclusion

The study concluded that men and women law enforcement officials alike tend to react more harshly to male suspects than female suspects when it comes to child sexual abuse allegations.

When an attractive female is accused of sexual abuse against a male minor child the media designs clever names for the suspect that minimize the importance and seriousness of the crime she was accused of. If a man does the same crime against male children or female children the media deems him a monster.