Women pedophiles

[blas87]

On TCAP, every single predator is a man. Men of all ages have been on that show.

Where are the women pedophiles? Surely there are pedophiles of the female perusasian....Mary Kay Leternau, that LeFave teacher, and a gym teacher, but why aren't there women pedophiles on the Internet like there are men?

Do we choose to ignore them or are there simply just not enough of them to put a dent in the demographics of pedophiles?

[Ree]

I think it's just that pedophilia tends to be thought of as a "male" thing.

Not having actual statistics to go on, I do think that the majority of pedophiles are male, although there are certainly female pedophiles, and probably a lot more than is realized.

Part of that is the double standard.

A young girl sleeping with an older guy is thought of as disgusting and unnatural, but if a pubesecent boy ends up sleeping with an older woman, he is applauded for being a man and getting the goods.

A female is much more likely to report that she was sexually molested and abused. Whether it is a male or female molesting the girl, it is still considered abnormal and will usually be reported.

On the other hand, a male is much less likely to report molestation.
If a boy has been molested by a man, there is shame and fear of stigma.
If he is molested by an older woman, there are conflicting feelings.
It all goes back to that argument about whether a male is able to maintain an erection if he isn't aroused, and if he is aroused, then that must mean he was a willing partner.

As was brought up in another thread, there are certainly other methods of committing rape than through sexual intercourse, but no matter what act is perpetrated on the young boy, if a woman was the aggressor, then there is less of a chance that it will be reported.

[Pedersen]

Well, per this link (page 69), 57.8% of child abuse perpetrators were women.

Mind you, that's abuse in general, not pedophiles.

Per this link, 40% of the sexual abuse of boys was perpetrated by women.

I'm not able to find anything better on these statistics, though, not yet. Thought I'd toss them in for some minor clarification, though.

[Ree]

Thanks for the stats, but while they do provide a small point of reference, they don't actually clarify things.

57.8% of child abuse perpetrators were women.

blas was referring specifically to pedophilia.

"Abuse" could cover any area, from physical battery to sexual molestation.

In this statistic you provided for "abuse" by women, I have a strong hunch most of that total encompasses the former, since the female tends to be the one most likely providing care to the child, and more likely to lash out and react violently to a crying or difficult baby. (Of course, as I said, it's only my own opinion, and I have no actual facts to back that up, other than my own personal observations.) Without knowing exactly what portion of that statistic actually refers to pedophilia, it's just a statistic for abuse.

As for the second statistic, it is based on a statistic of 1 in 6 men reporting being molested as a child, and of that number, 40% were perpetrated by females.
It also goes on to say that 1 in 4 women reported being molested as a child, and almost every case, the perpetrator was a male.
I think that actually raises the statistical average in pedophilia tendencies being more predominant in males.

[Pedersen]

"Abuse" could cover any area, from physical battery to sexual molestation.

Actually, that first one is even worse: It also covers neglect, in addition to the other forms of abuse.

As it turns out, these were stunningly bad statistics on my part. That'll teach me to read more than just the google summary.

I'll try to find more later.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia

Well here's the wiki, and it's got a nice detailed and footnoted explanation of it, in some places touching on the male/female disparity.

[Seshat]

Presuming TCAP is a mass-media edutainment thing: many members of the public are still unwilling to accept that a woman can be a pedophile.

Edutainment is more about ratings than education, and they're probably sticking to things that raise the ratings. Having a woman pedophile would add controversy, but despite spiking the ratings briefly, may lower the ratings in general. They're probably holding back until they're ready for a ratings spike.

Yeah, I'm a cynic.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I touched on this subject briefly while in the other thread; anyway, in addition to the links I posted there, here are more:

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28336

http://www.keithleejohnson.com/childrensafe1.shtml

http://www.section21.m6.net/res-gender.php

[DexX]

Slightly off-topic but closely related, I am glad that (in Australia at least) the phenomenon of adult men being raped by other men is finally getting a bit more press and reporting rates are slowly creeping up. It's a bit of a forgotten crime, sadly, though resources are out there for those brave and strong enough to overcome the terrible shame and seek help. In Melbourne, one of our government-funded sexual assault information and assistance centres is dedicated to men who have been raped, and it's great to know they are there.

[Seshat]

That IS good. It's past time that males who are raped (or subjected to domestic abuse, or any other 'non manly to be the victim' crime) got enough support.

[Lace Neil Singer]

It's a fact that there are a lot of guys who suffere domestic abuse, particularly if they're the kind of guy who'd never hit a woman. Sadly tho a lot of people wouldn't take it seriously if a husband was being beaten by his wife; imagine if he ran away and went to a refuge, they probably wouldn't let him stay.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I just want to point out that a pedophile, by definition, is an adult who is sexually attracted to young children, as in prepubescent. All these recent cases of women sleeping with their high school students does not technically make them pedophiles, as these boys are past puberty. (As is also the case with the men who are set up on TCAP...they think they are meeting a teenager.) Sexual predator, yes.

Someone who is exclusively attracted to adolescents is an ephebophile. (I just learned that word.)

Not that that in any way makes it right; there are age of consent laws for a reason, and a teacher or other authority figure sleeping with their student is an abuse of power regardless of the age of the student. Many people go after teens simply because they are easy to manipulate.

[Dorath]

The men on To Catch a Predator can't be accurately called pedophiles, they are pederasts.