Women as Abusers

Although men perpetrate most sexual abuse, we have a new awareness of women who sexually abuse children. It is believed to be rarer than once thought and usually involves different circumstances. Men are more likely to have their physical sexual needs met by abusing children while women are more likely to have their emotional sexual needs met. Because there are differences in opinion about what sexual abuse consist of, there are different opinions about whether a woman is sexually abusing a child. In some cases, a mother who allows her child to be abused is labeled a sexual abuser, even though she may not have committed direct abuse upon the child.

It does seem clear, however, that the majority of children abused by women are boys. Also, the boys who were abused by women are less likely to consider it abuse, though they may have the same emotional reactions and trauma.

Women who sexually abuse children are extremely likely to have been sexually abused themselves. Up to half may suffer from mental illness, although according to one study, very few would be classified as psychotic at the time the abuse occurred. Many would be described as loners, who have little or no social skills. It can be determined with some degree of certainty that most women abuse children not for direct sexual gratification but for emotional gratification. Many of these women are dependent upon their husbands, who tend to initiate the abuse while the women play secondary roles. Other women are single and use the child (usually a boy in this scenario) as a mate in order to satisfy their emotional needs for intimacy.

While public awareness of women as abusers is important, many studies on the subject are likely to contain cases of false accusation, rendering the results slightly inaccurate.