Review: Women can be predators
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 21, 2012
[...]This book was very intriguing as it attempted to dissect why this offense has started to become more common. Morris discusses whether or not the crime itself is more common or the reporting of the crime. After all, females in general couldn't even be prosecuted for rape until fairly recently (the definition of rape was confined to penile penetration of an orifice). Additionally, for male victims, there might have been pressure to remain quiet since sex is seen as a rite of passage and having an older woman initiate you as a privilege. Morris also asserts that we are less likely to see women as predators due to their traditional roles as nurturers. As late as the 1900s it was believed that women weren't capable of murder (which we know not to be true) and even today it is rare for a woman to be sentenced to death (and even more rare for that sentence to be carried out rather than commuted) no matter how heinous the crime.More heartbreaking was the reports of the effects of sexual abuse on students. Some reports (although studies are extremely limited on female pedophiles as the scientific community has only recently decided that this was an area with sufficient data to study) suggest that the impact on those survivors of abuse perpetrated by females was equal if not worse due to the trust naturally given to females. Morris included several case studies where victims were followed in the years and decades following the abuse and... the results are not pretty. Lives, just shattered... What's worse, Morris shows us that generally female pedophiles (never labeled as such) are barely punished in comparison to their male counterparts. It's almost as though the courts are giving them the silent wink, wink, nod, nod! And the punishment is lighter in direct correlation to how attractive the defendant is, such as Debrah LaFave who became pregnant with twin boys after having sex with one of her middle schools but never served a day in jail!I read this because, like serial killers of true crime novels, I can't understand the mindset. As a high school teacher, when I look at my kids, I see just that: KIDS. They act their age even if sometimes they don't look their age. Just Friday, I had to break up an argument because one kids said another kid put his elbow on the other kid's desk when he turned around to get up. These boys were 16 and 17. How you could ever forget that is beyond me. And it just sickens me that you could betray the trust given to us. Parents trust us with the thing they value the most for eight hours a day and you're preying on them in their weakness. Teachers that sleep with students should be put under the jail. And just like they say there's a special place in heaven for teachers, I think there's a special place in hell for pedophiles. Morris does a great job of pulling in relevant court cases and research statistics. My only complaint would be the very abrupt ending.