Table 1. Studies Examining Female Sexual Offenders’ Cognition Authors Sample Control Group Design/Measures Results Beckett et al. (2007) 80 convicted or suspected female child sexual abusers (age unspecified) Recruited from UK criminal justice and child protection referrals 80 convicted or suspected male child sexual abusers (age unspecified) Recruited from UK criminal justice and child protection referrals Children and Sex Questionnaire (Beckett, 1987) Victim Empathy Questionnaire (Beckett & Fisher, 1994) Equally high levels of offense-supportive cognition and victim empathy deficits across male and female sexual abusers. Within female sexual abusers, lone female abusers show greatest deficits relative to co-abusers (p = .05) Beech et al. (2009) 15 convicted female child sexual abusers (Mean age = 47.3 years) Recruited from UK Prisons -- Semi-Structured Interview Evidence for four of the five implicit schemas typically noted in male child sexual abusers: Uncontrollability (87% of cases, n = 13) Dangerous World (53% of cases, n = 8) Children as Sexual (47% of cases, n = 7) Nature of Harm (20% of cases, n = 3) Elliott et al. (2010) 43 female child sexual abusers (Mean age = 31.2 years) Sample comprised of file referrals from the family or criminal courts or child sexual abuse admissions -- Clinical File Review (including therapist reports, psychometric data, and other relevant reports) All five implicit schemas typically noted in male child sexual abusers found: Uncontrollability (Documented to be “less common”) Dangerous World (Documented to be “less common”) Children as Sexual (72% of cases, n = 31) Nature of Harm (70% of cases, n = 30) Entitlement (67% of cases, n = 29) Fromuth & Conn (1997) 22 adolescent females who reported having sexually abused a child (age range 524 adolescent females who did not report having sexually abused a child Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence Scale (Burt, 1980) Rape Myth Acceptance Scale There were no differences in the endorsement levels across the groups regarding acceptance of violence, rape myths, or adversarial sexual
17-21 years) Recruited from US University (age range 17-21 years) Recruited from US University (Burt, 1980) Adversarial Sexual Beliefs Scale (Burt, 1980) beliefs. Gannon et al. (2012) 16 convicted female child sexual abusers (Aged years) Recruited from UK Prisons -- Semi-Structured Interview Five implicit schemas found which appear similar to those noted in male child sexual abusers. The authors re-label the majority of schemas to account for the gender differences found: Uncontrollability (100% of cases, n = 16) Males are Dangerous (100%, n =16) Victim as Sexual (63% of cases, n = 10) Harmfulness of Males (81% of cases, n = 13) Entitlement of Males (44% of cases, n = 7) Gannon & Rose (2009) 19 convicted female child sexual abusers (Mean age = 37.6 years) Recruited from UK Prisons 18 convicted female offenders (age matched) Recruited from UK Prisons Memory Recognition Task adapted from Eysenck et al. (1991) Female sexual abusers were more likely to interpret ambiguous information about males in a threatening manner relative to controls. Neither female sexual abusers nor controls interpreted ambiguous information about children in a sexual manner. Gannon et al. (2009) 17 convicted female child sexual abusers (Mean age = 40.2 years) Recruited from UK Prisons 17 convicted female offenders (age matched) Recruited from UK Prisons Children and Sex Implicit Association Test (Greenwald et al., 1998) Both female sexual abusers and the control group were more likely to associate adults with sex rather than children. Kjellgren et al. (2011) 37 adolescent females who reported having engaged in sexually coercive 4326 adolescent females who did not report having engaged in sexually Gender Stereotypic Attitude Measure (constructed from Sexually coercive females endorse significantly higher levels of rape myths relative to non sexually coercive females. There were no