Female sexual offending

While much research evidence is available on male sexual offenders, little empirical research has focused on female sexual abusers (Vandiver and Walker 2002). Given the ‘empirical void that surrounds the topic of female sexual offending’ (Denov 2004: x), our understanding of these women is still in its infancy, with studies undertaken limited by small samples (Vandiver 2006), and over-reliant on prison populations (Gannon and Rose 2008). The scale of such abuse is ‘unknown and undefined’ (Sgroi and Sargent 1993: 15), and under-estimates are thought to result from non-disclosure (Allen 1991; Tardif et al. 2005). With much of the focus on male perpetrators and female victims, the sexual abuse of children is perceived to be a ‘male problem’ (Bunting 2007: 253).