ABSTRACT
The issue of female sexual offending has received very little attention and recognition in both clinical and empirical literature on sexual abuse. The disregard for the topic has frequently been justified by those who argue that the scant number of reported cases reveal an insignificant social problem. However, this stance has not only assumed that the literature accurately reflects the true incidence of female sexual offending, but has also failed to consider the problems that exist within the available data - namely, methodological problems as well as the fact that case-report studies and self-report studies provide two often conflicting portraits of the prevalence of the phenomenon. In an attempt to discern whether female sexual offending is rare or under-recognized, the first half of this chapter will provide an overview of the current case and self-report data on its prevalence. By drawing upon the literature, I show that while the prevalence rates of female sex offending are small when compared to rates of male sex offending, there is evidence to suggest that sexual abuse by females may be under-recognized.
