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Strollerderby
Whoa, the Pedophile’s a Lady
A friend recently related a story she found shocking: another mom had brought her three-year-old daughter into the bank, and the girl was naked from the waist down. “Where all those men could see her,” the woman told me.
The concern over the nakedness of a three-year-old aside, the idea that a man seeing a naked child was that much worse than a woman seemed particularly absurd.
Pedophile is a word largely used to describe a man who sexually abuses a child. But what happens when the pedophile’s female? New statistics from England released over the weekend reveal the numbers of female sex offenders are rising – and that includes those who hurt children.
Here in the states, the figures are low – less than ten percent of sex crimes are committed by women. But the rates of juvenile females convicted of sex crimes is rising. And studies have shown evidence that women’s sex crimes are under-reported. The offspring of sexism and the belief that women are better suited to nurturing and caretaking is an assumption that a woman simply does not have the drive to commit a sexual crime against a child. Also taking hold are the old-fashioned views toward a woman’s role in sexual relationships – as the submissive partner.
So ingrained are the roots of that sexism that a liberal feminist like my friend barely realized what she’d said – indeed non of us at the table did at first (we were too busy debating the real danger of a child’s nakedness in public vs. fearmongering).
It’s hard to proclaim these numbers of female assailants as a win for feminism. I’m not going to stand by a female who abuses a kid just because we share the same genitalia (anymore than I would have voted for Sarah Palin because we both happen to be babymakers – some people you just don’t claim for the team). But when people stop viewing pedophilia as a male crime, all our kids will be a little safer.
Image: Taasa
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4 Comments
Ali commented on Oct 05 09 at 3:32 pmDont more men commit sexually violent crimes overall than women? Don’t you think it makes more sense that if men commit more sexually violent crimes than women that they would also commit more sexually violent crimes on children than women?
Bec commented on Oct 05 09 at 3:55 pmAli, no one is saying that men don’t abuse any kids ever. Don’t get your panties in a twist… all the article says is that some women are evil too. MORE doesn’t mean ALL.
Rebecca commented on Jan 31 10 at 8:52 pmActually, women committing crimes is on the rise, not just sexual crimes. Men still commit 90 odd percent of crimes, but crime rates for women are rising faster than those of men.
Was the kid not wearing a diaper? I gotta say… ew. What if she had an accident right there in the bank?
Canuckmom commented on Oct 14 11 at 2:04 pmI think when women are accused or convicted of sexual crimes against children, it is most often a case of an adult women taking advantage of a teen boy. And many times the boy won’t report it either since he may not realize he is a victim of a crime. So the numbers probably are higher than we know.
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