An expert on female sex offenders has warned against parents becoming “hyper-vigilant” in response to recent high-profile child abuse cases.
Dr Theresa Gannon – senior lecturer in forensic psychology at the University of Kent – says society risks coming to a standstill if people become so cautious they feel unable to trust anybody with their children.
Her comments follow the recent conviction of nursery worker Vanessa George and revelations from Childline that the number of calls received about female abusers had shot up by 132 per cent in four years.
Dr Gannon said: “I think it’s hard for most people in society, including professionals in the field, to understand why women sexually abuse children.
“It comes down to the preconceived beliefs about how women can behave, like they can’t do awful things whereas men always do.
“They are seen as the nurturers of children and the gender that looks after them, so when that is contravened it’s difficult for society to accept.
“In the past there have been some cases where children have tried to tell someone they’ve been sexually abused by a woman only to be told it couldn’t possibly have happened.
“I think these high-profile cases do highlight the need to watch out for people regardless of gender but what we don’t want to get into is a situation where both males and females are vilified, because hyper-vigilancy like that would bring society to a standstill.”
The ChildLine figures released this week show that of 16,094 children who called the charity last year, 2,142 told of abuse by a woman.
Men still account for the majority of child abuse claims but the NSPCC said female sex abuse was under-reported.
A contributor of many important publications about sex offenders, Dr Gannon recently interviewed 22 female paedophiles to try to understand how and why they abuse children.
She said: “We found that although females hold some key similarities to male sexual abusers, there are also some key differences.
“For instance, more than half of the women I spoke to worked in unison with a male offender. You rarely have men working with other men in this way.
“That was interesting because people think that if you leave a child with a male you should be extra vigilant, but less so if there is also a woman present.
“Obviously having a woman there does not necessarily mean a child is safe, so it’s just about being aware.
“Knowing these key differences is crucial for raising public awareness of female-perpetrated sexual abuse so it can be reported to the appropriate authorities.”
Vanessa George, who along with two co-defendants abused up to 30 babies and toddlers at the nursery in Plymouth, is due to be sentenced on December 15.
The 39-year-old initially refused to give the names of the youngsters involved but has since passed some on to detectives.
Dr Gannon said: “It was totally up to the women who took part in my interviews whether they wanted to speak to me or not, but a lot of them just wanted to tell someone their story.
“A lot were in denial, others blamed it on a male who was also involved and others agreed that they had committed an awful crime.”
POSTED: 15/11/2009 11:00:00
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