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Female Sex Offenders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Art A. O'Connor*
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, London NW3 2QG

Abstract

Information on 19 women convicted of indecency and 62 women convicted of other sex offences was examined. Those convicted of indecency offences often had poor social skills and had a high incidence of mental illness, mental handicap and alcoholism. Two were convicted of indecent exposure, a rare offence in women. In 39 (63%) of the sex offences with individual victims, the victims were children and in 9 cases the offender was the mother or step-mother. In 25 cases the women were convicted of aiding and abetting a male offender. Of those convicted of indecent assault on persons under 16 and of gross indecency with children, 48% had a previous history of psychiatric disorder.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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