Sexual abuse perpetrated by adult and juvenile females: an ultimate attempt to resolve a conflict associated with maternal identity

Objective: The purpose of this article is to report the descriptive and phenomenological aspects of adult females (AF) and juvenile females (JF) who sexually abuse children and adolescents. A major focus is to study the relational problems during childhood and adulthood of this specific population and how they echo the relational aspects of their own victimization. Methodology: Since 1992, clinical and evaluative data were collected from a sample of 13 AF and 15 JF who had committed sexual abuse. The subjects were evaluated in the program for adult and adolescent sex offenders at the outpatient clinic of the Centre de Psychiatrie Legale de Montreal (affiliated with the Institut Philippe Pinel de Montreal). The data were collected by a multidisciplinary team of clinicians: psychiatrists, psychologists, criminologists and sexologists. A team of two or three clinicians who utilized a standardized interview grid evaluated each subject. Results: Mean age at the time of the evaluation was 36.2 years (SD = 9.28) for the AF and 14.7 years (SD = 1.39) for the JF. A considerable percentage of the sexual abuses occurred in an intra-familial context for both groups (92.3% of the AF; 53.3% of the JF). Half of the AF not only committed sexual but also physical abuse of their victims. In addition, the precocious and repetitive dimension of the sexual abuses perpetrated by 33.3% of the JF was noted. Conclusion: This descriptive study reports a set of problematic relationships and a history of victimization among AF and JF. The history of the relationship with their parents frequently revealed that for JF, the father was absent or not very involved and for AF the father was sexually and physically abusive. On the other hand, a disturbed mother-child relationship among both AF and JF sexual abusers highlights an important conflict. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.