RESUMEN
Very little is known about co-offending by female sexual offenders (FSOs), especially in terms of diverse forms of offender groupings. To address this gap in the literature, this study uses 21 years (1992-2012) of National Incident-Based Reporting System data to analyze incidents of sexual offending committed by four female groupings: solo FSOs ( n = 29,238), coed pairs consisting of one male and one FSO ( n = 11,112), all-female groups ( n = 2,669), and multiple perpetrator groups that consist of a combination of three or more FSOs and male sexual offenders (MSOs; n = 4,268). Using a multinomial logistic regression model, the data show significant differences in offender, victim, and crime context incident characteristics. The data also indicate that incidents with solo FSOs and all-female groups have similar characteristics, coed pairs and multiple perpetrator incidents have similar characteristics, and these two categorizations are fairly distinct from one another. Implications of this research are discussed in addition to directions for future research on female sexual offending.
Asunto(s)
Crimen/psicología , Criminales/psicología , Delitos Sexuales/psicología , Víctimas de Crimen , Femenino , Humanos , MasculinoRESUMEN
Identifying the ways in which male and female sex offenders differ is an important but understudied topic. Studies that do exist have been challenged by a reliance on small and select samples. Improving on these limitations, we use the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to compare male and female sex offenders among all 802,150 incidents of sexual assault reported to police across 37 states between 1991 and 2011. Findings indicated some broad similarities between groups, including the most prominent offense location (home), most common victim-offender relationship (acquaintance), and the rarity of injuries or drug abuse during crimes. However, the data also showed several important differences between male and female sexual offenders. Most notably, females offended with male accomplices in more than 30% of their sexual crimes--far more often than occurred among male sexual offenders (2%). Likewise, females offended against a victim of the same sex in nearly half of their crimes, yet this was only true in approximately 10% of male sexual offenses. Implications for future research are discussed.