36-Year-Old Woman and an 11-Year-Old Boy: What the Case Said About Female Sex Offenders

When we hear "sex offender," most of us picture a man. Male offenders do outnumber female offenders by a large margin — but women commit these crimes too, and pretending otherwise leaves children unprotected.

What happened in New Zealand?

In June 2013, New Zealand's media reported a case that shocked the country: an 11-year-old boy in Auckland had fathered a child with the 36-year-old mother of a school friend. The woman had coerced the boy into repeated sexual encounters over several months, giving him beer first. The boy eventually confided in his school principal, saying he had been having sex with his friend's mother "and it needs to stop." The baby was taken into care by Child, Youth and Family services, and the case went before the courts.

The case exposed an uncomfortable legal gap. Under New Zealand law, the crime of rape could only be committed by a man. A woman who forced sex on an unwilling partner faced a different charge — "sexual violation." Justice Minister Judith Collins said the case raised "an important point" and that she would seek advice on whether the law needed to change.

Why don't we hear about female offenders?

Research consistently finds that women account for a small minority of sexual offenses — roughly 4 to 5 percent, according to a meta-analysis by Cortoni, Hanson and Coache. Because they are rarer, female offenders get far less research attention and public scrutiny. They also tend to offend against people they know rather than strangers, which makes their crimes easier to hide and harder for families to recognize.

Do female offenders reoffend?

Meta-analyses put the sexual recidivism rate for female offenders at roughly 1 to 3 percent — far lower than for male offenders (an updated 25-year analysis found about 3 percent for women versus about 13 percent for men). Read the research summary That is not a reason for complacency: a low average still hides real victims, and underreporting means the true numbers are hard to pin down.

What needs to change?

Three things. First, the law in many countries still defines rape in ways that assume a male perpetrator — definitions that need to catch up with reality. Second, parents need to shed the assumption that a woman — even a trusted one, even a teacher — cannot be a threat. Listen to your children, and believe them the first time. Third, researchers need to study female offenders properly instead of borrowing conclusions from studies of men.

Boys or girls — children need protection, and protection starts with admitting who can harm them.