Risin and Koss (33) surveyed 2972 male college students and found that 216 (7.3 percent) met one of their
three criteria for sexual abuse (age discrepancy between child and perpetrator, use of coercion, or perpetrator
who was a care giver or authority figure). Their definition was very broad, and included some consensual
activities with adolescent females. The abusive behaviors ranged from exhibition to penetration. They report
that there were almost as many female perpetrators (42.7 percent) as male (53.3 percent), with a small proportion
babysitters. Almost half of the boys involved with female perpetrators reported that they participated in the incidents voluntarily and
involving both a male and a female together (4.2 percent). Almost half of the female perpetrators were adolescentdid
not feel victimized. The authors note that this suggests qualitatively different experiences were tapped in this study compared to
other surveys.

Fromuth and Burkhart (34) surveyed 582 men from two colleges and found that, depending upon the definition
of childhood sexual abuse, prevalence rates varied from 4 percent to 24 percent being defined as abused.
The majority (78 percent and 72 percent in the (two samples) of the perpetrators of sexual abuse were females.
They also found that, compared to women in college survey studies, men are less likely to perceive childhood
sexual experiences as abusive, which is consistent with the Risen and Koss (33) survey. It may be that women
perceive such experiences as sexual violation, while men perceive them as sexual initiation. Male socialization
encourages mento define sexual experiences as desirable as long as there is no homosexual involvement.
The authors emphasize the need to consider how sexual abuse is defined, particularly in studies of male victims.

Finkelhor, on the other hand, found much smaller proportions of female perpetrators in his student samples.
Only 6 percent of college women and 16 percent of college males who reported childhood abuse indicated
that the perpetrator was a woman. His survey using a community sample of residents from Boston yielded
similar figures: none of the women and 15 percent of men reporting childhood abuse indicated that a woman
was the perpetrator (6).

A small percentage of female perpetrators was also found by Russell (18) who states that her sample of 930
women only reported ten cases of incestuous abuse by females. The perpetrators included a biological mother,
three sisters, three first cousins and three more distant relatives.These ten relatives constituted only five
percent of all incest perpetrators and affected only one percent of the 930 women interviewed. The percentage
of female perpetrators of extrafamilial child sexual abuse was four percent. Russell's survey provides no
information on the frequency with which females abuse males.

The necessity of considering differences in the type of sample and research method is demonstrated by
contrasting the above studies to those reported by Reinhart (35), who found that only four percent of 189
boy victims were alleged to be abused by females and Farber et al. (36), who reported that only two
percent of 162 children (half boys and half girls) were sexually abused by a female acting alone
(six percent were abused by both a male and a female). Both Reinhart and Farber et al. used clinical
as opposed to college samples and their studies were of current cases in a hospital as opposed to a
retrospective survey. Neither study is clear as to how the abuse was substantiated.

A still smaller percentage of female perpetrators was found by Rowan, Rowan and Langelier
(37), who report that only nine (1.5 percent) of 600 sex offenders referred for evaluations were
females. This study, however, was on sex offenders rather than on victims. The previous studies
focused on victims.

The necessity of specifying the sample and methodology is also shown by contrasting the
Fromuth and Burkhart (34) and the Risen and Koss (33) retrospective surveys of college
males to a report by Johnson and Shrier (38) on eleven cases of molestation in a community
based sample of adolescent male outpatients. Eight of these boys experienced the mole
station as intensely traumatic. The female molesters were usually acquaintances of the victims
— most often a neighbor, babysitter, or other trusted older adolescent or young adult. All but
one of the female molesters used persuasion rather than physical force or threats and
three-quarters of the female molesters attempted to get their victims to ejaculate, and
nearly half succeeded. Johnson and Shrier therefore conclude that childhood sexual
victimization of boys by women as well as men is a high risk and traumatic experience.
In contrast, the two college surveys indicate that many men did not feel victimized
by the experience.

Studies using prison samples show high percentages of men reporting childhood
sexual experiences with older women. Groth (6) found that 51 percent of a sample
of sex offenders had been molested when they were young and of these, 25 percent
had been by a female. Petrovich and Templer (39) found that 59 percent of 83 convicted
rapists reported heterosexual experiences before the age of 16 with a female at least
five years older. The authors stated that they did not know whether this high rate was
a function of low socioeconomic status, being rapists, being sex criminals moregenerally,
or being criminals in general.

Condy, Templer, Brown and Veaco (40) surveyed 359 male college students and 212
male prison inmates concerning childhood heterosexual contact. Of the male prisoners,
46 percent reported early sexual contact. This differed by offense with 57 percent of the rapists,
37 percent of the child molesters and 47 percent of the nonsexual offenders reporting such
contact. In contrast, only 16 percent of the college students reported childhood sexual contact
with a woman. Both the prisoners and college men reported more good feelings than bad at
the time of the incident and, with the exception of the child molesters, the experience was
regarded as having more of a good than a bad effect on their adult sex lives.

In every category for the subjects who reported sexual contact with a female, intercourse
was involved in at least half of the sexual encounters. In only a minority of the cases did the
female force the boy. In fact, in a large proportion of the cases, the male reported initiating
the activity. The distribution for the ages at which the boys first became involved was skewed
toward the higher ages; the median age was 13 and the mode was 15. Condy et al. speculate
that the nature of these contacts could be more characterized by an extension of the lower end
of the age distribution for adult male-female sexual relationships, in contrast to what ordinarily
occurs when the molester is a male. Also, although prepubescent vaginal size would make penile
penetration of a girl by an adult male difficult, the prepubescent penile size would actually be less
difficult with a young boy and a woman.

These higher percentages reported in prison populations could be due to many factors, such
as lower socioeconomic status and higher sociopathy. However, it could also be due to a
possible tendency, as discussed earlier, for a prisoner to report being sexually abused when
this has actually not happened. At anyrate, data from prison populations cannot be generalized
to the population at large.

Bolton, Morris and MacEachron (41) conclude that male perpetrators far exceed female perpetrators
of child sexual abuse. They observe, however, that the interest in studying female offenders has
increased markedly in the past few years and note that no matter how the differing rates
found inthe various studies are explained, the fact remains that females are sometimes perpetrators.