Why do male and female sex offenders get such different sentences?

[msc545]

Male sex offenders including child molesters typically get very long prison terms. Female sex offenders, who typically prey on underage minors, usually get no prison time or very little. Why is this?

Updates

+1 y

I note that women won't answer this question, probably because they refuse to even admit that female sex offenders exist.

[Anonymous]

Women in general get less jail time than men for the same crimes. You don't hear a squeak about this from feminist tho. They only want equality when it benefits them.

[NamerOfStars]

Women get empathy, men get respect. This even extends to their criminal capacities.

[msc545]

Excellent answer

[Anpu23]

There's a couple of things here. One is lobying by certain groups that want to maintain the status quo. Groups that feel that rape is a tool of the patriarchy or that feel that male victims encroach upon funding and programs. The second is the myth that male victims suffer less, though virtually all convicted rapists report being sexually assaulted as a minor, this data is discounted or ignored (obviously if there is even a casual correlation between the two, it suggeat significant trauma) so the harm isn't seen as "that great." And lastly there's the fact that even very violent female sexual predators are often not charged for sex crimes but rather for assault or other crimes without the sexual element (I would think this is because most prosecutors don't see a jury convicting a woman of a sex crime, as well as the fact that rape laws preclude rape by envelopment).

[AFellowWeeb]

Discovered now that women have it easier in most places? Kinda late tbh

[msc545]

No, I very much know that. Just wondering who else does.

[Gwenhwyfar]

Female sex offenders are regarded as less dangerous and less harmful to their victims. I don't know enough about the subject to know whether this is true.

[msc545]

Regarded as less dangerous by whom?

[Gwenhwyfar]

The judiciary

[msc545]

Do you have data to support that, or is that just an opinion?

[Gwenhwyfar]

Just an opinion. But anybody somebody asks you “Do you have data for that?” it means they don’t like what you just said. If they liked they wouldn’t care if you had data. Plus what they really mean when they say that is “No matter how much (or how little) data you have you can’t prove that, at least not to my satisfaction.”

Interestingly, I don’t believe that. (I have no opinion either way.) I do think that unless pressured by the legislature or public opinion or both, male judges tend to sentence female sex offenders more leniently. Female judges (who are still in the minority) tend to be more even handed.

That being said, don’t give me any data lol. Idc that much. But if you have any anecdotal evidence I’d be happy to hear it.

[msc545]

The request for data is since. I have a Ph. D. in Clinical Psychology, so I am used to asking for data and being asked for it. It is not a hostile request but rather a request for more knowledge. If you have none, then you don't. I have some anecdotal data for what you are saying, but no reputable studies unfortunately.

[Gwenhwyfar]

I understand. Thank you 😊.

[msc545]

"since" was supposed to be "sincere" above.

[Gwenhwyfar]

Update: Female sex offenders exist but they are less common and usually less violent than men. But tbh you’re a psychologist and I’m a corporate lawyer. This is your field more than mine.

@WowwGirl what do you think? You’re trained in psychology and I respect your opinion on stuff like this.

[msc545]

First of all, I think female sex offenders are far less likely to be caught because their activities rarely if ever injure male victims, and there is typically no use of force or physical injury involved. The danger is Psychological and delayed, so most victims don't experience discomfort and in fact experience pleasure. Female sex offenders typically do not use force or threats to get their victims to comply, but rather engage in acts designed to arouse them.

Secondly, teenage boys during and after pubescence experience extremely high levels of testosterone (sometimes > 1000 nanograms per deciliter of blood), which will cause discomfort, irritability, anger outbursts, and very painful testicles on arousal. Anything that relieves these symptoms is experienced as a relief, and that includes both masturbation to orgasm, and sexual intercourse with orgasm, although the relief is temporary. Thus the entire encounter is not experienced as negative by the victim the majority of the time, but as pleasurable.

Lastly, from a cultural standpoint, women refuse sex far more often than men do, and because of this, any sexual "conquest" by a man raises his social standing substantially, particularly if the woman is a bit older and very attractive, as many female sex offenders are. If the woman is in a position of putative authority (many sex offenders are female teachers), that raises the social standing of the male victim even more.

The female sex offender is regarded as promiscuous, but as previously implied, this is not entirely negative. Only the most egregious acts by female sex offenders are punished with prison time. More often, they lose their teaching credentials and are placed on probation. Male sex offenders almost always get substantial prison sentences.

(This is not professional or medical advice but rather a casual opinion despite the credentials of the author).

[Gwenhwyfar]

Okay

Is this a bad thing?

[Gwenhwyfar]

Sounds less damaging to boys than girls

[msc545]

I think that is correct at least initially. But women seem to have a lot of problems with it months and years later.

[Gwenhwyfar]

We definitely do

[msc545]

Boys also have significant problems with it, again months and years later.

[Gwenhwyfar]

I understand

I didn’t know for sure but I had a feeling boys did too. I firmly believe that 14 (for example) is too young for a child of either gender to have sex with an adult.

[msc545]

I completely agree. 16 is probably the lower limit for minors to have sex with each other, and 18-20 is the accepted limit for sex with other adults. Adolescent brains develop more slowly than most people realize.

[WowwGirl]

@gwenhwyfar different social standards, gender roles are big in medicine just by gender a diagnosis can be totally different depending on the sex.

[Gwenhwyfar]

@WowwGirl thank you

[msc545]

Good point!

[WowwGirl]

😊😊😊

[talloak]

The age of the victim is a big part of the reason, as well it should be. I'm pretty sure that men who have sex with underage teenage girls don't get life in prison either. In fact, many have had successful careers in politics. adults of either sex who prey on young children are much more likely to get long prison terms. There just happen to be a lot fewer women than men in that category.

[msc545]

Fewer women somehow means lesser sentences? Why?

[talloak]

No, fewer means fewer examples that people are likely to be aware of. Why do you think that women who molest very young children are given light sentences? Sentencing in most courts is independent of the gender of the offenders.

[msc545]

I don't think sentencing is independent of the offender's gender at all. If it were, there would not be such a disparity in sentencing.

[jasco]

Because most people feel like women wouldn't do it again while a man is more likely to do it again. Its called a double standard

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

Because often times, they assume female sexual offender isn't going to be a repetitive sexual offender and often times they don't do forcible rape unlike like men do.

[msc545]

Is that an opinion, or do you have data?

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

No data. Its my opinion on how I think society generally views women. Women generally do don't rapes. Rape is a man thing.

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

*don't do

[msc545]

I agree with that part. However, it seems to me that they do repetitive acts until they are caught or they find a more interesting victim - most of the time. Do you have any studies or know of any to the contrary that you could refer me to?

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

Nope. You can try Google.

[msc545]

ok, thanks.

[OddBeMe]

You’re talking about a 90-10 ratio here. Perhaps male judges treat females easier. Either way female offenders are very very rare.

[msc545]

How do you know they are rare? Do you have data, or is that an opinion, or?

[OddBeMe]

Here’s one study. Cites multiple reports at being 5% of abuser being women:
www.researchgate.net/.../305384459_The_Proportion_of_Sexual_Offenders_Who_Are_Female_Is_Higher_Than_Thought_A_Meta-Analysis

[msc545]

Did you read this? it says in part: "In contrast, victimization surveys indicated prevalence rates of female sexual offenders that were six times higher than official data (fixed-effect meta-analytical average = 11.6%). Female sexual offenders are more common among juvenile offenders than adult offenders, with approximately 2 percentage points more female juvenile sex offenders than female adult sex offenders."

[OddBeMe]

Yes. But did you read the entirety?
Current reported official prevalence rates indicate that females are responsible for approximately 4%-5% of all sexual offences (Colson et al., 2013;Cortoni et al., 2016).

[msc545]

I am not sure that reporting rates are indicative of prevalence rates. Probably a lot of this stuff goes unreported for various reasons. But I take your point.

[msc545]

Thanks for the study reference!

[SuccessfulHornDog]

It is immaterial if the percentage of women is less than or greater then men. Each person is tried and sentenced as an individual

[msc545]

@SuccessfulHornDog It is not immaterial if the average sentence for the same crimes is significantly lower than a comparable group of men get.

[SuccessfulHornDog]

I was replying to OddBeMe. If he is saying that women face less punishment because their are fewer female molesters then that is wrong. They have nothing to do with each other. Should a female murderer be treated better because there are fewer female murderers? I dont think so

[msc545]

@SuccessfulHornDog Oh isee. I agree with you.

[OddBeMe]

@SuccessfulHornDog yeah, I agree. And judges treating them differently is wrong. But I also wonder if the nature of the abuse is different from male to female abusers.

[SuccessfulHornDog]

It may be and that should be taken into consideration by the judge

[Bat-Perv]

Women are treated like children under thd law.

[Avicenna]

That’s a Good question

[DavidFox]

Most penalties are based on prior offenses.

[msc545]

They are not. They are enhanced or lengthened based on prior offenses.

[DavidFox]

Right