Female perpetrated sexual offences reported to a London sexual assault referral centre

A gender specific approach to understanding female sex offenders is important for developing prevention and treatment strategies, yet research to date is limited. While it is recognised that females often offend with another person, there has been little attempt to look beyond the two groupings of solo and co-offending and study females who offend in larger groups. Furthermore, very few studies have looked at the victims of these crimes and all of these have focussed on child victims only. The present work describes demographic and assault related characteristics of victims of all ages reporting a sexual assault by a female perpetrator to the Havens sexual assault referral centres in London, UK, in a five year period, with the aim of identifying victim, perpetrator and offence patterns in solo, pair and group sexual assaults. 47 cases were identified, just 0.66% of the total cases seen, and victims ranged from 3 to 59 years of age. Female perpetrators actively participated in the sexual and physical violence in many cases and were often involved in other ways, such as facilitating the offence, procuring the victim and filming the assault. Victims of solo perpetrators were mostly children who reported an assault by a teacher or childminder. Victims of pairs were older and all perpetrators were male/female pairs, usually reportedly in a romantic relationship. Victims of groups were more often strangers to the perpetrators and these assaults were often very violent. These findings are discussed in relation to current knowledge and suggestions are made for further research.