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Review
. 2019 Sep;64(5):1427-1437.
doi: 10.1111/1556-4029.14033. Epub 2019 Feb 21.

Child Sexual Abuse Perpetrated by Women: Case Series and Review of the Literature

Serena Maria Curti  1 , Francesco Lupariello  1 , Elena Coppo  2 , Evan Julian Praznik  3 , Sara Simona Racalbuto  2 , Giancarlo Di Vella  1
Affiliations
Review

Child Sexual Abuse Perpetrated by Women: Case Series and Review of the Literature

Serena Maria Curti et al. J Forensic Sci. 2019 Sep.

Abstract

The literature on child sexual abuse (CSA) perpetrated by female sexual offenders (FSOs) is exiguous, and many studies have focused on judicial databases. The present retrospective study, instead, analyzed clinical and judicial data of a group of both victims and alleged FSOs, to additionally include women who have not been convicted by the criminal justice system, but who hold strong clinical suspicions of being perpetrators of CSA. The medical records and the Court files of 11 children and their eight suspected FSOs have been collected and critically reviewed in light of the literature to date. This approach allowed for a deeper understanding of the relationship between child and FSO. The authors hypothesize that the victims' severe psychopathological outcomes were a result of a failure to develop appropriate attachments with their prospective caregivers, which could have been damaged by the pathological relationship with FSOs, who were the victims' caregivers.

Keywords: child abuse; criminal justice; forensic psychiatry; forensic science; offenders; sex offenses.

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References

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