Child Sexual Abuse within Educational Settings: A Qualitative Study on Female Teachers Who Sexually Abuse Their Students

ABSTRACT

Despite growing interest, research on female sex offenders has been limited. Previous research on female sex offenders has focused on understanding behaviors, patterns, and motivations of female sex offenders overall, but only a handful of studies have specifically focused on teachers who are convicted of sexually abusing underaged students. For the present study, we examined the nature of child sexual abuse among a sample of female teachers, focusing specifically on the onset, situational context, and conclusion of these sexual abuses. We examined interviews conducted with 35 female sex offenders who used their position as a teacher to engage in a sexual abuse of underage students from 1995 to 2016 in a southern state. Based on the narratives of both victims and offenders, our findings indicated several categories of female teacher offenders including predatory, sexual friendship, and emotionally dependent. We hope the findings of the current study will help inform educational policy in efforts to prevent the occurrence of these abuses in the future.

Notes

¹ Pseudonyms were used to protect the confidentiality of our participants.

² (a) A person commits sexual abuse in the first degree if: (1) He engages in sexual contact with another person by forcible compulsion; or (2) He engages in sexual contact with another person who is incapable of consent because he is physically helpless; or (3) Being eighteen (18) years old or older, he engages in sexual contact with a person not his spouse who is less than fourteen (14) years old; (4) He engages in sexual contact with a person who is less than sixteen (16) years of age and who is incapable of consent because he is mentally defective or mentally incapacitated.

³ (a) A person commits sexual abuse in the second degree if: (1) He or she engages in sexual contact with another person not his or her spouse who is incapable of consent because he or she is mentally defective or mentally incapacitated; (2) Being less than eighteen (18) years old, he or she engages in sexual contact with a person not his or her spouse who is less than fourteen (14) years old. It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this subdivision (a)(2) that the actor was not more than two (2) years older than the victim; or (3) He or she, being employed directly or through contract with the Department of Correction or the Department of Community Punishment, engages in sexual contact for the purpose of sexual gratification with any person in the custody of the Department of Correction or the Department of Community Punishment, the consent of the person in custody notwithstanding.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mollee Steely

Mollee Steely is a doctoral student in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Her research interests include offender’s histories of adverse childhood experiences and sex-offending behaviors focusing specifically on female and online offenders.

Tusty ten Bensel is the Graduate Coordinator and an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She specializes in research on sexual violence and victimization, identity changes, and neighborhoods and reentry.