If perpetration produces perpetrators, and women cases outnumber men 4 to 5 times, then somebody tell me why the numbers of sexual assault cases won’t increase even more dramatically, without unbias in the way sexual assault is treated both in the mental health system and in the courts.

From my standpoint as a female perpetrated male victim, unwilling disclosure to a social worker at the tender age of 41, has been more traumatizing than the original rape. From the resultant guilt producing right wing church (koo koo ka choo Mrs. Robinson), to the outright danger from the female ’specialty’ domestic violence and rape crisis counselors (tracked as a potential rapist), the pain of living a life time from having your soul sexually violated, has been far and again superseded by the pain from society post disclosure.

It sure would be nice if there were professional mental health services available for men in the female predominated industry, let alone safety and freedom outside ones home in such a sexualized anti-male society.
But at any rate, I know the issue of sexual assault, including that of females, takes a back seat to other far more pressing issues like reproductive rights or promotion of sexual education classes to teach the proper technique for rolling on a latex condom to 8′th graders.
Tom S. in Tn.

In the meantime, I see no reason to simply dismiss the careful work that has been done thus far. As I read your comment and began to respond, I noticed that I was repeating variations on a theme. Some of your statements are references to extreme views that simply aren’t in my post, such as “…The information about female predators being victims is simply misleading” or “nor is it true that female child rapists offend only because they were victimized.” I didn’t say those things. We may disagree on certain points — but not on those points.

For clarification: One fact that is established is that abuse leads to more abuse. This is true of both sexes. Most sexual abuse victims actually don’t go on to abuse others. But far more sexual abuse victims grow up to abuse others than people who don’t have a history of abuse. For further clarification, this in no way excuses sexual assault perpetrated by anyone, no matter what their gender. (Er, that’s why I wrote this post…)

We’re also in agreement that women are more violent than people are willing to admit. For the most part, people don’t want to see or admit that women are violent at all, and certainly not that there’s a major unaddressed problem with female sexual offenders. I included information about female offender violence and about the double standard for male and female sex offenders for that reason.

Being able to read the primary source material for your assertion that the majority of sexual attacks by women are violent attacks (“…we overlook the majority of cases in which threats of violence or actual violence is committed”) would be a great help.

Since I reference so much information about sick and evil things female sex offenders do, obviously I wouldn’t have withheld information about the majority of female sexual attacks being violent ones, had it been supported by my research so far. Feel free to post links here on the blog so we can study this one out for ourselves. (This is one of the main reasons I post links myself.)

One other statement I’m consumed with curiosity about is: “The problem is that there is very little information available about female predators and much of what is available does not match with reports coming from victims.” If you would be so kind as to post the source material for that as well, we could study that too. I just have to ask, if there’s no source material that substantiates your assertion, then how do you know? One person can’t possibly know all the victims of female sexual assaults, and that’s the limitation. Whence the info?

It appears unlikely that available information doesn’t match reports from victims, because so many victim interviews have been done as part of sex offender research/tracking initiatives. People aren’t just looking at offenders, they’re also interviewing victims, and these studies have been going on for a long time.

This is a key issue, because it casts the debate in terms of “we’re only interviewing offenders, we’re ignoring victims, we take the offender’s word about the victim and don’t bother to ask the victim directly.” That is not an approach I’ve observed researchers taking, but there could be supporting source material on your statement, and I would encourage you to publicize the sources on that for our readers. We may find that you’re right, that victims are saying some very different things than are being reported, and if so, that needs to change.

The goal of “For the Record” is primarily to support and inform victims of sexual assault/violence, and to shine a light on things that some people don’t want light on. So don’t withhold information you have that I don’t have — we all need more information. I hope this blog and this post will serve to confirm any victims of any sexual assault in the truth of their experience, the intensity of their pain, and to communicate to them that they’re heard and cared about.

The problem is that there is very little information available about female predators and much of what is available does not match with reports coming from victims. The myth of the “emotionally clingy” female perpetrator gets perpetuated (even by professionals) because as a society we are unwilling to look at women as violent and aggressive. Instead we overlook the majority of cases in which threats of violence or actual violence is committed. This includes instances such as women using objects to penetrate male and female victims, something which tends to be common.

Again, I do not think the information is necessarily bad, but it is somewhat misleading and gives the false impression that female predators are not really rapists, just victims unfortunately acting out on boys who technically have not been harmed.