Sex Offenders Essay

Sex Offenders Sex offense is one of the most common and frightening crimes that often catch our attention due to its harshness and high level of publicity in today’s society. Whether it is men, women, or children, almost everyday we turn on our news channels and hear stories about someone being sexually assaulted. Sex offenses can range from minor incidents such as sending explicit messages or photos over media, to major incidents such as rape. No sex offender shares the exact pattern as another sex offender. They can focus on one victim, or multiple victims. There are numerous myths in society today, such as: all sex offenders are men (false), most victims do not know their offender (false), individuals rape because they cannot find consenting

Although there is a high number of registered sex offenders, there is no way that all sex offenders have been caught due to the fact that their victims are often too afraid to come forward and

Let’s be honest . . . when someone mentions a sexual abuse crime the first picture that comes to mind is a big man assaulting a petite woman, but that is not always the case. In more recent years, it has become more common to see a female teacher having relations with a student, but rarely do we hear about a man being assaulted on the street and raped by a woman. It’s really almost comical to imagine because it is so out of gender norms. Society as a whole holds female offenders to a much lesser evil than male offenders. Sexual offenses committed by women are likely underestimated and under-reported. According to Figure 2 we notice that women offenders are typically victims of previous abuse, whether it is physical, sexual, or emotional. Women who were hospitalized with prior psychiatric issues were found to be likelier than men to commit sexual offenses. We notice that women were found to also be more likely to have prior suicide attempts. The only instance where men have a greater percentage is the substance use history. Male offenders were found to be more likely than women to rely on substances (West 733). It can be established that women and men’s offenses are comparable. Although this is true, society fails to acknowledge women and men sex offenders with the same attitude. Society has set the gender role of an older woman seducing a teenage boy as a rite of passage rather than a sexual offense