title: Women who sexually offend display three main offense styles: a reexamination of the descriptive model of female sexual offending.
abstract: This study examined a theory constructed to describe the offense process of women who sexually offend-the Descriptive Model of Female Sexual Offending (DMFSO). In particular, this report sets out to establish whether the original three pathways (or offending styles) identified within United Kingdom convicted female sexual offenders and described within the DMFSO (i.e., Explicit-Approach, Directed-Avoidant, Implicit-Disorganized) were applicable to a small sample (N = 36) of North American women convicted of sexual offending. Two independent raters examined the offense narratives of the sample and-using the DMFSO-coded each script according to whether it fitted one of the three original pathways. Results suggested that the three existing pathways of the DMFSO represented a reasonable description of offense pathways for a sample of North American women convicted of sexual offending. No new pathways were identified. A new "Offense Pathway Checklist" devised to aid raters' decision making is described and future research and treatment implications explored.
authors.affiliation: University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, UK.
authors.forename: Theresa A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Gannon
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Waugh
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Blanchette
authors.forename: Alisha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Blake
authors.forename: Caoilte Ó
authors.initials: CÓ
authors.lastname: Ciardha
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D054523:Adult Survivors of Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D001242:Assertiveness; D057189:Checklist; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012649:Self Concept; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology*; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: female child molester; female sexual offender; offense process; theory