“It must be great being a female pedophile!”: The nature of public perceptions about female teacher sex offenders
Date
2018
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Crime, media, culture
Abstract
Although female sex offenders have received increased scholarly attention in recent years, and
have also gained widespread media attention, minimal research has focused specifically on public
perceptions of their behavior. This study explores the nature of public perceptions of a group
of offenders on which the media often focus—female teachers who assault adolescent male
students—by examining reader comments posted on five Huffington Post articles published
from November 2010 to November 2013. Using a thematic coding methodology to analyze over
900 online comments, we found that most comments recognize a current double standard in
the sentencing process for female teacher sex offenders compared to their male counterparts.
Comments also rely on traditional sexual scripts and/or gender role expectations to either
acknowledge or deny a victim’s presence. Contrary to existing research that examined public
perceptions and found that more punitive attitudes were expressed toward male sex offenders,
these results suggest that the public believes in equality in sentencing for all sex offenders,
regardless of gender. These results also confirm prior studies that find that the public perceives
adolescent male victims of rape by older women “lucky.”
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Keywords
educator sexual misconduct, female perpetrators, child sexual abuse, media, research
Citation
Zack, E., Lang, J. T., & Dirks, D. (2018). “It must be great being a female pedophile!”: The nature of public perceptions about female teacher sex offenders. Crime, media, culture, 14(1), 61-79.