Female Sex Offenders’ Relationship Experiences

Abstract

Interventions for child sexual abusers should take into account their perspectives on the context of their offenses, but no descriptions of everyday life from the offender’s point of view have been published. This study therefore explored female offenders’ views of their strengths and challenges. Documented risk assessments of 20 female offenders were analyzed using inductive content analysis (Cavanagh, 1997; Priest, Roberts, & Woods, 2002; Woods, Priest, & Roberts, 2002). The Good Lives Model provided the initial coding framework and ATLAS.ti software (Muhr, 1997) was used for simultaneous data collection and analysis. The content analysis yielded 999 coding decisions organized in three themes. The global theme was relationship experiences. Offenders described the quality of their relationship experiences, including their personal perspectives, intimate relationships, and social lives. These descriptions have implications for treatment planning and future research with women who have molested children.