A two by two comparison of offense and gender: What characteristics do female sex offenders have in common with other offender groups?

The current study was a chart review that examined 31 female sex offenders (FSO), 31 male sex offenders (MSO), 31 female violent offenders (FO), and 31 male violent offenders (MO) using a 2 (female/male) by 2 (sex/violent offender) design. This is the first study to include three comparison groups when researching female sex offenders. Several variables appeared to relate to gender. Having a co-perpetrator during the crime and being a passive participant in the crime was related to being a female. There was a main effect of gender on the Social Introversion Scale of the MMPI-2 indicating that the male samples had a higher mean score than the two female samples. There were several variables that appeared to be related to the crime. Sex offenders were on average older than their violent counter parts at the time of their first conviction. The FSO sample had the largest percentage of reported sexual victimization. However, both sexual offender samples were significantly different from the MO group, i.e. reported more sexual victimization. Sex offenders reported less drug abuse history than the two violent groups. The two sex offender groups also had a lower reading and spelling level on the WRAT than the violent offender samples. Finally, there was a main effect of crime on the Schizophrenia scale of the MMPI-2 suggesting that the sex offender samples had higher mean scores. There were also several variables associated with the FSO group. The FSO sample reported less alcohol history and had significantly less admissions to the crime than the two violent offender samples. Significantly more FSOs knew their victim and were biologically related to their victim than MSOs. Lastly, the FSO sample was the least discriminate regarding their victim gender of all the offender samples