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Abstract

The representation of women who engage in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offenses in the media is important to understand because the misconstruction of offending may marginalize victims of these offenses and stymie the reporting by victims. The current study aimed to explore how women who perpetrate CSAM offenses are represented in the media. A search of all newspaper articles reporting CSAM offenses perpetrated by women published in English over a 6-month period (1 May 2020 to 31 October 2020) was conducted (N = 68 articles). A qualitative content analysis identified three themes: (1) newspaper headings do not suggest women, including mothers, engage in CSAM offending; (2) women who co-offend are actively involved in the CSAM offending; and (3) CSAM cases perpetrated by women are reported factually as opposed to emotively. Overall, the findings are positive, indicating advancements in the factual, as opposed to stereotypical, reporting of women who engage in CSAM offenses.

Keywords

child sexual abuse child sexual abuse material female child sexual offenders female sex offenders media

Women can play a prominent role in the production, distribution, and possession of child sexual abuse material (Bickart et al., 2019). While there is an emerging body of literature on women who perpetrate contact child sexual offenses (see Christensen, 2018a; Cortoni et al., 2017; Darling et al., 2018), the role of women who engage in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offending is still poorly understood, with a dearth of literature on this offending group (Bickart et al., 2019; Gottfried et al., 2020). We cannot assume women who engage in CSAM offenses are similar to women who perpetrate contact child sexual offenses, particularly when the research on men who perpetrate child sexual offenses highlights the disparities across online, contact, and mixed (both online and contact) sexual offenders. For example, compared with contact and mixed offenders, men who engage in CSAM offenses are more likely to hold professional employment, have higher levels of education (Lee et al., 2012), be young, Caucasian, have greater sexual deviance, have greater victim empathy, and have fewer cognitive distortions (Babchishin et al., 2015). It is entirely unknown how much women who perpetrate CSAM offenses bear a resemblance to their contact-only counterparts; therefore, it is vital that research is conducted on women who engage in CSAM offenses (Bickart et al., 2019) to extend the limited knowledge base in the field. One good place to start is exploring the media’s representation of women who engage in these offenses as this can promote better education along with greater direction for future research (Landor, 2009; Stutz, 2018).

Until recently, news outlets portrayed some misunderstandings of women who engage in child sexual offenses and their ability to harm children (Stutz, 2018). Studies exploring the media representations of these women have been found to differ markedly from men who engage in child sexual offenses, with women often being portrayed with a sympathetic, romantic, or vulnerable undertone, and mitigated accountability (Chiotti, 2009; Hayes and Baker, 2014; Landor, 2009). Somewhat recently, Christensen, 2018a found women who engage in child sexual offenses were reported as accountable for their actions and dangerous, identifying a shift in the reporting of this offending group. Only one study to date has explored media depictions of women who engaged in CSAM offenses, which found women were generally represented as either doubly deviant or victims of circumstance (Ste-Marie, 2019). It is important to consider media depictions of women who engage in CSAM offenses given the media has the ability to alter current social constructions and shape societal attitudes (Ste-Marie, 2019). In addition to altering social perceptions, the media can shape how members of society respond to violence perpetrated by women (Berrington and Honkatukia, 2002). The current study attempts to fill this dearth of literature by exploring how women who engage in CSAM offenses are represented in the media.

Literature review

Although the majority of CSAM offenders are men, women can engage in CSAM offending. In fact, women may be engaging in CSAM offending more than what was once suspected (Seigfried et al., 2008). In a study involving 307 men and women respondents, Seigfried et al. (2008) found 277 self-reported as non-consumers of CSAM, and of the 30 respondents classified as using CSAM, 20 were men and 10 were women (indicating a 2:1 ratio of men to women). Another study examining self-reported sexual interest among the general population found 3.4% of women indicated a likelihood of viewing CSAM (compared with 9.2% of men) (Wurtele et al., 2014). Further, women comprise only 2.9% of those arrested for all commercial sexual exploitation of children (e.g. child sex trafficking along with the distribution, trafficking, production, and possession of CSAM); however, they make up 6.5% of those arrested for the production of CSAM (Adams and Flynn, 2017). With the ongoing global influx of CSAM cases coming to the attention of authorities (Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, 2019; European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, 2020), it is not unreasonable to suggest that the proliferation of women who engage in CSAM offenses will also continue to increase throughout the foreseeable future and reinforces the need for research in this field.

The media is one of the key sources of public information regarding sexual offending (Malinen et al., 2014) and is deemed one of the most valuable platforms to examine the representations of these women (Christensen, 2018a). It is imperative to explore representations of women who engage in CSAM offenses as the mass media, in general, can reinforce and shape gender roles (Meyers, 1996), influence public perceptions (Cole and Daniel, 2005), and shape public responses (Berrington and Honkatukia, 2002). It can, therefore, indirectly stymie or stimulate policies (Berkeley Media Studies Group, 2003) which could potentially concern the detection of offenders along with their possible treatment (Thakker, 2012).

The media projects influential representations concerning cultural ideations (Stutz, 2018). In particular, there is an evident ongoing lack of understanding about women who offend and a belief that sexual abuse perpetrated by women is less significant or harmful (Tsopelas et al., 2012). However, research has found that child sexual offenses perpetrated by women can be more damaging, both psychologically and physically, than abuse perpetrated by men (Christensen, 2018b). Yet, for decades, women who perpetrated sexual offenses were perceived as innocent and harmless due to traditional sex scripts (Boroughs, 2004; Denov, 2004).

Until recently, there appeared to be unbalanced rhetoric in the media reporting across men and women who engage in contact child sexual offenses, with women having undertones of sympathy and romanticism (see Christensen, 2018a; Landor and Eisenchlas, 2012). Examining newspaper articles, Landor (2009) found that women who perpetrated sexual offenses were reported with undertones of sympathy while men were depicted with pronounced disgust. In a different study, Chiotti (2009) used several media outlets and found women were depicted as having an emotional connection to the victim, with very few reported as predatory or evil, unlike the men who were reported on. Most recently, using newspaper articles, Christensen (2018a) found women who perpetrated child sexual offenses were reported as dangerous and accountable for their actions. This most recent finding sheds light on what appears to be a potential advancement in the reporting of these cases.

Further to the impact of shaping and influencing public perceptions and policies, it is important to explore the representation of women who engage in CSAM offenses in the media because the misconstruction of offending may marginalize victims of these offenses (Hetherton, 1999) and impede the reporting by victims (Hayes and Baker, 2014). Thus, it is important to ensure that these offenders are no longer depicted with undertones of sympathy and unaccountability. To the author’s knowledge, only one study to date has explored media depictions of women who engage in CSAM offenses. In this study, Ste-Marie (2019) explored 273 articles from Canadian newspapers from 2010 to 2017. Ste-Marie (2019) found women were typically represented as doubly deviant or victims of circumstance, and concluded that the social constructions of these offenders will continue to evolve, calling for additional research. The current study aimed to explore how women who engage in CSAM offenses are represented in the media. To the author’s knowledge, it will be the first study to explore the representation of these women in newspaper reports at a global level. The findings will be a valuable resource for both policy and practice professionals in psychology, law enforcement, and media disciplines.

Methods

The sampling frame entailed newspaper articles over a 6-month period (1 May 2020 to 31 October 2020) published in English on the global ProQuest server. This period was selected to ensure the most up-to-date newspaper articles. The following search terms were used ‘female’ OR ‘woman’ OR ‘mother’ OR ‘teacher’ AND ‘child pornography’ OR ‘child porn’ OR ‘child abuse material’ OR ‘child sexual abuse material’ OR ‘child exploitation material’ OR ‘child sexual exploitation material’ OR ‘kiddie porn’. A total of 975 articles were returned. While this appears to be a large number of articles, as aforementioned, women make up 6.5% of those arrested for the production of CSAM and 2.9% of those arrested for all commercial sexual exploitation of children (Adams and Flynn, 2017). It is also important to note that media coverage is often skewed towards the reporting of negative events to attain high ratings (Lawrence and Mueller, 2003).

Articles were excluded if they: were not published in English; discussed the general topic of CSAM rather than a specific case; were from tabloid newspapers as opposed to periodical broadsheet newspapers; or involved women who were mentioned in a CSAM article without any reference to being a suspect, questioned, charged, or arrested (see Hayes and Baker, 2014). Articles were also excluded if they solely focused on men or contact child sexual offending, or the article was on the withdrawing of all charges. After these exclusions, 68 articles remained.

Analytical approach

Similar to past studies that analyzed media representations of women who perpetrate child sexual offenses (e.g. Christensen, 2018a; Landor and Eisenchlas, 2012), the current study employed a qualitative content analysis. The analytic and systematic approach of qualitative content analysis focuses on capturing meanings, types, definitions, and process (Altheide and Schneider, 2013), allowing researchers to ‘document and understand the communication of meaning’ (Altheide, 1987: 68). This approach was selected over a quantitative content analysis as the purpose of the study was to identify the narrative on the portrayal of the offenders and understand the communication of meaning as opposed to measuring the frequency of themes that emerged in the articles (Altheide, 1987). In line with Altheide’s (1987: 71) process, when defining what was relevant, the researcher read the news articles without ‘predefined and rigid categories’. In line with the past studies, the procedure involved reading several articles, assessing the messages, and documenting the general categories, before reexamining several prior articles and checking the quantity and quality of information the researcher had recorded. This process of continuously refined exploration meant that the emergent themes were substantively informed (Altheide, 1987).

Results

Results from the 68 newspaper articles are discussed below. Characteristics of the articles are briefly outlined, followed by the presentation of themes surrounding the media’s representation of women. In particular, three themes emerged.: (1) newspaper headings do not suggest women, including mothers, engage in CSAM offending; (2) women who co-offend are actively involved in the CSAM offending; and (3) CSAM cases perpetrated by women are reported factually as opposed to emotively.

Characteristics of articles

There were 57 offenders spanning 30 individual CSAM cases. While most cases only involved one article, some cases involved multiple articles (M = 2.27 articles, maximum = 11 articles). Most cases occurred in the United States of America ([US] 8 cases), followed by Canada (7), Australia (6), and the Philippines (4). The remaining locations each involved one case: Germany, New Zealand, Russia, Cyprus, and India. Most cases were published in Australia (9), followed by Canada (8), the United States (5), India (3), and the United Kingdom (3), with the remaining each involving one publication: Cyprus, New Zealand, Africa, and Thailand. This number adds up to 32 because one case involved multiple international publications.

Of the 57 offenders, 32 were women. Two of these women were transgender: biologically male but identified as a female. Half of the cases involved only one woman (solo offender), while the remaining cases, except two, involved one man and one woman (co-offenders; most of which involved a domestic relationship). The two remaining cases had multiple offenders involving a CSAM and trafficking ring. Women ranged in age from 18 to 45 years (M = 32 years).¹ Only five cases suggested the woman had vulnerabilities (e.g. poor mental health and intellectual disability), with two of these five cases involving men (one of these women were transgender).

While most cases involved a woman receiving multiple charges, the exact number of charges was rarely provided. Known charges equally concerned production and possession, followed by distribution and access. Half of the cases resulted in additional charges beyond CSAM, which included human trafficking, neglect, and child sexual abuse. Nine cases had been prosecuted, in which all offenders had pleaded guilty. In only one case, the plea was unclear. While some cases were awaiting sentencing, of cases that had been sentenced, the punishment ranged from a $500 fine plus court costs (one possession offense) through to a 25 years prison sentence with supervision for the rest of the offender’s life. This case involved a woman (sole offender) who sexually abused an infant on an ongoing basis and produced CSAM of the abuse. Criminal history was reported in only two cases; one offender had a prior conviction for possessing and producing CSAM involving infants under the age of three, while the other offender had a prior conviction for posting an objectionable picture on social media.

Of known cases, there were over 54 child victims, most of whom were girls. Most cases involved multiple victims; only 11 cases involved one victim. Of known cases involving multiple victims, these ranged from two victims to 13 victims. One separate case involved anime; there did not appear to be any victim in this case. Victims ranged in age from 9 months to 19 years (M = 9.58).² Very few cases reported the number of videos and images of the victims. The victim-offender relationship in half of the cases was unknown and mostly concerned possession offenses. Of known victim-offender relationship cases, all women were the child’s mother, except for four cases: the child’s older sister, the child’s grandmother, and two cases involved a relative or someone known to the child. In most of these cases, the offenses concerned production followed by distribution.

Themes evident in the media’s representation of women engaging in CSAM offending

Newspaper headings do not suggest women, including mothers, engage in CSAM offending

Despite all the articles involving women who engaged in CSAM offenses, only 21 headings of the 68 articles indicated a woman was involved in the offending. Instead, the gender was often ambiguous in the heading while some headings only referred to men. In these instances, gender was disclosed only in the text of the article, even in some of the most extreme cases where the women were sole offenders or led the abuse in co-offending cases. For example, one heading read ‘13 rescued from Butuan “cybersex den”’ and it wasn’t until the text of the article which indicated the 28-year-old woman was the prime suspect and alluded to her leading the abuse over and above her male partner, who was taken into custody for conspiracy. The abuse appeared to be highly planned, with the suspect having various identification cards, tablets, lubricants, cellphones, remittance cards, and an Internet router. Further, one heading read, ‘Teen accused of distributing child porn’. This case involved an 18-year-old sole offending woman who was facing 20 charges of distributing CSAM. The teenager created a fake account on social media and was suspected of sharing dozens of photographs of nude, underage girls. In turn, most of the headings did not suggest women engage in CSAM offending.

Regarding mothers who offended against their own children, it was interesting to find that the headings of most of these articles did not indicate the victim-offender relationship. For example, while the heading ‘Bail bid for mum who ‘plotted abuse of girl’’ indicates the offender was a mother, this heading does not directly suggest the offender perpetrated against her own daughter. Within the text, readers then learn the mother planned to abuse her five-year-old daughter with her partner, and the mother had allegedly admitted to taking and sending nude photographs of her daughter to her partner for his sexual pleasure. In a different case, the heading read, ‘No jail time for man guilty of possessing child pornography’. This heading does not suggest any woman was involved. Yet, in this case, it was the mother sending sexually explicit text messages and photos of her five-year-old son to her partner, who was encouraging her to do so. Despite the prominent role these mothers played in the offending, it was alarming to find this characteristic excluded from many of the headings.

Women who co-offend are actively involved in the CSAM offending

Aside from the headings that often excluded the women, the text clearly depicted the role of the woman as being actively involved in the CSAM offending. As aforementioned, half of the cases involved a solo offender and, therefore, active involvement – with the woman being the only offender – was clear. The remaining cases involved one man and one woman (co-offenders; aside from two cases). In the cases that involved co-offenders (often in a domestic relationship), the articles appeared to indicate the women still participated actively. For example, one case stated that the Crown described the woman as ‘cold and calculating’ and that she ‘played an active role in the sexual exploitation of a child’. This woman pleaded guilty to making child pornography, human trafficking of a person under 18, along with other offenses such as forcible confinement and assault. In addition to being ordered to give a DNA sample, the woman was ordered to be placed on the sex offender registry for life. Even in one case where it was suggested that the co-offender ‘groomed’ the child’s mother into the abuse and threatened her with violence, the mother later testified that she lied and that she was a ‘willing participant’ and wanted to preserve her relationship with her partner. While not all cases explicitly stated that the co-offending woman actively participated or facilitated the abuse, the language used across these articles did not suggest any woman played a passive role.

CSAM cases perpetrated by women are reported factually as opposed to emotively

Unlike earlier reporting of women who perpetrate child sexual offenses, the language used throughout the articles appeared to be mostly factual rather than emotive. In only several cases emotive headings, and accompanying text, were used. For example, one heading stated, ‘Woman who filmed herself raping baby got hooked on child abuse clips at the age of 14’. Further, the text at the beginning of this article referred to the woman as a ‘vile woman’ who ‘started collecting sick child sex abuse videos when she was aged 14 or 15’. While highly emotive language, the remainder of the article was factual. Further, this case resulted in a 25-year sentence which involved both sexual abuse and the production of CSAM. This case also received the longest sentence in the current study. In addition to producing five videos herself, the woman stored a collection of online material on Dropbox and gave out her Dropbox password so other individuals could upload their own content. Aside from this case, the most emotive language seen across articles included ‘accused of crimes of the ‘highest level’ of seriousness’ and ‘planning the abuse of the five-year-old victim in horrifying detail’.

Although, most cases did not use emotive language and appeared to simply state the facts. For example, CSAM was discovered on an Australian man’s digital devices after returning from the Philippines, which led to the arrest of the CSAM victim’s mother. The text of this article purely stated, ‘A 41-year-old woman from the district of Caloocan was arrested on charges that she had used her three children, a boy aged 13 and two girls aged 13 and five, to live-stream sexual acts via webcam to thousands of paying customers’. Despite this article having the potential to talk about the disgust towards the mother or the horrific nature of the abuse and depravity of offending, it did not. Instead, the remainder of the article spoke about the success of the interagency law enforcement collaboration in this instance, along with other recent examples of successful operations. Across these articles, factual language was used regardless of whether the offender was the CSAM victim’s mother or not.

Discussion

The current study aimed to explore how women who engage in CSAM offenses are represented in the media. It is imperative that research is conducted on these women given the dearth of literature on this offending group (Bickart et al., 2019). Exploring the media representations of women who engage in CSAM offending is also important to study when the mass media has the ability to influence public perceptions (Cole and Daniel, 2005), reinforce and shape gender roles (Meyers, 1996), and shape public responses (Berrington and Honkatukia, 2002). It can, therefore, indirectly stymie or stimulate policies (Berkeley Media Studies Group, 2003) which could potentially concern the detection of offenders along with their possible treatment (Thakker, 2012).

Three themes emerged from the qualitative content analysis: (1) newspaper headings do not suggest women, including mothers, engage in CSAM offending; (2) women who co-offend are actively involved in the CSAM offending; and (3) CSAM cases perpetrated by women are reported factually as opposed to emotively. Overall, the themes identified suggest that women are not depicted with undertones of sympathy and romanticism unlike earlier studies on the portrayal of women who perpetrated contact child sexual offenses. This is a positive finding given that misconstructions of offending can impede the reporting by victims (Hayes and Baker, 2014) and marginalize victims of these offenses (Hetherton, 1999). The findings are discussed below, along with limitations and areas for future research.

While, overall, the themes indicated positive findings compared with the earlier reporting of women who perpetrated contact child sexual offenses, the theme newspaper headings do not suggest women, including mothers, engage in CSAM offending could be considered problematic. Women who engage in contact child sexual offending is becoming more recognized among the community, however, women who engage in CSAM offending is still very poorly understood. It is imperative that the public is aware that this type of offending can be perpetrated by women to avoid the marginalization of victims of these offenses (Hetherton, 1999). Newspaper headings play a significant role in news communication; they provide context and summarize the main focus of the article, with readers scanning the headings to establish which articles to read (Dor, 2003; Ecker et al., 2014). Further, headings facilitate comprehension (Dor, 2003) and with it often being the first element of the article encoded, it can impact which information the reader then focuses on (Ecker et al., 2014).

The author does not suggest the villainization of women in the headings through emotive terminology by any means, but rather, suggests the gender of the offender could be made salient within the heading. Similar to Malinen et al. (2014), the author advocates for factual information to be included. This is because the invisibility around women who perpetrate sexual abuse may prevent victims from disclosing and reporting the abuse to authorities because they feel they do not fit the stereotype, forgoing intervention, and support (Christensen, 2018a). In fact, professionals involved in the justice and community response sector have acknowledged that the media is the only mechanism influential enough to promote discourse and salience to the public at large on the issue of women who perpetrate sexual abuse (Christensen, 2018b). Such developments in the portrayal of these women in the media may not only assist with victims disclosing but could also enhance responses to victims by both professionals and members of the public (Christensen and Jansen, 2019).

Interestingly, the victim-offender relationship differed across offense type; most cases involving a relative were production and distribution offenses whereas unknown victim-offender relationships concerned possession offenses. This finding aligns with routine activities theory (Cohen and Felson, 1979), that is, crime occurs when a motivated offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian converge in space and time. In turn, women motivated to offend, with access to a suitable target (their children), and without a capable guardian, might engage in production and distribution offenses, likely producing the material within their own homes. This is consistent with Martellozzo et al. (2010) who argued that with the gendered nature of child rearing and women’s access to their children, often as the primary caregiver, it provides an advantage for committing CSAM. However, motivated women, who do not have access to a suitable target (victim), and do not have a capable guardian, may instead turn to accessing and possessing CSAM. In turn, future research needs to look beyond the psychological motivations and consider the influences of situational factors when understanding women who engage in CSAM. Such knowledge could inform both prevention and intervention efforts.

When looking beyond the headings, a second theme to emerge was women who co-offend are actively involved in the CSAM offending. First, it is important to point out that the current study found half of the women offended alone which is in contrast to previous research. For example, Bickart et al. (2019) found two-thirds of women offended with a male co-offender. The current finding might have emerged due to solo women possibly being considered more newsworthy than co-offending women (and subsequently more likely to have been reported on) with gendered stereotypes and the breach of societal norms pertaining to femininity drawing media attention (Jewkes, 2011; Zack et al., 2018). However, the finding that very few headings even alluded to a woman being involved in the offending refutes this suggestion.

The text of the articles indicated co-offending women participated actively as willing participants, rather than suggesting they acted passively. It was particularly interesting to see this representation given that women who offend have previously been portrayed stereotypically as passive in contrast to their dominant male co-offenders (Hayes and Baker, 2014). In fact, previous research that explored the representations of child sexual offenders found women were labeled as ‘heartbroken’ and ‘lonely’ while men were labeled as ‘perverts’ and ‘pedophiles’ (Landor, 2009). In a different study, Hayes and Baker (2014) found some women were demonized for their crimes; however, they still found that the women were not represented as entirely responsible for their offending due to mental illness, having a male co-offender, or being ‘romantically’ involved with the victim. Even in the most recent study that explored media depictions of women who engaged in CSAM offenses, Ste-Marie (2019) found women were typically represented as either doubly deviant or victims of circumstance (Ste-Marie, 2019). For so long, women who have perpetrated child sexual abuse offenses have been articulated within the normative frame of femininity, drawing on the understanding of women being nurturers, caregivers, and sexually passive (Denov, 2003; Hayes and Carpenter, 2013). The evident gender bias in how women are represented in these crimes, along with how the public perceives and reacts to these crimes, and differences in judicial outcomes highlights the potential impact of these representations on public opinion and policy implications (Frei, 2008).

However, the current finding is consistent with somewhat recent media research that has noted accountability in the reporting of women who perpetrate contact child sexual offenses, with co-offending depicted as ‘willing’ and ‘active’ (Christensen, 2018a). While such depictions, promisingly, step away from earlier portrayals and give rise to the woman’s accountability, the author acknowledges that some women may commence CSAM offending in a passive role, and become conditioned over time, resulting in their own sexually abusive behaviour (Eldridge et al., 2009). For example, some women may have produced and distributed CSAM for emotional value to maintain the attention of their partner and thus providing themselves with a sense of self-worth (Elliott and Ashfield, 2011), with the male partner controlling and manipulating the woman’s authority as a mother for his own sexual pleasure (Elliott and Ashfield, 2011), until the mother perceives herself as a willing participant.

The author acknowledges this may have been the instance in several of the CSAM cases in the current study. Future research could explore the pathways of women who engage in CSAM co-offending for those women that commence willingly versus those that commence passively but become conditioned over time and perceive themselves as willing participants. This research could identify complex etiological trajectories which could assist with clinical interventions. The author also acknowledges that not all CSAM offenders are attracted to children; research suggests some offend out of financial gain, sexual addiction, and mere curiosity (Christensen and Tsagaris, 2020; Stutz, 2018). Stressors, such as a breakdown of a marriage, have also been found to precede CSAM offending (Osbourne and Christensen, 2020). Compared with men, there is less agreement on whether women are similarly driven to engage in sexual offenses out of deviant sexual interests (Cortoni, 2018). However, the point needs to be made that a co-offending woman who has no sexual attraction in children does not negate the opportunity for them to play an active and willing role in CSAM offending.

The final theme to emerge was CSAM cases perpetrated by women are reported factually as opposed to emotively. Aside from several articles, the language used throughout the articles appeared to read mostly as factual rather than emotive regardless of the relationship between the victim and offender. This was an interesting finding when Christensen, 2018a found women who engage in contact child sex offenses were portrayed as dangerous offenders, with the woman’s character often being expressed as a child predator (attributing predatory words, e.g., ‘perv’ and ‘evil woman’), a registered child sexual offender, and cold and unsympathetic. Even in cases involving solo offending, that involved the production and possession of CSAM, cases in the current study used factual language. Factual reporting is important for many reasons, such as assisting victims disclosing (Christensen and Jansen, 2019). In fact, research has found contributors to a female ‘propaedophilia’ Web site have acknowledged that the public’s lack of suspicion of women who perpetrate sexual abuse has created benefits for potential abusers, allowing them to manipulate situations (Lambert and O’Halloran, 2008). Thus, continued factual reporting along with increased discourse and salience on women who engage in CSAM offending through the media should have positive impacts on victim disclosure and the responses to victims by both the public and professionals.

Limitations

This study is not without limitations. First, the study did not compare the representations of men and women who have engaged in CSAM offenses. While doing so would have allowed for a comparative analysis, this was not the aim of the current study, with the focus being exploratory in nature. Second, despite the international focus, some countries were more represented than others which could have confounded the results. However, the purpose of the study was not to explore the differences globally per se and it was evident there were no major differences in the rhetoric used across countries. A comparative analysis at a national and transnational level would be a worthwhile avenue for future research, with a larger sample of international cases. Such an approach could tease out any differences in how women who engage in CSAM offenses are depicted in the media globally. Third, the articles lacked some contextual transparency, for example, it was not evident where the articles appeared in the newspaper (e.g. front page) or the impact of the articles (e.g. number of views and clicks). Finally, the characteristics of the CSAM offenders merely represent the characteristics of reported cases in the media and these findings cannot be generalized across women who engage in CSAM offenses more broadly, particularly when the media may choose to report on more ‘newsworthy’ cases.

Conclusion

Despite the emerging body of literature on women who engage in contact child sexual offenses (see Christensen, 2018a; Cortoni et al., 2017; Darling et al., 2018), limited research has explored women who perpetrate CSAM offenses. The current study aimed to explore how women who engage in CSAM offenses are represented in the media. Three themes emerged from the qualitative content analysis: (1) newspaper headings do not suggest women, including mothers, engage in CSAM offending; (2) women who co-offend are actively involved in the CSAM offending; and (3) CSAM cases perpetrated by women are reported factually as opposed to emotively. Overall, these themes indicate advancements in the media’s reporting of women who engage in CSAM offenses when compared with the earlier reporting of women who perpetrate contact child sexual offenses. These findings are positive, particularly as the media can indirectly stymie or stimulate policies (Berkeley Media Studies Group, 2003), influence public perceptions (Cole and Daniel, 2005), shape gender roles (Meyers, 1996), and impact public responses (Berrington and Honkatukia, 2002). Such representations of women who engage in CSAM offending should assist in informing prevention and treatment initiatives for offenders, preventing the marginalization of victims of these offenses, along with assisting these victims to disclose and report the abuse, and finally, enhancing public and professional responses to these disclosures.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

The researcher acknowledges Lauren Gamlin for her assistance in refining the final draft.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Larissa S Christensen

Notes

Larissa S Christensen is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. With a PhD in Psychology, she is co-leader of the Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit (SVRPU). She holds a primary research interest in the prevention of, and response to, sexual violence and abuse, with a focus on females who engage in sexual offenses. She is Associate Editor of the Journal of Sexual Aggression.

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Exploring the uncomfortable topic of women who engage in child sexual abuse material offenses: How are they represented in the media?

Abstract

Keywords

Literature review

Methods

Analytical approach

Results

Characteristics of articles

Themes evident in the media’s representation of women engaging in CSAM offending

Newspaper headings do not suggest women, including mothers, engage in CSAM offending

Women who co-offend are actively involved in the CSAM offending

CSAM cases perpetrated by women are reported factually as opposed to emotively

Discussion

Limitations

Conclusion

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

Declaration of conflicting interests

Funding

ORCID iD

Notes

References