Sexual abuse perpetrated by mothers is an uncomfortable subject for many people. A mother committing sexual acts on their child in unthinkable – yet it happens. It defies everything we want to believe about mothers. Yet statistics validate that sexually abusive mothers do exist.
ChildLine Statistics
ChildLine is a helpline operated by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). According to their 2008/09 statistics, 2,142 children who called about sexual abuse reported that the perpetrators were women. Out of these children, 1,311, or 11% of all calls cited their mother as the abuser.
Compared to ChildLine 2004/05 statistics, there were 923 children who named female abusers; this is an increase of 132% in a very short period of time.
Other female perpetrators reported by children who called ChildLine were a female acquaintance, aunts, sisters, stepmothers and grandmothers.
Sexually Abusive Mothers
Dr. Christine Hatchard has a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology and Human Services and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology, with a specialization in Psychological Assessment. She founded Making Daughters Safe Again in 1999 and has worked with hundreds of survivors of mother-daughter sexual abuse.
According to Dr. Hatchard, the vast majority of female sexual abusers are married and heterosexual. The mother may be a survivor of abuse and act out her experiences on her daughter or son. She writes on her website, “The mother may find it unbearable to see any part of herself in her daughter, and displace her own anger and shame over her sexuality onto her daughter. The mother often wishes to dominate and control her daughter, while also seeking emotional support from her, sometimes resulting in a reversal of roles.”
Under-Reported Crime
There is agreement that this is a highly under-reported crime. An NSPCC report on female sex offenders in 2005 suggests that determining a precise prevalence rate is difficult because sometimes even professionals do not acknowledge that a woman is capable of committing such a heinous crime against her own child.
Less than 1% of members at Dr. Hatchard’s “Making Daughters Safe Again” report that they had intervention as a child. Dr. Hatchard states that some of the reasons this is highly under-reported include:
- Therapists, doctors, social workers and other professionals know very little about this form of abuse or they simply do not consider it a possibility.
- Perpetrators overwhelmingly appear like a caring mother.
- Low physical evidence that can’t be detected upon a routine physical exam.
- Lack of protection by physically or emotionally absent fathers or abusive fathers.
- Abuse is hidden under the guise of normal medical care or hygiene routines.
Sexual abuse perpetrated by women until recently, has been treated as a taboo subject. The knowledge that the overwhelming proportion of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by men has left the issue of female perpetrators virtually unexamined.
For the sake of the children whose mothers have sexually violated them, it’s time society acknowledges that women can and do commit sexual abuse.
Recommended Resources and Reading:
Making Daughters Safe Again
Female Sexual Abuse of Children. M. Elliot (1993)
The Last Secret: Daughters Sexually Abused by Mothers. B. Rosencrans (1997)
Facebook: HOPE (Healing Our Past Experiences) (Support for women, men and young adults who are victims of childhood and adult sexual violence and rape.)
Karen Stephenson - Karen has written for several newspapers and print media in addition to many online publications. She holds a B.A. in English and an ...
Join the Conversation