Our thanks to Jeff for this. We were anticipating yet another suspended sentence, instead she received a 8-year prison sentence. We hope many more men and boys are emboldened to come forward and start cases against their former abusers, no matter how long ago those abuses took place.
Prosecutions of women for sex offences are rare, and the rarity is surely accounted for in large part by the lack of interest that the police and criminal justice system take in women’s sexual abuse of men and children. In our general election manifesto (pp.31-37) we calculated that (from what is known about rates of heterosexual male and female sex offending), the ratio of men to women charged with sexual offences should be a little under 3:1. In the UK in 2013, the ratio was 146:1.
This need for the use of correct terminology starts with us. Mike’s two paragraphs above are excellent, and the stats he cites need disseminating as widely as possible, yet even someone as outspoken as him still fails to call a spade a spade. If we’re not going to call these women rapists then no one else ever will.
Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
The length of the sentence may be appropriate but the other factor which should not be overlooked is that women’s prisons are far less unpleasant than men’s prisons.
I’m sure that this female paedophile will have a much easier time of it than if she were a man.
it is nice to see the gender double standards in sentencing slightly corrected,on a very limited basis.
as I read the article,there was not a single mention of the word rape,or at least statutory rape…If the perpetrator had been male,rape would be the word of choice…another double standard…
Equality needs to be upheld across the board.Especially in the judicial system..Not just a little bit here and a little bit there, where women are concerned….the judges must not be allowed to apply lenient manner when sentencing female perpetrators. This has no place in a just,democratic state…