Sex abuse by women taken less seriously due to stereotypes, experts say

Experts on female sexual offenders say gender stereotypes can get in the way of problematic behaviour being detected and sometimes lead to the abuse not being taken as seriously, after a 28-year-old Winnipeg woman was charged with sexually assaulting a teen she coached.

Winnipeg police announced last week that Madison Biluk had been charged with 15 offences, including sexual assault, sexual exploitation and luring. 

Police say the charges stem from a sexually exploitative relationship that occurred from 2019 to 2021 between Biluk, now 28 years old, and a teenage player in Manitoba.

None of the charges have been proven in court. 

While rare, cases of women who perpetrate sexual abuse do happen, and they happen more often than people may think, said Elizabeth Jeglic, a psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York who has researched the topic extensively. 

Data in North America shows that while only two per cent of convicted sex offenders are women, when speaking to survivors, 12 to 14 per cent say the perpetrator was a woman, Jeglic said. 

A CBC analysis of sexual offence convictions of coaches in amateur sport found only nine cases from 1998 to 2018 where it was a female coach. 

These cases are less likely to be detected because people tend to explain problematic conduct away because of the gender, Jeglic said. 

"I think we tend to believe perpetrators are men, and they for the large part are, but women usually have the stereotype of being maternal and caring and we often will overlook behaviours that might be indicative of sexual abuse when engaged in by a woman," she said. 

Franca Cortoni, a professor of criminological psychology at the University of Montreal, has been researching sexual offenders and sexual abuse for close to 35 years. 

She said as rare as women sexual offenders are, it's even more rare to see cases of women who sexually abuse other women or girls.

Her research found that of the 12 per cent of sexual assault victims who said the perpetrator was a woman, only four per cent were female themselves. 

"Those cases are few and far between, and we just don't really have any understanding what motivates them to do this."

Not taken as seriously

Because it's so rare, victims of female perpetrators often aren't taken as seriously and are made to feel that they misconstrued the abuse, she said. 

"The data shows invariably that … the majority of offenders are men. There's no doubt about that," she said. 

"But pretending that women are not responsible for sexual offending is treating the victims of these women as second-class citizens."

It's natural that men's behaviour will be looked at more closely, because male sex offenders are more common, but everyone who is working with children, regardless of gender, needs to be scrutinized equally, she said. 

That point was echoed by Bev Moore-Davis, a survivor of child sexual abuse and longtime advocate. 

"Females need to be vetted the same way as males, and this story only highlights the need for that," she said. 

When it comes to prevention, Moore-Davis thinks there needs to be clear policies in place about what is and isn't appropriate for coaches or other adults working or volunteering with children. 

"The relationship needs to remain professional. Coaches shouldn't be interacting with, you know, 14-year-old children [via] texting or on social media," she said. 

One-on-one interactions or situations where there are no other adults present should also be minimized, she said, mentioning cases of abuse in amateur sport when there is travel involved without other adults chaperoning. 

"Whatever the circumstances, if we can't have other people participate in this road trip, let's say, well then it shouldn't happen," she said. 

"The circumstances where there's the coach sleeping in the same room with the children, that's certainly unacceptable."

Ultimately, parents need to trust their instincts, Cortoni said. 

"People say … you know, he's a respected coach, she's a respected teacher.… Follow your guts."