Summary

This book is an account of the lives and the crimes of convicted women sex offenders. The issue of women who commit serious violent offences is an extremely important one, not least because of the continuing fascination they hold for politicians and the public alike. Such women are alternately demonised and defended, their crimes denounced as 'unnatural' or explained away as acts of self defence, usually against violent men. While society slowly comes to terms with the fact that women are capable of a range of crimes against property, violent, especially sexually violent, women continue to polarise opinion. This book adopts a dual approach, describing women's life stories but also exploring their offending behaviour and the social context in which it took place, seeking to arrive at a realistic understanding of their involvement in this form of crime.