TX- Child sex cases involving women are on the rise in Texas

2-24-2009 Texas:

The number of women serving time in Texas prisons for having sex with minors has increased more than 36 percent in the last five years.

"Up to five years ago, we didn't talk about this," said Keith Durkin, a criminologist and researcher at Ohio Northern University. "Our culture is becoming more aware that women can and do commit these offenses."

Collin County has its share of cases.

Last month, as a Collin County jury deliberated whether a 40-year-old Allen woman was guilty of having sex with two teenage boys, two other young men came forward with similar accusations against her.

Rather than wait for a verdict, Regina Bowling pleaded guilty to two counts of indecency with a child and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Bowling is one of a growing number of women in Texas and nationwide accused of committing sex crimes against minors. So far this year, at least six Collin County women charged with having sex with minors – including Bowling – are either being prosecuted or have already had their cases adjudicated.

Still, Durkin and other experts in the field believe society has been slow to view women as sexual predators, though that is beginning to change.

"We're biased to perceive women as nurturing ... so we don't perceive them as sex offenders," said Dr. Julia Hislop, a Virginia psychologist and author of Female Sex Offenders: What Therapists, Law Enforcement and Child Protective Services Need to Know.

Studies suggest that female sex offenders often have a history of depression and anxiety. In addition, like many of their male counterparts, women abusers also may have been sexually abused as children.

Durkin said teenage boys are ideal victims of such crimes because they're less likely to complain and, if they do, their outcries "may be dismissed as teenage fish stories."

Teacher's aide Nancy Torres was 29 when she was arrested three years ago by Frisco police on suspicion of having a sexual relationship with a male teenage student. The relationship began in May 2006 when the victim was a 14-year-old middle school student and lasted about four months, according to police documents.

Torres, who is scheduled for a plea hearing Thursday, is charged with sexual assault and having an improper relationship with a student.

She could not be reached for comment.

If she goes to prison, she'll probably be enrolled there in the state's treatment program for female sex offenders, one of the first of its kind in the country.

Most of the women convicted of sex crimes against minors have had relationships with men their own age but abuse children for their own emotional needs, said Anne Mooney, supervisor of the prison treatment program, which launched in October 2000.

She said that unlike male sex offenders, who often seem to lead outwardly normal lives and have families and stable jobs, women convicted of these crimes often have chaotic lives, marked by substance abuse, frequent moves and erratic employment.

And Mooney said that most female offenders are emotionally immature and are drawn to the intensity that often marks adolescent relationships.

"They'll say, 'He acted older. He didn't act his age,' " Mooney said. "What they're really saying is that they're acting like I act. The offender is developmentally immature."

Elizabeth Marian Young was 41 in 2005 when she was arrested on charges of having sex with a 16-year-old high school student. The Frisco resident, who could not be reached for comment, pleaded guilty earlier this month and was placed on 10 years' probation for child sexual assault.

The teenage victim initially denied the two were having sex and told police that he and Young had a special relationship, "one that nobody would understand." But during the interview, he later broke down, threatened to harm himself, and had to be taken to a mental health treatment center, documents show.

Mooney agrees with other experts who say society often trivializes the effect sex abuse has on its young male victims.

"Often the women who have sexually abused them were women they turned to as role models and substitute mother figures," Mooney said.

"That trust was violated. They'll often say, 'Why did she do that to me?' It makes a lasting impression on their view of women." ..News Source.. by WENDY HUNDLEY / The Dallas Morning