Inside The Mind Of A Female Sex OffenderInside The Mind Of A Female Sex Offender
Caroline Lowe
Reporting
(WCCO) It is becoming more common that grown women are grabbing headlines for having sex with teenage boys.
Just this month, an accused child molester from Georgia gave birth to her 15-year-old husband's baby.
In the late 1990s, Julie Feli, a Twin Cities teacher, pleaded guilty to having sex with a student.
Romantic relationship or not, the women are sex offenders. One woman who is serving prison time for a sex offense talked to WCCO-TV's Caroline Lowe about the pain she has caused.
"Women can definitely be rapists," said Dr. Jeff Brown who is a Minnesota prison psychologist.
"Do you think that maybe there is a double standard about when women offend versus when men offend?" Lowe asked.
"I think there is definitely a double standard," Brown replied.
Alnora Lone is serving a nine-year prison sentence for her sex crimes with children. When she was 23, her victim was a 14-year-old boy.
"I really regret doing what I did to them young boys," Lone said. "I, um, came home one night and it was my birthday and I was drinking and I climbed into bed with my victim and I had sexual intercourse with him. And the next morning afterwards, I went and told his mother what happened and she reported it to the police."
Recent high profile cases may make it seem like lots of women are being charged with committing sex crimes, but the reality is that the numbers are still relatively small compared with men.
In Minnesota, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension reports there are more than 17,000 registered sex offenders. Less than two percent, 291 offenders, are women. Only one woman is rated a "Level 3" offender, which is considered the most dangerous and likely to re-offend.
"All the data that we have, across the country, is they (women) re-offend at a much lower rate," Brown said.
Besides responding to treatment, female offenders generally commit less serious sex crimes. Brown thinks the low number of female offenders may be because of underreporting.
"They are in our community," Brown said. "Sometimes they are detected, sometimes they are not, but they are there."
Brown thinks it's important society not minimize the harm they cause.
"The impact they have is significant on their victims and sometimes we don’t regard the impact in a similar way as we do men," Brown said.
Lone said she can relate to the harm she caused her victims.
"Why do you think you did what you did?" Lowe asked Lone.
"I was, been from the age of four up to 19, I was abused sexually," Lone said.
She still makes no excuses for her crimes.
"It was my own selfish behavior and I was drinking on top of it," Lone said.
While in prison, Lone has gone through treatment and has taken college classes. After she gets out of prison, she plans to continue to speak publicly about her crimes against children.
"I want to help them," Lone said. "Maybe I can prevent somebody from offending another child or person."
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