Female Child Rapists Generate Less Outrage

Sept. 30, 2004 -- -- Mary Kay Letourneau's plans to marry the former student she was convicted of sexually assaulting when he was just 12 years old are shocking, but have generated relatively little public outrage.

After serving seven years for child rape for having sex with a former student — and having two children with him — Letourneau, 42, has reunited with Vili Fualaau, now 21. They are said to be very much in love, and both have said publicly that they plan to marry.

If Letourneau had been a man and Fualaau a female student, residents of Burien, Wash., would have protested when the former teacher moved in following her release from prison in August. Letourneau was obliged to register as a sex offender, and her case is very well known. But few people showed up at a neighborhood meeting announcing her move to the community.

There were complaints at the meeting, but those were about the 27 other registered sex offenders — all male — who already lived in the same ZIP code area. One Burien resident said she had no problem with Letourneau moving next door to her because "she's not a threat to my kids."

The lack of outrage surrounding Letourneau's case, some believe, illustrates the differences in how male and female sex offenders — and their victims — are perceived.

"Maybe it has more to do with who the victims are, as opposed to the perpetrators," said Lawrence Driscoll, professor of criminal justice at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia. "As a society in general, we tend to be more protective of females. It's like [society believes] boys will be boys but we have to take care of the girls."

In addition, young boys' crushes on older females — such as baby sitters and teachers — are often treated with a humor and levity not easily found when girls, especially teens, develop crushes on male authority figures.

"When a boy develops a crush on his female teacher, there's a certain amount of laughter. 'Ha, ha, ha. Look who has a secret crush' kind of thing," said Keith Durkin, associate professor of sociology at Ohio Northern University.