This paper focuses on how ideologies of crime and gender influence the handling of female suspects accused of committing a sexual offense against a child. Edwards (1981, 1984) has observed that within the criminal justice system it is of central importance to examine, first, how judgments and discretion are mediated by factors which are often extraneous to the proof of guilt and, second, how the criminal justice process is guided by theories which expedite processing through the postulate that certain patterns of offending are more "typical" of one group than another. These "background relevances" (Garfinkel, 1967: 118) not only allow for the symbolic construction of a "typical" offence but also allow for the reification of an "offender" through the formation of a routinized "identikit" of characteristics thought to describe the common assailant. Within the social construction of a child sexual offender, gender assumes perhaps primary salience. The "typicality" or non-typicality of an allegation of child sexual abuse may have profound implications for assessment in terms of its veracity, severity, the assumed motivation for the offence, the "dangerousness" of the alleged offender and for its case management by agents and agencies mandated to respond.Feminist scholars have directed attention to the way in which processing stereotypes can be deleterious to the victim, the ideal of social justice and the right of persons to protection from crimes of violence, including, but not limited to, acts of sexual violence, under the law (Clark and Lewis, 1981; Marshall, 1989). Gordon (1986) has suggested the need to transcend the "victimization paradigm" that she feels has dominated Direct correspondence to

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Based on the senior author's participant observations as an “expert” guest panelist on an American nationally syndicated television talk show in summer 1992, it is suggested that in its presentation of “sexually deviant” behavior, the content of this “reality talk” show may be viewed as the product of scripted behavior that reinforces and replicates culturally normative views of gender and sexuality. Rather than viewing the disclosures presented before the cameras as either “spontaneous” or “true confessions,” the entire program may be more accurately seen as offering a deliberately crafted and stylized depiction of its subject matter.

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