Due to a culturally based unwillingness to believe that women commit such acts, female sexual offenders have been little studied and poorly understood. Until recently, mother-child incest was considered to be virtually nonexistent. There remains a huge discrepancy in the incidence of male and female offenders due to predisposing factors such as sex role differences, psychosexual factors, and social factors. The tentative conclusions reached are that the incidence of sexual abuse of male and female children by women is underestimated, and the changing roles of men and women in Western societies may lead to an increase in such abuse. 30 references. (Author abstract modified)