Pedophilia (the sexual attraction to pre-pubescent children) and Hebephilia (a sexual interest in pubescent children who are beginning to physically show secondary sex characteristics), are often, and correctly, associated with male offenders. When/where women are involved in such offenses it is often as a co-offender who engages in sexual acts against children (SCA) with a partner/boyfriend etc. There are exceptions when such acts are led and dominated by women, such as with the serial killers Fred and Rose West, however these are so rare, that in the initial investigation, Fred was seen as the primary abuser/killer, with Rose simply following his lead; an argument her defense team used in the legal case against the couple that involved/included the sexual abuse and killing of two of her children (along with eight others), something which prosecutors were quick to undermine. However, female sexual predators like Rose West are extremely, and I mean extremely rare, as most sexual violence, and murders are committed by men, which makes sexual offenders such as Alyssa Zinger an anomaly; and someone who can possibly tell us a lot about adults’ sexual offending against children.

                Alyssa Zinger, who in April, 2024, was accused in court of posing online in and person as a 14-year-old student in an attempt to lure teenagers for sex - is somewhat different to many female sexual predators who commit their offenses against children, as she didn’t do so with a male partner, and she wasn’t in a position of power, such as being a teacher etc. Zinger, who is 23-years-old, portrayed herself, via social media, as a home-schooled minor/teenager in order to have sex and share explicit images of herself with at least five middle school boys. In most known cases of sexual abuse against children, the perpetrator has at some point disclosed their age e.g., a sexual predator may have groomed someone by pretending to be of the same age but have on contact – or just before – revealed their true age. It appeared that Zinger kept up her pretense, and never revealed that she was older than she was. Many “true” pedophiles – those who are primarily attracted to prepubescent and pubescent children as opposed to heterosexual adults who engage in child sexual abuse (by far a greater number) - will make the argument that age-gaps aren’t important, and that sex between adults and children are not only natural but beneficial for childhood development. They may make the argument that in order for them to gain access and “educate” those they victimize, they have to pretend that they are of a similar age, but at some point, they will reveal their true identities and engage with the pubescent and prepubescent individuals as an adult. It seems that Zinger didn’t follow this script. She adopted a “Peter Pan” type role, and behaved as an adult who chose not/refused to grow up. She presented herself, not an “adult” who wanted to have sex with children, but as another child, in order to have sex with other children. This is something very different to teachers and other adults in positions of authority who want to normalize adult-child relationships to those they victimize.

                It could be that Zinger genuinely believed that, despite society’s disapproval, adult-child sexual relationships were natural and that portraying yourself as a teenager was simply a tactic to engage in a sexual relationship, or it could be that she still “believed” herself to be a teenager rather than a woman in her early twenties. We know that sexual feelings, from a physical perspective, start very young e.g., Zinger may have become “sexually” aware and physically aroused as a very young child but would lack the emotional and psychological development to make sense of what she was experiencing/feeling etc. She may well have been sexually abusing younger children than herself whilst she was a teenager, as these were the individuals she had access to and could control etc. Somewhere along the line she would get sexually “stuck”, this is what happens with most pedophiles; their other emotions, feelings and thoughts evolve as they get older, whilst their sexual feelings stay in place. You may well have experienced a somewhat  sexual – maybe more romantic - “crush” on an older adult when in your early teens, however as you aged you became more attracted to those of a similar age. With those who become pedophiles, as teens or children they develop similar attractions but as they age these don’t evolve i.e., they become sexually stuck. They age, they mature in other areas of their life, but sexually they remain attracted to others who are younger than themselves.

                Alyssa Zinger may offer a more “honest” example of this than other pedophiles who go on, into adulthood, to “justify” their sexual attraction to children. Zinger wasn’t playing an overt power game, such as a teacher having sexual relations with a student, where they were clearly in control etc., or an adult who was trying to argue and justify that adult-child sexual relations were normal, and society had yet to catch up to and realize/recognize these relationships etc. Zinger was behaving as someone who refused to grow up and recreated/reimagined herself as a teenager in order to have sex with those who were of an age she sexually identified with. This may have been a tactic she employed – pretending to be a teenager – or it could be that we are seeing a new form of pedophilia, where adults cease to see/identify themselves as adults and reposition themselves as teenagers. Whilst the laws surrounding CSA (Child Sexual Abuse) are clear, and are based on age and power differentials we may be entering an age where the motivations behind pedophilia are less singular and are more mixed/complex.