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Thursday, September 15, 2022

The Female Pedophile: The Tabatha Partsch Case

     In the 1980s, criminologists believed that 80 percent of molested boys were victimized by men, and that 95 percent of sexually assaulted girls were victims of adult males. More current research suggested these figures did not reflect the true number of female pedophiles.

     Female pedophiles can be placed into three general categories: women who target children under six; those who molest adolescents; and women who assault children with a male partner. Female pedophiles who were themselves victimized tend to target their own children. So-called self-made female offenders tend to prey upon victims outside the home. These pedophiles acquire access to children as trusted daycare workers, relatives, school teachers and coaches.

      The female pedophiles who are most likely to grab headlines are the school teachers who have sex with adolescent males. According to criminologists who study these women, they lack self-esteem, are co-dependent and are afraid of rejection. They tend to romanticize their victims as ideal partners who truly understand them. There seems to be an epidemic of this type of female pedophilia. For some reason many of these offenders teach English.

     Many female pedophiles avoid prison because prosecutors believe they are more difficult to convict than their male counterparts. Convicted women receive lighter sentences than males who commit the same crimes. Journalists, when referring to women so accused, use words like "had sex with," or "affair," instead of "rape" or "molestation."

The Tabatha Partsch Case

     Tabatha Partsch, a 39-year-old middle school teacher, lived in Claysburg, a town of 1,500 in central Pennsylvania about 35 miles south of Altoona. In September 2011, a 14-year-old boy who had been to Partsch's house told a police officer he'd seen Partsch take a girl his age into her bedroom and lock the door.

     The Greenfield Township Police acquired, in March 2012, a day-long exchange of text messages between Partsch and a 12-year-old boy. Partsch instructed the kid to skip school and come to her house, noting that if his parents found out, she'd hide him. Partsch also suggested they exchange nude photographs of each other.

     Detectives learned that Partsch had been involved in several sexually explicit conversations with other boys she was possibly grooming. In one of her texts, she wrote, "We can do stuff, maybe touch each other."

     Shortly after midnight on March 29, 2012, police officers from several local jurisdictions arrived at Partsch's house with a search warrant. Among other items, they seized nine cellphones, two computers, and a Playstation 3 video game console. Officers found nude photographs of children on several of the recovered cellphones.

     Over the next few weeks detectives questioned several children who had spent time at Tabatha Partsch's dwelling. According to these children, the suspect had showed them Internet pornography, supplied them with cigarettes and alcohol, and sexually molested them. According to an 11-year-old boy, Partsch forced him to sexually assault a 5-year-old girl.

     On July 13, 2012, a detective, accompanied by a Blair County social worker, questioned the suspect at her home. Partach said she hadn't placed the sexually explicit photographs on her cellphones and denied sexually molesting anyone. All of the children were making things up and lying, she said.

     Ten days following the interview, police officers took Tabatha Partsch into custody. Charged with 18 felonies related to child sexual abuse, she was placed into the Blair County Jail on $150,000 bond. Richard Consiglio, the Blair County District Attorney, charged Partsch with child rape, statutory indecent assault, disseminating explicit material to minors and corrupting minors. Questioned by a local reporter, Consiglio noted that convictions in trials involving young prosecution witnesses were not sure things. At least in this case, not much time has passed since the alleged crimes took place.

    In November 2012, following her guilty plea, a Blair County judge sentenced Tabatha Partch to fifteen to thirty years in prison. (In November 2013, Partsch's 34-year-old husband, Patrick, was sentenced to 8 to 28 years for his involvement in the child molestations.)

     In late 2014, Judge Daniel J. Milliron ordered a review of the case by the Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board. The board, on July 5, 2015, found that Tabatha Partsch, under the terms of Megan's Law, met the criteria to be declared a sexually violent predator. That meant that Partsch would be required, once out of prison, to register annually with the local police for the rest of her life. Moreover, once she was released from the State Correctional Institution at Muncy, Pennsylvania, Partsch would undergo monthly counseling for the duration of her 15 years on probation. 

5 comments:

  1. Loe and behold. 1 year later not a single comment. I know it's a sexist remark but had the sexes been reversed there would have been a lot of upset comments to this article. Evil does not differentiate between sexes, but society does. I just can't tell if it's men or women who are pushing hardest for it to stay that way ...

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    1. It isn't a sexist remark, it is reality. Men are judged more harshly and demonized for pedophilia. Women pedophiles are labeled as misguided due to being abuse victims themselves. I think it is crap. There are no excuses or justifications for raping a child. I do not understand the victimization defense. If one is abused and knows firsthand the devastating effects, why would they in turn bestow that upon someone else? I believe that pedophilia is a mental illness, a disease but both genders should be treated equally and prosecuted the same.

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    2. Anonymous (interesting moniker!) said:
      "both genders should be treated equally and prosecuted the same."
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      I agree! Fair is fair.

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  2. I agree, *speaking* as a survivor of years of abuse and molestation. Whenever I read or hear some pedophile perv blame their past of being a victim for their abhorrent behavior, I feel sick, thinking "How could you?!"

    I had to give up on counseling years ago after the third one in a row asked me if I felt an urge to molest children because of my being a victim myself! I replied that I would rather shoot myself than make an innocent kid go through the crap I had!

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    1. Wigi don’t give up on counseling. The counselors be required to ask that question, they aren’t judging you. People who have been molested might suffer from PTSD and other problems. You aren’t responsible for being abused, someone else is to blame for that. But now that you’re an adult you should take responsibility for getter better. Good luck to you.

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