By Lisa Lipshires

Seven years ago, a client of Massachusetts psychologist Marcia Turner said something that shocked her. The woman, who had been sexually abused throughout her own childhood and was living in a house with other adults and their children, said, "The little three-year-old girl in my household is coming on to me, and wants me to have sex with her. I think I will, because I know that I will be gentle and kind to her, and it's inevitable that she is going to be abused."

Although Turner had previously counseled male sex offenders, she had never encountered a woman who wanted to sexually abuse a child. Alarmed, she consulted other therapists, but none had ever encountered -- or even heard of -- female sex offenders. Turner realized that "this is something we need to look at," and decided to make female perpetrators of child sexual abuse the focus of her practice.