BOISE, IDAHO -- It's hard to forget former Seattle elementary teacher Mary Kay Letourneau.
Cameras followed her every move from the time she was first accused of having sex with a 13 year-old student, to her wedding to the same person years later.
The story was water-cooler chat for years, as were teachers Debra LeFave and Pamela Rogers, both convicted of having sexual relationships with their teenage students.
And it's not just a national thing.
Local news has been filled with stories of women accused of sex crimes against kids--women like Lauren Palmer, a former Centennial High School softball coach.Police arrested Palmer for sexual battery after she was caught with a 16 year-old student in an Eagle park at 1:00 in the morning.
Palmer pleaded down to felony injury to a child, then only got probation. BSU sociology professor Dr. Steve Patrick says such leniency for women is reflective of a cultural bias.
"Males are supposed to be more rational and calculating and predatory, where women are emotional," Patrick said. Then there are cases like Laura Hester,33 accused of having sex several times with a teen less than half her age.
That same week Nathan Ray Ostrom of Kuna was arrested for allegedly committing the exact same crime.
But when it came to setting bond, Hester's was set at $100,000. Ostrom was held on five times that amount.
So why the double standard? "Young men or boys become men by having sex with an older woman, and we celebrate that in our culture," said Dr. Lisa Bostaph who teaches criminal justice at Boise State.
Even Idaho's law is written in a way that makes it impossible for a woman to commit rape. "It's one of the few in the country that's still written gender-biased," Bostaph said. "That kind of places some restrictions and puts prosecutors in a box in terms of what they can do in trying to charge these situations.
Take Deanna Buttram. She sexually abused a disabled woman with the mental capacity of a 6-year-old using sexual devices like bondage. She even streamed images of the abuse over the internet.
A rape charge could have put Buttram behind bars for life, but that wasn't an option. Instead, she was sentenced to 15 years in prison and can ask for parole after three years. Then there's Roseanna Villaneueva who had an ongoing sexual relationship with a 14-year-old boy. She also ended up having his baby. Villaneuva was able to plead down to felony injury to a child, and got just six months in jail.
Doctor Patrick says it sends a false message that while girls are victims, boys will be boys.
"They are victims. They have had their innocence taken," he said.
We should note in most cases, the sexual contact was consensual. Experts say that doesn't matter.
They say teens are often sexually confused, and adults who take advantage of that should be fully prosecuted. Even if they happen to be women.
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