Susan Brock, now facing 15 counts stemming from an alleged affair with a teenager, is accused of crimes that society often shrugs off because the victim is a male, sexual-abuse experts said Monday.

"Men and women go through the same offense cycle," said Lorena Hirsch, co-director of Family Transitions of Phoenix, which helps treat young sex-abuse victims and their families. "One of the huge differences is the way society treats them."

Brock, 48, the wife of Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock, is accused of committing as many as 30 sexual acts over a three-year period with a boy who was 14 when they began, police say.

Hirsch and Stephanie Orr, director of CASA, the Center for Prevention of Abuse and Violence, also in Phoenix, described the cycle of abuse committed by older people and the long-term effects adolescent victims often face. They did not speak specifically of the Brock case.

Romance does not drive an older person to "groom" and seduce a vulnerable child, but usually a need for attention, control and revenge, the women said.

Usually, offenders as children were "emotionally and verbally abused" and suffer self-esteem so low they bolster it by getting the adoration of a young person, they said.

"It makes them feel powerful, alive, like a goddess," Orr said.

They think that " 'I'm someone. This boy wants me. I matter.' "

They often groom children for a period of time, showering them with gifts and compliments, taking them on outings, asking if their parents know how special they are.

"They pick a shy child, a timid child," Orr said, "someone who is obedient."

The abusers, Hirsch said, "would say they have feelings for him. That he wanted it."

In recent years across the country, the media have publicized cases of female schoolteachers having sexual relations, even bearing children, with students.

"There's nothing about that relationship that is equal," Hirsch said.

When the victims are boys, they often get teased about getting gifts and sexual favors from an older woman, Hirsch said.

"They often hear, 'What are you complaining about?' " Hirsch said.

But the boys "have been manipulated, sexually used, and their vulnerability taken advantage of," Hirsch said.

Victims often feel responsible for the affair, as they accepted the gifts and agreed to the sex acts, Hirsch said. They can suffer from nightmares, anxiety and depression, and find appropriate sexual relationships elusive, Orr aid.

The consequences are more severe when the relationship is longer, the sex acts more frequent and the age difference larger, Orr said.

Parents may not notice because the abuser is skilled at manipulation and deception, and many people want to live "in naive denial," Hirsch said.

The Pinal County Attorney's Office has filed a direct complaint in Maricopa County Superior Court against Susan Brock, listing 11 new counts and several new charges, including molestation of a child, public sexual indecency to a minor and furnishing harmful items, such as pornography, to a minor. The new counts list the laundry room, computer room and his car as places where sex acts occurred, and they accuse Brock of showing the victim pornography.

Police say Brock picked up the Chandler teen from his home or school and committed sex acts that did not include intercourse in her car, home, her mother's home and secluded areas. She reportedly gave him an iPod, iPod Touch and two iPhones.