Public perceptions of internet,familial and localised sexual grooming: Predicting perceived prevalence and safety

Abstract

This paper examines public perceptions of three sexual grooming types: computer-mediated sexual grooming (CMSG), familial sexual grooming (FSG) and localised sexual grooming (LSG). Using data from a national survey of 557 respondents from the United Kingdom, we tested models that predicted perceptions of the prevalence of CMSG, FSG and LSG and the perceived safety of internet, familial and localised grooming spaces. Media-related factors were the most significant in predicting higher levels of perceived prevalence of CMSG and disagreement in relation to safety of internet and public spaces. Knowledge of a grooming victim was most significant in predicting higher levels of perceived prevalence of FSG and LSG and higher levels disagreement in relation to the safety of the home. The findings suggest that the public express too little concern over familial sexual grooming and that initiatives should be introduced to make citizens more aware of the distinctions between types of sexual grooming behaviours, settings and offenders.     

Sexual grooming of children: Review of literature and theoretical considerations

Abstract

The current review aims to outline the existing understanding of sexual grooming. Issues of poor definition, the adoption of the term “grooming” and the prevalence of sexual grooming will be discussed. Consideration will be given to how prominent theories of child sexual abuse often neglect sexual grooming. This will be followed by a detailed account of the existing knowledge within the literature. Three types of sexual grooming were thus identified: self-grooming, grooming the environment and significant others and grooming the child. Based on these findings, a new definition of sexual grooming is suggested. Furthermore, the findings correspond well with current models of the sexual offence process. A more comprehensive understanding of sexual grooming is required to facilitate a preventative approach to child protection.     

Labour of love: Female juvenile prostitution in the Netherlands

Summary

Although the number of young prostitutes increases, little systematic research has been undertaken to gain more insight into the trafficking of these young women. The main object of the present study was to describe the processes (that is, grooming, incorporation, and maintenance) that underlie the trafficking of young women for prostitution. Police records of 16 adolescent prostitutes were analysed. Results show that these prostitutes were recruited by so-called ‘lover boys’ who applied various seduction techniques to make the vulnerable young women fall in love with them. In general, the young women were incorporated into prostitution by means of physical violence. To protect and secure their income and organization, the pimps used a wide range of power and control tactics, of which the use of physical violence can be considered the most effective.     

Perpetrators of organised child sexual exploitation (CSE) in the UK: a review of current research

ABSTRACT

Researchers and professionals tend to agree that there continues to be a paucity of evidence on who perpetrates organised child sexual exploitation (CSE). This article provides a review of currently available research and data pertaining to this form of offending. It also considers gaps in existing research and some of the challenges surrounding current data recording. Beginning with a discussion of terminology surrounding organised CSE - which has also been called “group localised grooming”, “internal trafficking” and “contact child sex abuse” – there then follows a request for greater clarity of terminology. Finally, the specific issue of offender characteristics is broached through an examination of available research and evidence relating to the perpetrators of organised CSE.     

Scambaiting on the Spectrum of Digilantism

Digilantism is punishment through online exposure of supposed wrongdoing. Paedophile hunting is one example, and the practice is open to many of the classical objections to vigilantism. But it lies on a spectrum that contains many other kinds of digilantism. Scambaiting is among the other kinds. It consists of attracting online approaches from perpetrators of different kinds of online advance-fee fraud. Characteristically, it takes the form of protracted email exchanges between scammers and scambaiters. These exchanges are mainly down-to-earth and occasionally testy conversations about the details of fictitious money transfers or involved explanations of delays in payment. They succeed in their purpose if they waste a lot of their targets’ time, but they can also be pursued as a sort of comic art form. Scambaiting exchanges seem often, but not always, to be relatively harmless. They therefore help to make intelligible a region of morally permissible digilantism on the spectrum of digilantism. Not that scambaiters never go too far, but their typical weapons inflict and risk inflicting far less harm than those of other digilantes, and there are actual scambaiting norms that have been chosen because of their relative harmlessness.     

The Role of Child Sexual Abuse Images in Coercive and Non-Coercive Relationships with Adolescents: A Thematic Review of the Literature

The objective of this article is to present a thematic review of literature that pertains to the role of child sexual abuse images in online coercive and non-coercive relationships with adolescents, synthesize and contextualize current research on this topic, and identify some of the complexities in the self-production of sexual images by adolescents and their potential use by offenders. This review examines why there is a trend for child abuse image production to be increasingly associated with adolescent self-produced sexual images and how this may be related to individual coercion, as well as changing social and Internet contexts. Practitioners need to understand the technological and social affordances offered by the Internet, particularly in relation to the ability to produce sexual images, as part of a more ecological approach to understanding online abuse and exploitation.     

Necropsy Findings in Dogs that Died During Grooming or other Pet Service Procedures

Procedures involved in grooming, bathing, and other pet services can often lead animals to death. Of the necropsies of 1391 animals carried out at a private diagnostic laboratory in Sao Paulo, Brazil from 2004 to 2009, 94 were dogs that died during the above‐mentioned procedures. Young male dogs and small breeds like Poodle Miniature, Yorkshire Terrier, and Lhasa Apso were most frequently observed. Blunt‐force trauma was responsible for the deaths of 31% of the animals, with a higher incidence of trauma to the head, characterized chiefly by fractures and nervous tissue lesions. In the other 69% of cases, the animals showed signs of stress, and died due to pulmonary edema and hemorrhage. As we cannot rule out the intentional character in some situations, this article provides veterinary forensic support for veterinarians and pet owners, especially in lawsuits, helping in finding the cause of animal's death in such pet services.     

A critique of current child molester subcategories: a proposal for an alternative approach

This paper examines the utility of previous attempts to subcategorize child molesters. We argue that research based on these categorizations has resulted in confusion due to differences across studies concerning which offenders belong in each group. For example, there are no agreed-upon guidelines for identifying a child molester as an incest offender or as a ‘stranger’ offender. We examine research findings associated with previous attempts to subcategorize child molesters as well as the literature on modus operandi. From this, we conclude that current attempts to subcategorize child molesters are flawed. We propose that distinguishing child molesters according to new criteria – that is, whether or not they have been previously associated with their victim – should result in more productive research and provide a better guide for treatment and postdischarge supervision. In our terminology, nonaffiliative child molesters are those offenders who are truly strangers to their victims whereas affiliative child molesters are characterized by an established caregiving relationship with the child for some period prior to the offense. These men, unlike nonaffiliative offenders, engage in a protracted grooming process before offending. Finally, we outline research, treatment, and risk-management strategies relevant to each of our subcategories.     

Online Sexual Grooming in Sweden—Online and Offline Sex Offences against Children as Described in Swedish Police Data

The expansion in Internet use since the mid‐1990s has created a completely new and largely unmonitored forum for contacts between adults and children. The anonymity provided by Internet communications has been viewed as creating favourable conditions for adults wishing to develop manipulative relationships with children, and there has been a growing concern about the way the Internet may be used by adults intent on sexually exploiting and abusing young people. Much of the focus of this concern has been directed at adults using the Internet to create opportunities for the commission of offline sex offences. Based on police data from Sweden, this article describes the range of Internet‐related sexual offences against children currently being brought to the attention of the Swedish justice system. It focuses not only on the range of strategies employed by adults to persuade children to meet them offline for the purposes of sexual exploitation and abuse but also on the different types of online sexual offences that children in Sweden are currently being subjected to.