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= Child_grooming =
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Introduction
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Sexual grooming is the action or behavior used to establish an
emotional connection with a vulnerable person - generally a minor
under the age of consent - and sometimes the victim's family, to lower
their inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse. It can occur in
various settings, including online, in person, and through other means
of communication. Children who are groomed may experience mental
health issues, including "anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress,
and suicidal thoughts".
Origins
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Before the term "grooming" was associated with grooming a child for
sexual abuse, it had come to have a meaning of mentorship, coaching,
or preparing someone for leadership.
From 1975 to 1985, law enforcement in the United States became
increasingly aware of child sexual abuse that happened to children
from outside their family, committed by those who were not strangers.
Previously, the focus of law enforcement had been on "stranger danger"
and those who used threats of violence to ensure compliance from their
victims. In these newly recognized sexual abuse cases, children were
manipulated with a "combination of attention, affection, kindness,
gifts, alcohol, drugs, money, and privileges". While there are
examples before this time where the pattern was recognized, it was
during this decade that the FBI became aware of the pattern and
criminal investigations were first taken seriously in the United
States. There was also growing awareness that offenders joined
youth-serving organizations to gain access to potential victims.
As an example, a 1977 study used the terminology "pressured sexual
contacts" and "forced sex contacts" to distinguish two types of
offenders. Sex-pressure offenses had a lack of physical force and
behavior that was counter-aggressive, using "persuasion of reward,
attention, affection, money, gifts, or entrapment". "Sex-force
offenses" used the threat of harm or physical force, such as
"intimidation, verbal threat, restraint, manipulation, and physical
strength".
Ken Lanning is credited with being one of the first professionals to
use the term "grooming". He recalls it being used in conversations
between law enforcement professionals, and pinpoints the first known
written description of the process of child grooming to a 1979 book
written by Nicholas Groth, and the first printed use of the word
grooming to a 1984 article by Jon Conte. At the beginning of its use,
both grooming and seduction were being used to describe this type of
non-violent offender, and Lanning recalls using both terms
interchangeably.
A January 1984 FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin used "seduction" and being
"seduced" to describe the activity of non-violent offenders. By 1985,
the Chicago Tribune had used the term, reporting "These 'friendly
molesters' become acquainted with their targeted victim, gaining their
trust while secretly grooming the child as a sexual partner."
In the 1980s, the public in the United States became increasingly
aware of child sexual abuse through the nursery school cases and abuse
in religious settings.
Changing meaning
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During the 1990s, the term grooming was increasingly used to replace
"seduction" as the most commonly used term. However, there was not
"one official, legal, mental health, or even lay definition" of
grooming. Growing awareness of chat rooms being used by pedophiles to
target victims came to public notice, and the use of "grooming" to
mean "to win the confidence of (a victim) in order to a commit sexual
assault on him or her" became mainstream. In academia, the description
of grooming strategies in online cases became distinct from the
descriptions of pre-Internet grooming strategies.
In 2008, a BBC report stated that "grooming" had taken on a pejorative
meaning; no longer associated with animal care or mentoring, it had
become associated with pedophiles and pedophilia. This caused outrage
when the term "groomed" was used to describe the behavior of someone
who had obtained leaked documents from a civil servant. The news
report mentioned other uses of the term "groom" that also had negative
connotation, such as "groomed for terrorism" or "groomed to become
suicide bombers".
A 2022 report by the Christian Monitor, reported that the word
"grooming" was now seen as "sinister". Instead of meaning "to prepare
as a political candidate ... to prepare or coach for a career", the
term had shifted in public discourse to mean "to befriend or influence
(a child), now esp. via the internet, in preparation for future sexual
abuse". Grooming is also increasingly used in political commentary to
mean “indoctrination” or “brainwashing".
Non-violent offenders
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To establish a good relationship with a child and the child's family,
child groomers might do several things: they might try to gain the
child's or parents' trust by befriending them, with the goal of easy
access to the child. A trusting relationship with the family means the
child's parents are less likely to believe potential accusations.
Child groomers might look for opportunities to have time alone with
the child, which can be done by offering to babysit; the groomers may
also invite the child for sleepovers, for opportunistic bed sharing.
They might give gifts or money to the child in exchange for sexual
contact, or for no apparent reason. Commonly, they show pornography to
the child, or talk about sexual topics with the child, hoping to make
it easy for the child to accept such acts, thus normalizing the
behavior. They may also engage in hugging, kissing, or other physical
contact, even when the child does not want it.
When grooming techniques are successful, the resulting compliance of
the child can be mis-interpreted as consent; and the child treated as
if they were not a victim of crime. When the behavior is considered
criminal, it can still be perceived as a lesser offense.
Some offenders prefer sexual gratification from less obvious types of
behaviors, and grooming behaviors in and of themselves are the goal as
they provide a chance to engage in a paraphilia.
Signs that characterize child groomers include: a person who tries to
communicate with a child online or in person in secret, outside the
knowledge of the child's parents or guardians; a person who attempts
to isolate a child from their friends or family, or who discourages
the child from spending time with others; or a person who asks a child
to keep secrets or who makes the child feel like they are special or
important in a way that is inappropriate.
Impact on victims
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Grooming has devastating impacts on victims, damaging their sense of
self, eroding their ability to trust others, and severely impacting
mental health. Children who are groomed may feel they are to blame for
their abuse, and have difficulty placing blame on the perpetrator.
Survivors may perceive aspects of human connection as threat cues, and
thus may find it difficult to fully engage mentally with simple
positive interactions, such as affirmation or compliments.
Many grooming tactics involve isolating a victim through fostering
distrust or otherwise sabotaging other close relationships. This
directly weakens the potential support network to process traumatic
experiences, increasing the risk of long-term psychological
ramifications. Victims can be left having been both isolated from
existing social connections, and finding it difficult to form new
ones.
Criminal offences
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Because sexual grooming is a non-violent and non-threatening form of
child sexual abuse, it includes behaviors that do not appear
inappropriate on the surface, as the behavior is designed to control
and conceal a sexual relationship with the victim. The behavior
becomes a criminal act in the United States when one tries to
"persuade, induce, entice, or coerce" a minor to engage in sexual
activity. As awareness of nonviolent offenders has grown, States like
Illinois have passed legislation that bans enticement similar to the
federal law.
Other example child sexual abuse offenses include "Solicitation of a
Minor," and "Indecent Liberties with a Child". In Kansas, "Aggravated
Indecent Liberties with a Child" is used when an abuser has sex with
the child. In Arkansas, the statute is "Sexual indecency with a
child".
Loverboy or Romeo Pimps
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In some contexts, such as the UK Grooming gangs scandal, the behavior
of Loverboy or Romeo Pimps has been described as 'grooming' by the
media. Loverboy is a method used to lure young people into sexual
exploitation and prostitution, where the target is initially
approached romantically by the exploiter. The goal is to exploit the
target, usually in the sex industry. Unlike non-violent offenders,
once ensnared, victims face blackmail and violence to maintain their
compliance.
Online Enticement
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Grooming is also used to describe befriending a child on the Internet,
in preparation for future sexual abuse.
Sexual predation of children on the Internet mostly consists of adults
using the Internet to meet and seduce underage adolescents into sexual
encounters. Some abusers (sometimes posing as children themselves)
chat with children online and make arrangements to meet with them in
person. Internet initiated sex crimes against minors is most
prevalent in relation to the 13-17 age group (99% of cases), and
particularly 13-14 (48%). The majority of targeted children are girls,
and most victimization occurs with mobile-phone support. Children and
teenagers who are highly curious and high-sensation-seeking are at
higher risk than others.
Pedophiles and predators use online grooming to carry out cybersex
trafficking crimes. After the pedophile gains the trust from a local
cybersex trafficker, often a parent or neighbor of the victim, the
online sexual exploitation will take place.
External links
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* [
http://www.iwf.org.uk Internet Watch Foundation]
* [
http://www.vachss.com/guest_dispatches/grooming.html Grooming
Children for Sexual Molestation], written by Gregory M. Weber, the
Assistant Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin who specializes
in the prosecution of crimes committed against children.
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20110718185333/http://prvok.upol.cz/index.php/ke-staeni/doc_download/11-cyber-grooming-danger-of-cyberspace-english
Cyber Grooming - danger of cyberspace, written by Kamil Kopecký, the
professor at Palacký University Olomouc (director of Centre PRVoK)]
License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_grooming
