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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
using 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".
Non-violent offenders
=======================
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.
Online offenders
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Sexual grooming of children also occurs on the Internet. Some abusers
(sometimes posing as children themselves) chat with children online
and make arrangements to meet with them in person. Online grooming of
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.
Facebook has been involved in controversy as to whether it takes
enough precautions against the sexual grooming of children. Jim
Gamble, leader of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
(CEOP) in the UK, said in 2010 that his office had received 292
complaints about Facebook users in 2009 but that none of the
complaints had come directly from Facebook. A spokesman for Facebook
responded to complaints by meeting CEOP directly in person, and said
that they take safety issues "very seriously". In 2003, MSN
implemented chat room restrictions to help protect children from
adults seeking sexual conversations with them. In 2005, Yahoo! chat
rooms were investigated by the New York State attorney general's
office for allowing users to create rooms whose names suggested they
were being used for this purpose; that October, Yahoo! agreed to
"implement policies and procedures designed to ensure" that such rooms
would not be allowed. Computer programs have been developed to analyse
chat rooms and other instant messaging logs for suspicious activity.
As this can be prevented not only on platform level but also on the
point of entry, it is recommended that parents establish safe
environments for their children to use the Internet, with reduced risk
of encountering cyber grooming individuals.
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.
Suspected offenders have used the so-called "fantasy defense", the
argument that they were only expressing fantasies and not plans of
future behavior, to defend actions such as online communication. In
the US, case law draws a distinction between those two and some people
accused of "grooming" have successfully used this defense.
In the US, an online privacy law, Children's Online Privacy Protection
Act, has been misattributed as a measure to prevent online child
grooming and protect children from child predators.
Religious settings
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Some characteristics of some religions can facilitate sexual grooming,
including religious texts which justify sexual grooming, deference
towards religious authority, unquestioned faith in persons with
religious authority, spiritual punishments, power, patriarchy and
obedience. Sexual grooming in religious setting can be within some
religious institutions or outside of religious institutions in case of
religious rhetoric. Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse found
evidence for sexual grooming in religious settings for 38 groups.
Examples of sexual grooming in religious settings include Catholic
Church sexual abuse cases, Jehovah's Witnesses' handling of child
sexual abuse, Rochdale child sex abuse ring, Adass Israel School sex
abuse scandal and religious child marriage.
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.
General
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In its report 'Protection of Children Against Abuse Through New
Technologies', the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention Committee
addressed the emerging issues of violence against children through the
use of new technologies (the issue of child pornography on the
Internet is already covered by Article 9 Convention) with particular
reference to grooming both through the internet and by mobile
telephones.
Some nations have already criminalized grooming in their national
legislation. Analysis of these laws suggests some may be redundant
with existing legislation and/or practices.
Australia
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Australian Criminal Code Act 1995 section 474.26 and 474.27 prohibits
the use of a "carrier service" to communicate with the intent to
procure a person under the age of 16, or expose such a person to any
indecent matter for grooming. The various states and territories have
similar laws, some of which use a different ages (for example the
victim only has to be under 16 in Queensland). Such laws across
Australia were recently strengthened in the wake of the murder of
Carly Ryan.
Canada
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In Canada, Criminal Code section 172.1 makes it an offence to
communicate with a child through a computer system to commit a sexual
offence (termed "luring a child").
Costa Rica
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In Costa Rica, since April 2013, the Criminal Code section 167 bis,
makes it an offence to seduce a child by electronic means. With
penalties from one to 3 years of imprisonment for a person that, by
any means attempts to establish an erotic or sexual communication with
a child under 15 years old.
Germany
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In Germany, under § 176 of the Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code) it is a
criminal offence to entice a child (below the age of 14) into sexual
actions or to use telecommunications to try to entice them into sexual
actions or child pornography. In January 2020, the law was extended to
include cases of attempted cyber grooming in which perpetrators
"groomed" investigators or parents, believing them to be a child.
Japan
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In 2023, Japan adopted a new crime law that establishes sexual
grooming, voyeurism, and asking for sexual images of children under
the age of 16 as crimes.
Netherlands
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On 1 January 2010, section 248e was added to the Dutch Criminal Code
making it an offence to arrange online or by telephone a meeting with
someone he knows or reasonably should assume to be a child under 16,
with the intent of sexually abusing the child, as soon as any
preparation for this meeting is made. The maximum punishment is 2
years of imprisonment or a fine of the fourth category.
New Zealand
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The law in New Zealand states that it is a crime to meet up or intend
to meet up to perform an unlawful sexual act with a person under 16
years. This is recorded in Section 131B of the Crimes Act 1961. Any
person charged is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7
years.
United Kingdom
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In England and Wales, sections 14 and 15 of the Sexual Offences Act
2003 make it an offence to arrange a meeting with a child under 16,
for oneself or someone else, with the intent of sexually abusing the
child. The meeting itself is also an offence in its own right. The
offence carries a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and
automatic barring of the offender from working with children or
vulnerable adults.
The Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences
(Scotland) Act 2005 introduced a similar provision for Scotland.
Thus, a crime may be committed even without the actual meeting taking
place and without the child being involved in the meeting (for
example, if a police officer has taken over the contact and pretends
to be that child). In 'R v T' (2005) EWCA Crim 2681, the appellant,
aged 43, had pretended to befriend a nine-year-old girl but had done
very little with her before she became suspicious and reported his
approaches. He had many previous convictions (including one for rape)
and was described as a "relentless, predatory pedophile". The Court of
Appeal upheld a sentence of eight years' imprisonment with an extended
license period of two years.
United States
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In the United States, makes it a federal offence to use the mail,
interstate commerce, etc. to entice a minor to sexual activity for
which any person can be charged with a criminal offence. makes it a
federal offence to transmit information about a person below the age
of 16 for this purpose.
Some states have additional statutes covering seducing a child online,
such as the Florida law that makes "Use of a Computer to Seduce a
Child" a felony.
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 has provisions
to prevent the distribution of pornography to children for the purpose
of persuading them to engage in illegal activity. It was first
enforced federally against Alabamian Jerry Alan Penton in 2009. Penton
received 20 years in prison for that action coupled with another 20
for his distribution and possession of child pornography.
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
=========
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_grooming
