Journal of Sexual Aggression An international, interdisciplinary forum for research, theory and practice ISSN: 1355-2600 (Print) 1742-6545 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tjsa20 Sexual offenders contacting children online: an examination of transcripts of sexual grooming Georgia M. Winters, Leah E. Kaylor & Elizabeth L. Jeglic To cite this article: Georgia M. Winters, Leah E. Kaylor & Elizabeth L. Jeglic (2017) Sexual offenders contacting children online: an examination of transcripts of sexual grooming, Journal of Sexual Aggression, 23:1, 62-76, DOI: 10.1080/13552600.2016.1271146 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2016.1271146 Published online: 16 Jan 2017. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 1054 View Crossmark data Citing articles: 6 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=tjsa20 JOURNAL OF SEXUAL AGGRESSION, 2017 VOL. 23, NO. 1, 62–76 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2016.1271146 Sexual offenders contacting children online: an examination of transcripts of sexual grooming Georgia M. Wintersa,b, Leah E. Kaylorb,c and Elizabeth L. Jeglicb aThe Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA; bPsychology Department, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, USA; cDepartment of Psychology, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO, USA ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY The present study investigated transcripts of adults sexually grooming Received 25 January 2016 decoy victims on the Internet. One hundred transcripts were coded for Revised 3 December 2016 offender characteristics, victim characteristics, and dynamics of the Accepted 6 December 2016 conversation. The results revealed that all of the offenders were male, KEYWORDS most of whom believed they were communicating with an adolescent Sexual abuse; internet sex female. The sexual intentions of the offenders were made clear, with the crimes; sexual grooming; majority introducing sexual content early on into the conversation. The online grooming; child sexual length of the contact ranged from one day to nearly one year, abuse suggesting that the duration of the online grooming process may vary significantly. The majority of offenders also communicated with the decoy victim over the telephone and attempted to arrange an in-person meeting, many within short periods of time. Implications for prevention and future research are discussed. Originally airing in 2004, the television program To Catch a Predator captured the public’s attention by broadcasting encounters between sexual predators and law enforcement officers who were posing as children online. Such media coverage has heightened public attention to the dangers of sexual predators targeting children on the Internet (Hansen, 2006). Sexual solicitation of minors online involves an adult requesting a minor to engage in sexual conversations or activities via the Internet (Mitchell, Finkelhor, & Wolak, 2001). Adults who sexually solicit minors online may engage in sexual grooming behaviours, whereby an offender prepares a child for sexual abuse (Craven, Brown, & Gilchrist, 2006). Sexual grooming online involves an individual attempting to contact a minor with the goal of some form of sexually inappropriate behaviour (eg cybersexual activity, child pornography, arranging an in-person meeting for the purpose of sexual contact; Staks- rud 2013). Although the perpetrator has reached out to the potential victim, the minor may not respond to the initiation of conversation. The use of the Internet to identify and target victims is a relatively new phenomenon, but one that has a wide reach. Currently almost all young people (97%) in the United States between the ages of 12 and 18 use the Internet (Ybarra, Leaf, & Diener-West, 2004). A national telephone survey found that as many as 12% of males and 27% of females between the ages of 10 and 17 reported being sexually solicited online (Ybarra et al., 2004), suggesting that children are increasingly receiving sexual solicitations on the Internet (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, 2010). Over the past two decades, there has been an increase in awareness for professionals and the public alike about the use of the Internet to facilitate child sexual abuse (Beech, Elliott, Birgden, & Findlater, 2008). However, there is still much to be understood in terms of the characteristics of the offenders and their conversations with poten- tial victims. CONTACT Georgia M. Winters [email protected], [email protected] © 2017 National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers JOURNAL OF SEXUAL AGGRESSION 63 Offenders of online sexual grooming Sexual grooming typically describes the process whereby an offender manipulates a minor into a situ- ation where sexual abuse can be more readily committed, while also preventing future disclosure (van Dam, 2001; Wyre, 2000). Importantly, there has yet to be a universal definition of the term given difficulties determining where the process begins and ends, as well as the variety of behaviours that could be involved depending on the offender, the victim, and the context (Gillespie, 2002). While sexual grooming is not a new concept, the Internet has given potential offenders new opportunities to sexually exploit children (Gillespie, 2002), by providing the offender with anonymity and easy access to victims (Cooper, 1998). Offenders use the Internet to manipulate potential victims by intro- ducing sex talk, exposing the child to pornography, or asking victims to view or perform sexual activi- ties (Lanning, 2005). Further, offenders may have the goal of arranging a meeting with the child to engage in in-person sexual acts. One way these Internet offenders locate children and initiate con- versations with potential victims is through online chat rooms (Malesky, 2007). These online offenders may use sexual grooming behaviours to sexually solicit minors on these Internet platforms. Of the 2391 public reports of inappropriate online sexual behaviours in the UK between 2009 and 2010, 64% involved sexual solicitation of minors (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre [CEOP], 2010). It should be noted that groups, such as CEOP, have raised awareness of these issues and facili- tate reporting of these crimes, which may help explain why online solicitation has been deemed a significant social problem in recent years. Overall, it appears that sexual solicitation of children is one of the most frequently reported sexually inappropriate behaviours on the Internet. While researchers have long been investigating contact sexual offenders, online sexual offenders have been considered a relatively new phenomenon (Craven, Brown, & Gilchrist, 2007). Carr (2004) argued that individuals who groom children via the Internet are qualitatively different than those who engage in in-person grooming. Babchishin, Hanson, and Hermann (2011) conducted a meta- analysis comparing online (eg child pornography, luring children through the Internet) and offline sexual offenders. The meta-analysis revealed that online offenders were more likely to be Caucasian and younger than in-person offenders. In terms of psychological variables, online offenders showed greater empathy for victims, higher sexual deviancy, and lower impression management. A content analysis of online grooming transcripts also revealed that while online sexual offenders use similar tactics for in-person grooming, the overall process may differ in order and timing (Black, Wollis, Woodworth, & Hancock, 2015). Wolak and Finkelhor (2013) investigated whether Internet-related offenses differed from in-person crimes by conducting in-depth phone interviews with a national sample of law enforcement investigators regarding their cases. Contrary to other research, these authors concluded there is little evidence to suggest that offenders who communicate with victims online were different or more dangerous than those committing offenses in-person and both groups used similar tactics in their offense process. Researchers have been interested in how offenders locate and target their online victims in order to better understand the offense process. Child molesters who engage in in-person grooming tend to select victims based on physical attractiveness, ease of access, and perceived vulnerabilities (Lanning, 2010; McAlinden, 2006; Olson, Daggs, Ellevold, & Rogers, 2007). Similarly, while it is unclear whether physical attractiveness plays a role in the selection process, research has shown that online perpetra- tors may select victims based on accessibility, opportunity, and the child’s perceived vulnerabilities (Malesky, 2007;O’Connell, 2003). Malesky (2007) examined the online activity of 31 convicted sexual offenders who had communicated with a minor via the Internet and found that the majority monitored and visited chat rooms geared toward minors and a half of this sample reviewed profiles to identify potential victims. These online offenders chose a victim based on the presence of sexual content in the minor’s profile, perceived neediness or submissiveness of the child, the child explicitly stating their age in their profile, and the use of young-sounding usernames. Once the victim is selected, the offender begins to engage the child in conversation. At that point, online offenders tend to immediately state their gender, age, and location (Marcum, 2007). 64 G.M.WINTERSETAL. A meta-analysis of studies examining online