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Policing Online Child Sexual Abuse: Understanding Grooming in the 21 st Century

Policing Online Child Sexual Abuse: Understanding Grooming in the 21 st Century. Dr Elena Martellozzo. Defining online grooming.

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Policing Online Child Sexual Abuse: Understanding Grooming in the 21 st Century

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  1. Policing Online Child Sexual Abuse: Understanding Grooming in the 21stCentury Dr Elena Martellozzo

  2. Defining online grooming Type of on-line behaviour designed to ‘seduce’ or lure children into sexual behaviour or conversations with or without children’s knowledge (McCarthy and Gaunt,2005) Process of on-line socialisation during which an offender interacts with a child in order to prepare him/her for sexual abuse (Davidson and Martellozzo, 2008)

  3. Chat Facilities & Sites for 6-14 year olds (Taylor, 2009)

  4. The Metropolitan Police HTCU: Policing Online Abuse • Ethnographic 4 year research • 1 Detective Undercover • Yahoo Groups and other Social Networks –Hi5- My Space- Ringo- Multiply- Green Room- Bebo- Facebook- Twitter • Lucy: 13- profile • Picture on line • Approx 2000 individuals were interested in her profile • 27 arrests in 12 months

  5. A spectrum of confidence from most confident to hyper-cautious Hyper-confident Hyper-cautious Suspicious

  6. Examples of text from covert operation (Taylor, 2009) • 12 year old girl hi lucy here • fmlv_uk38 hi how are you sweetie? • 12 year old girl kwl • fmlv_uk38 I used to play hockey in my younger days by the way • 12 year old girl how old r u now • 12 year old girl yeh • fmlv_uk38 lol. not too old I hope. good at sex anyway lol • 12 year old girl idont play now • fmlv_uk38 discovered boys and sex huh? • 12 year old girl aint dun sex yet • fmlv_uk38 interested though • 12 year old girl corse • fmlv_uk38 I'd love to be your first • 12 year old girl yeh rite • fmlv_uk38 lol • 12 year old girl im only 12 • fmlv_uk38 I would though - I'm good at it. did you read my hi5 profile? • fmlv_uk38 doesn't matter to me - if you want to that's all that counts • 12 year old girl havanothr look in mo • 12 year old girl where r u im in London • fmlv_uk38 south london • 12 year old girl serious • fmlv_uk38 of course. I don't lie hun. and if you wanted to visit I'd love that

  7. Research • Different phases before reaching the sexual phase: • Friendship-forming phase • Relationship-forming phase • Risk assessment phase • Exclusivity phase • Sexual phase (Source: O'Connell, 2003:44 )

  8. Findings • In less than three minutes the suspect moves directly to the sexual phase “[have you] discovered boys and sex huh” and “I'd love to be your first [lover]”. • In some cases not much time invested to form a relationship with a child • In OPM it takes approximately 8 minutes for a sexual topic to be introduced • No risk assessment “if you wanted to visit I'd love that”

  9. Offenders’ Modus Operandi • Half of subjects used texting to further groom the victim • Majority sent CII some type of pornography or child abuse imagery • Two thirds of subjects exposed themselves to the CII via photograph or web-cam • Two third turned up expecting to meet 12 year old girl whilst others arranged but cancelled • Several claimed fantasy or that they knew they were talking to an adult

  10. Chatting to a child? • “I believed it was another bloke role playing sexual fantasy of some sort, and in moments of boredom I would go along with it” (SO.7) • “I never genuinely believed that the person was a child and certainly had no intent of any sort as regards to committing any of these offences” (SO.2) • “I didn’t believe from day 1, I genuinely didn’t believe that, that was a 14, 12, 13, 15 year old child” (SO.4)

  11. Offenders Characterises • Majority of groomers were White males aged 36 to 45 • Majority have own children who did not disclose abuse • Half were married or in long-term relationships • Most had no previous criminal convictions • Vast majority had child abuse imagery on their computer or on person when arrested • Half were in possession of Level 5 images

  12. Conclusions • Sex offenders use Internet to access indecent images and to groom children • It is not possible to identify different ‘types’ of internet offender • Groomed child victims often Do Not Report Abuse • Online Reporting is necessary but not always effective (Taylor, 2009; Davidson & Martellozzo, 2010) • Proactive Method of Policing is the only way forward (Taylor, 2009; Martellozzo, 2010)

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