Intended Audience

This module is intended for any professional who may become involved in the intervention of child sexual abuse and can also be utilized in community education.

Purpose

The concept of grooming is common in cases of child sexual abuse. It is often difficult to detect while it is happening, because the offender's behaviors can appear to be of a caring nature and might resemble normal adult/child interactions. To further the field in defining the complexities of sexual grooming, researchers Georgia Winters and Elizabeth Jeglic have developed the "Sexual Grooming Model." This is the first validated, comprehensive model of in-person sexual grooming to offer a clearer understanding of the issue. (Winters, et al 2020)

This module follows the stages of grooming of the Sexual Grooming Model through a case scenario involving online and in-person grooming. By applying this process to your investigations of child sexual abuse, you will be able to analyze the presence of sexual grooming, when it exists, which can potentially result in corroborative evidence.

Beyond the investigation of child sexual abuse, increased awareness of the stages of grooming within the community at large, could very well result in the prevention of child sexual abuse. Unfortunately, grooming is typically recognized in hindsight, not while it is occurring. If parents, advocates, and youth serving professionals are aware of the "red flags" of sexual grooming as identified by the researchers, society will be much better positioned to stop sexual abuse before it occurs.

Learning Objectives

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Identify and define the five stages of the Sexual Grooming Model.
• Apply the process of identifying the stages of grooming to a case scenario.
• Explore ways the identification of grooming in child sexual abuse investigations can result in valuable corroborative evidence.