Online child sexual grooming
| Date | 01 May 2017 |
| Published date | 01 May 2017 |
| Author | Mª Jesus Gómez,Carolina Villacampa |
| DOI | 10.1177/0269758016682585 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Online child sexual grooming:
Empirical findings on
victimisation and perspectives
on legal requirements
Carolina Villacampa
University of Lleida, Spain
MaJesus Go
´mez
University of Lleida, Spain
Abstract
This work presents the results of quantitative research into online child grooming carried out with
a sample of 489 secondary school students in Catalonia (Spain). Besides determining the rate of
victimisation of children by this behaviour, it establishes the profile of the victims and the offenders.
In addition, it analyses the dynamics of these processes, victim–offender interaction, the level of
effect that this behaviour has on the victims and the way in which an end was put to the situation.
The results obtained in this empirical research do not permit confirmation of the common opinion
that the widespread use of information and communication technology has led to an exponential
increase in the victimisation of minors through online child grooming behaviour by unknown adults
offline, because of which we need to react through the criminalisation of this behaviour.
Keywords
Online sex grooming, online sexual solicitation, victimisation, prevalence, rate
Introduction
It is a widely-held opinion that the emergence of communication technologies in our everyday
lives may constitute a contributing factor to the increase in processes relating to the sexual
victimisation of children. International criminal policy undertaken in recent years in the fight
against the sexual victimisation of children, following the example of the USA, is based on
Corresponding author:
Carolina Villacampa, Department of Public Law, University of Lleida, Jaume II 73, 25003 Lleida, Spain.
Email: cvillacampa@dpub.udl.cat
International Review of Victimology
2017, Vol. 23(2) 105–121
ªThe Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0269758016682585
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constructs such as that of the adult sexual predator unknown to the minor who, hidden behind a
computer screen, tries to gain sexual access to the child. The stereotype of ‘stranger danger’ is what
has been taken as the model to determine the essential sphere of legal–criminal intervention in the
USA, but also in European regional instruments, such as the Council of Europe Convention on
Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Convention) or
Directive 2011/93/UE on combating sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child
pornography, which explains the recent criminal reforms that have taken place on this point in
various European countries (on this regulatory transfer from the US to Europe, see McAlinden
(2012)). Based on legislative interest focused on the sexual victimisation of children through infor-
mation and communication technology (ICT), the criminalisation of behaviour such as the sexual
soliciting of children using ICT – a phenomenon known as online grooming – has been promoted.
Such international demands for criminalisation explain the inclusion of the offence of online child
grooming in a numberof European countries,including England and Wales (2003), Scotland (2005),
Ireland, Norway and France (2007), Netherlands and Spain (2010), Austria and Italy (2012).
However, the crusade undertaken in many Western countries against sexual predators is not
always based on empirical evidence. The toughening of criminal legislation for such sexual
offences against children has been based more on moral panic than on victimisation surveys and
other sources of empirical data. Despite this, it is not unusual to find references to the supposed
exponential increase in behaviour relating to the online sexual victimisation of children with the
arrival of the digital age (Bocij and McFarlane, 2003; Hughes, 2002). Generally, such pronounce-
ments refer to the nature of the internet to favour the widespread occurrence of criminal activities
and to the opportunities afforded by the special nature of time and space on the internet to aid their
undertaking, based on postulates such as those of the theories of opportunity (Miro´, 2011). With
regard to potential sexual abusers and paedophiles, they refer to the aid offered to communication
between them by social media such as Myspace or Facebook, and the possibility of shielding their
true identity behind fake profiles, approaching children as though they were children too (Duncan,
2007–2008; Groppe, 2007–2008; Haubenreich, 2008–2009; Stedman, 2007; Van der Heide, 2008–
2009; Whitaker and Bushman, 2009). Along with the advantages offered by the internet, it is said,
it contains dangers that give rise to the need for regulation, dangers that are magnified in the case of
adolescents, who have greater difficulties than adults in identifying ris ky behaviour (Duncan,
2007–2008; Lo¨o¨f, 2012).
The existing empirical evidence on the matter does not appear to bear out the supposed expo-
nential increase in victimisation. The empirical studies conducted by the Crimes Against Children
Research Center (University of New Hampshire) have been pioneering in determining the pre-
valence of child sexual abuse on the internet. There, a team of researchers conducted the first large-
scale study of victimisation, with a sample of 1,501 participants – young people between the ages
of 10 and 17, with data gathered between 1999 and 2000 (Finkelhor et al., 2000), known as the
Youth Internet Safety Survey (YISS-1). This study asked about whether the children in the sample
were subjected to three different types of activity: sexual solicitation and approaches made by
adults (i.e. grooming), unwanted exposure to sexual material and harassment. With reg ard to
grooming, the study concluded that approximately 19%of children using the internet had received
an unwanted sexual solicitation in the year prior to the conducting of the survey. The research
concluded that the online victimisation of children was higher than was previously thought, and
advocated the criminalisation of the behaviour of sexual soliciting over the internet. Subsequent
editions of the YISS (YISS-2 and 3) revealed how the sexual soliciting of children had decreased to
13%in 2006 (Wolak et al., 2006) and to 9%in 2010 (Mitchell et al., 2014).
106 International Review of Victimology 23(2)
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