Policing Online Child Sexual

Abuse: Understanding
Grooming in the 21st Century
Dr Elena Martellozzo
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)
Chat Facilities & Sites for 6-14 year olds (Taylor, 2009)
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
A spectrum of confidence from most confident to hyper-cautious

Hyper- Hyper-
confident cautious

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