'Grooming' and the sexual abuse of children : institutional, Internet, and familial dimensions

393 Pages·2013·1.28 MB·English

by  Anne-Marie McAlinden

‘GROOMING’ AND THE SEXUAL ABUSE
OF CHILDREN
CLARENDON STUDIES IN CRIMINOLOGY
Published under the auspices of the Institute of Criminology, University
of Cambridge; the Mannheim Centre, London School of Economics; and
the Centre for Criminological Research,
University of Oxford.
General Editor: Lucia Zedner
(University of Oxford)
Editors: Manuel Eisner, Alison Liebling, and
Per-Olof Wikström
(University of Cambridge)
Robert Reiner, Jill Peay, and Tim Newburn
(London School of Economics)
Ian Loader and Julian Roberts
(University of Oxford)
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‘Grooming’ and the
Sexual Abuse of
Children
Institutional, Internet, and
Familial Dimensions
ANNE-MARIE McALINDEN
1
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
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© Anne-Marie McAlinden, 2012
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First Edition published in 2012
Impression: 1
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General Editor’s Introduction
Clarendon Studies in Criminology aims to provide a forum for
outstanding empirical and theoretical work in all aspects of crimi-
nology and criminal justice, broadly understood. The Editors wel-
come submissions from established scholars, as well as excellent
PhD work. The Series was inaugurated in 1994, with Roger Hood
as its first General Editor, following discussions between Oxford
University Press and three criminology centres. It is edited under
the auspices of these three centres: the Cambridge Institute of
Criminology, the Mannheim Centre for Criminology at the Lon-
don School of Economics, and the Centre for Criminology at the
University of Oxford. Each supplies members of the Editorial Board
and, in turn, the Series Editor.
‘Grooming’ and the Sexual Abuse of Children addresses an
under-researched but very important topic of criminological con-
cern, namely the ways in which potential perpetrators of child sex-
ual abuse identify and gain the trust of the children they target. The
author, Anne-Marie McAlinden, deliberately adopts the commonly
used short-hand term ‘grooming’ while recognising the wide vari-
ety of activities that this spans and the dangers of employing such
an emotive term. One reason for this choice is that a central aspect
of McAlinden’s endeavour is to explore the lack of a settled mean-
ing and the diverse ways in which the term grooming is constructed
in popular as well as in official discourses. Her contention is that
the varied construction of grooming is vital to understanding the
nature of political debate, the development of public policy, and the
formulation of legislation.
McAlinden demonstrates that the ways in which grooming is
conceived has the consequence of determining which kinds of activ-
ity are targeted and which are neglected. In particular, a common
tendency to equate grooming with online approaches by strangers
diverts attention from the many other settings – public, institution-
al, and private - in which grooming occurs. By identifying areas of
neglect, the book makes a vital contribution to identifying systemic
viii General Editor’s Introduction
weaknesses in child protection, not least as regards family members
and others known well to children, who are shown to be the most
common perpetrators of child sexual abuse. Unsurprisingly, the
book proposes a new definition of grooming that better captures
the complex, multiple forms of activity and the range of situations
in which it occurs.
McAlinden’s research is based upon in-depth interviews with
criminal justice officials and a range of other professionals who
work with child sexual abuse cases. These interviews yield rich and
informative insights into the complexities of the phenomenon.
Most troublingly, they reveal the acute difficulties faced by profes-
sionals who seek to identify grooming and to develop effective
means of protecting children against predation. Particularly dis-
turbing are the discussions of institutional grooming in religious,
educational and other closed communities; of the complex power
relations within these institutions that serve to perpetuate and con-
ceal; and of the consequent difficulties of devising effective strate-
gies to prevent, combat, and prosecute abuse.
Throughout, this book provides insightful analysis of the con-
struction of sexual grooming, political debates, and the develop-
ment of policy and legislative responses in the United Kingdom
and the Republic of Ireland. It furnishes illuminating data on the
nature, forms and extent of grooming that make clear just how
serious are the challenges faced by legislators, policy makers, and,
not least, by professionals working on the ground. The final part of
the book makes interesting proposals for reform that go beyond
resort to criminalization to suggest a public health approach based
upon social and institutional initiatives directed at the twin aims
of prevention and protection. McAlinden sets out how such a
change in approach to grooming might be achieved, yet she
acknowledges the continuing difficulties faced, not least in foster-
ing wider recognition of the prevalence of sexual offending against
children within, as well as outside, the family home. In so doing,
she makes a significant contribution to larger debates about sexu-
al offending, child protection, risk assessment and risk manage-
ment, penal populism, the role of the media, and penal politics
more generally.
General Editor’s Introduction ix
This important, if disturbing, addition to the Clarendon Studies
in Criminology Series fills a notable gap in our criminological
knowledge. Its findings are of considerable importance to students
and scholars of criminology, as well as to criminal justice and child
care professionals. It will certainly be of interest and concern to
those working in contemporary criminal justice, social work, and
child protection.
For all these reasons, the Editors welcome this new addition to
the Series.
Lucia Zedner
University of Oxford
September 2012