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An Oregon Coalition to End Sexual Abuse


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HOW OFFENDERS SELECT, ENGAGE AND SEDUCE CHILDREN AND ADULTS

Here is what you will find on this page...

HOW DOES A SEX OFFENDER SELECT THEIR VICTIM?  |  WHY DOES GROOMING WORK?  |  HOW DOES GROOMING WORK?  |  TARGETING FAMILIES  |  TARGETING COMMUNITIES AND INSTITUTIONS  |   SEDUCING CHILREN  |  SEDUCING ADULTS

HOW DOES A SEX OFFENDER SELECT THEIR VICTIM?

Offenders will often chose "At Risk" children because they:

  • Are less believable

  • May have a lower level of supervision

  • Are needier for attention/affection

  • May have been abused "broken in" before

  • Are less willing to risk telling on a teacher, coach, minister, favorite parent/uncle....

  • Provide the offender more bargaining power to keep the sex abuse a secret

More on how abusers select their victims...

  • Gender and physical maturation

  • Personality characteristics

  • Relationship with caretakers/support system

  • Protective factors (self-esteem, assertiveness, awareness and instincts)

  • Personal, physical boundaries

  • Bargaining power

WHY DOES GROOMING WORK?

  • Most adults don't know what to look for.

  • Most adults don't want to see it or believe it.

HOW DOES GROOMING WORK?

  • By targeting specific children, families and communities to exploit

  • Seducing the child/ren and adults

  • Preparing for disclosure/confrontation

  • Learning from experience

TARGETING FAMILIES

  • Single, absent or "uninvolved" parents

  • Naive, stressed, poor

  • Lack of bonding, supervision and boundaries

  • Lack of assertiveness

  • Prior victimization of parent/s

  • Disabilities or other vulnerabilities

  • Parents who don't seem to understand normal relationship boundaries

TARGETING COMMUNITIES AND INSTITUTIONS

  • Picking a community or institution where...

    • the setting provides access to children

    • the offender is "unknown" or "unsuspected"

    • there is an atmosphere of "tolerance and acceptance

    • the employees appear "gullible, naive and non-confrontive"

    • the individual has fluid or "loose" boundaries

    • the organization isn't "prepared," and aren't "open to talking about it" or, don't have good "child safety" policies

SEDUCING CHILDREN

  • Engagement, desensitization and sexualization

  • Study and befriend the child

  • Develop a peer relationship or elevate the child to an "adult status" in the relationship

  • Promote physical contact - "wrestling, hugging, tickling, kissing, massages, lap sitting and backrubs"

  • Test child's ability to "keep secrets"

  • Expose child to sexual jokes and pornography

SEDUCING ADULTS

  • "I'd make myself out to be a pillar of the community"

  • Verbalized "hatred" towards sex offenders

  • "It's important to be helpful and polite"

  • If the offender is the "head of the household," he may be controlling, run his wife down, interfere with her relationships with children/victims.

  • I'd "set things up to make the kid look like a liar"

 


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