'Grooming' and the sexual abuse of children : institutional, Internet, and familial dimensions PDF
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‘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) RECENT TITLES IN THIS SERIES: The Multicultural Prison: Ethnicity, Masculinity, and Social Relations among Prisoners Phillips Breaking Rules: The Social and Situational Dynamics of Young People’s Urban Crime Wikström, Oberwittler, Treiber, and Hardie Tough Choices: Risk, Security and the Criminalization of Drug Policy Seddon, Williams, and Ralphs Discovery of Hidden Crime: Self-Report Delinquency Surveys in Crimi- nal Policy Context Kivivuori Serious Offenders: A Historical Study of Habitual Criminals Godfrey, Cox, and Farrall ‘Grooming’ and the Sexual Abuse of Children Institutional, Internet, and Familial Dimensions ANNE-MARIE McALINDEN 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Anne-Marie McAlinden, 2012 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2012 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other form and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer Crown copyright material is reproduced under Class Licence Number C01P0000148 with the permission of OPSI and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available ISBN 978–0–19–958372–0 Printed in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work For your love and support: Stephen, Ben, and Luke This page intentionally left blank 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
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