Citation

Plummer M. J. Interpers. Violence 2018; 33(1): 37-63.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0886260517732539

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Because child sexual abuse (CSA) is a pervasive social issue affecting up to one in five girls, and one in 10 boys, there have been significant developments in legal responses to the problem of CSA. One such response is to acknowledge the significance of grooming behaviors in the commission of child sex offenses by criminalizing behaviors that are engaged in with the intention of facilitating the sexual abuse of a child. However, grooming behaviors remain underresearched, and current knowledge is based largely upon the perspectives of offenders, with few studies analyzing how grooming is experienced by victims. The purpose of this article is to address key gaps in the grooming literature by analyzing the lived experiences of grooming from the perspectives of 11 adult male CSA survivors. Qualitative analysis revealed novel insights into the characteristics, stages, and impact of grooming for male survivors. The implications of the findings suggest that New South Wales's (NSW) grooming legislation could better reflect the types of grooming behaviors engaged in by child sex offenders. Tentative evidence for enduring impacts of grooming also indicates the need for further qualitative research into men's experiences of sexual grooming during childhood with larger and more representative samples.

Language: en