Feature Story

April 17, 2008

MU Researchers Reveal CommunicationTactics Used by Sexual Predators to Entrap Children

From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:

University of Missouri researchers are beginning to understand the communication process by which predators lure victims into a web of entrapment.

This information could better equip parents and community members to prevent, or at least interrupt, the escalation of child sexual abuse.

The fact that they could be abused in any way, shape or form is horrific--both in the moment of the abuse and in the long-term effect," said Loreen Olson, MU associate professor of communication in the College of Arts and Science.

According to the researchers, in order for the process of entrapment to take place, the perpetrator must first gain access to the potential victim through various exploitive means.

Deceptive trust development describes the predator's ability to build a trusting relationship with the victim in order to improve the likelihood of sexual encounter.

Deceptive trust development is central to other manipulative strategies used by the predator such as grooming.

Grooming may include activities such as sitting on a child's bed and watching them get into their bedclothes; "accidentally" touching the child inappropriately; showing the child pornographic images; and making contact or sex play with implicit sexual suggestions.

Isolation strategies may include offers to baby sit, giving the child a ride home, and taking advantage of fragile family and friend relationships.

Olson, and her co-authors analyzed existing published material on pedophilia and child sexual abuse and proposed their theory that explains the communication process used by child sexual predators.

According to the study, the theory of luring communication also may offer important insight into social, deviant and communicative problems plaguing society, such as how con-artists lure victims and the recruitment strategies of gang or cult members.

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