Persuasion strategies in online grooming of children: A qualitative analysis with sex offenders in prison

Online grooming (a process in which an adult gains the trust of a child with a view to making sexual contact of some type) is a serious social problem. Little is currently known about the specific strategies used by adults to manipulate and persuade children to engage in sexual interaction with them. For this study using qualitative methodology we undertook in-depth interviews with 12 men convicted for online grooming (aged between 21 and 51 years; M = 38, SD = 10.32). The information obtained was compared with an analysis of the proven facts of their convictions. The results show that the principal manipulation strategies used by offenders are deception, corruption (e. g. offering money or gifts to children in return for sex), emotionally engaging the child, and aggression. These strategies attempt to actively involve or coerce the child in the abusive process to prevent disclosure. Prevention programmes could benefit enormously by incorporating empirical findings about the tactics and strategies used by offenders to manipulate and sexually exploit children. (c) 2017 Colegio Oficial de Psicologos de Madrid. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.