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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 397-1 Filed 10/29/21 Page 28 of 34
34 Journal of Interpersonal Violence 33(1)

"Because the affectional needs of the child are not adequately met by the
parents, the child may indiscriminately relate to adults in an affection-seek-
ing manner in an effort to ensure her emotional survival.
Numerous other investigators have characterized this behavior of the child
as ‘seductive’. However, our study indicates that this behavior is instead the
child’s often desperate attempt to meet her needs for care and attention . . .
The child’s behavior may often appear sexualized to an adult . . . As a result,
it is more appropriate to describe this behavior as affection-seeking rather
than seductive" (Johnston, 1979, pp. 948-949).

• “‘Everybody knows’ that adults must protect themselves from ground-
less accusations of seductive or vindictive young people. . . . What
everybody does not know, and would not want to know, is that the vast
majority of investigated accusations prove valid and that most of the
young people were less than eight years old at the time of initiation”
(Summit, 1983, p. 178).

Conclusion
Since its introduction to the peer-reviewed professional literature in 1984,
the term “grooming” has become so widely adopted that it will remain in
widespread use for decades to come. We can and should clarify the meaning
of the term wherever possible to avoid misuse or misleading of our audi-
ences. We could benefit from prospective studies of the frequency of groom-
ing-like behaviors among adults in target-rich environments such as schools,
youth sports, and youth groups, which could help distinguish behaviors por-
tending risk from those that do not, though it would require a large sample
and a long time to reveal at least some of the offenders in the sample.
The two archaic uses of the term “seduction” in the context of child sexual
abuse identified here are too recent and too widely known to justify completely
abandoning the term “grooming” in favor of “seduction,” even if it were possible
to do so. Perhaps the best strategy is that adopted by Lanning (2018) of explain-
ing the parallel between the courtship and mating rituals that adults use with one
another and the courtship and mating rituals that some use with children.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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