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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 397-1 Filed 10/29/21 Page 4 of 43

Grooming in Child Sexual Abuse 959

capture the notion of grooming because these already involve illegal and
abusive contract with a child. Grooming is generally regarded as prior activ-
ities intended to prepare the child for abuse, not actual illegal or abusive
activities themselves. Thus, legitimate questions can be raised about whether
showing a child pornography ought not to be regarded as grooming because
it constitutes abuse itself. Clarifying a definition of grooming can thus make
these laws applicable to many more behaviors that are used by offenders
intending to sexually abuse children.

It is important to note that clarifying key constructs is a difficult yet
important process. The prominent philosopher of science Larry Laudan
(1977) suggested that science has both empirical and conceptual prob-
lems and that scientific progress is made when either type of problem is
addressed. Conceptual analysis is particularly difficult as it is traditionally
not included as a part of the research method in the social sciences and
also because it involves the inherent complexity of language (O’Donohue,
2013). Here, conceptual analysis of the grooming construct is necessary in the
research process, as it is a salient example where the complexity of language
contributes to definitional confusion and leads to problematic implications
in clinical and forensic fields.

The aim of this paper is to highlight the need for a clearer definition
of the grooming construct that may be applied to both clinical and foren-
sic work. The courts are currently unable to take much legal action against
grooming as it is not well understood and clearly demarcated. Furthermore,
psychologists are currently using clinical judgment to determine whether an
alleged perpetrator’s behaviors are considered grooming. The reliability and
validity of these judgments are largely unknown, leaving concerns of unac-
ceptable rates of false positives and false negatives. An additional aim is to
review the empirical literature regarding what is known about the occurrence
of grooming so that a clear definition can be constructed. With a clearer def-
inition of grooming, a more scientific assessment of such behavior can be
established. This article proposes future directions for research, including
validation of the proposed definition and development of an assessment
device.

CURRENT DEFINITIONS

The three tables presented here list various definitions of the construct of
“grooming” currently found in the literature. Table 1 provides various general
definitions of the term, Table 2 provides subcategories of grooming that some
authors have proposed, and Table 3 provides stages of grooming that several
authors have suggested.

Thus there is a wide variability that exists in defining sexual grooming
as well as possible subtypes or stages of grooming. Although many of the

DOJ-OGR-00005871