Final Report - European Online Grooming Project

Vulnerability
The literature regarding contact sexual offences is clear that such behaviour does not happen out of the blue,
but instead is triggered by something or someone (Proulx et al, 1999). From the accounts of men in the
sample the same may be said of online grooming. That is, the men described some form of event that made
them vulnerable to offend. This then appeared to trigger their underlying goal or desire to contact and groom
a young person. Two broad types of vulnerability factor emerged from offenders descriptions of their lives,
just prior to going online.
The first was situational factors and included events such as being made redundant from work, or losing
their home.
…losing my job, I suppose it knocked me for six when I couldn’t find a job quickly after that. It knocked my
confidence and I thought ‘am I any good in this field, can I get another job..’ and a lot of self-doubt crept in…
(UK participant, female victims age 13-15)
Experiencing a job loss or not having a home can be a testing experience for lots of people. However, what
seems to distinguish online groomers from the general population is the offenders’ inability to appropriately
cope and respond in a pro-social way to these challenging life events. In fact, having the urge to go online
and offend following a situational event resonates with Ward and Hudson’s (1998) concept of underegulation,
in that the offender is failing to appropriately control emotions regarding losing his job, and instead starts to
contact young people to feel better.
The second set of vulnerability events tended to involve the breakdown of interpersonal relationships,
such as a partner or spouse leaving the offender, or an argument with a friend or acquaintance. Irrespective
of the type of relationship challenge, this vulnerability factor was underpinned by feelings of low self-worth.
Low self esteem is a common feature amongst offline sexual offenders (Webster, Mann, Thornton &
Wakeling, 2007) and can be a significant risk factor in the offending process. The online groomers in this
sample seemed to be no different in this regard:
I’d lost all self-respect, I wasn’t functioning as a person, more…..mechanically (UK participant, female victim
age 10-12)
In response to these feelings of low self-esteem, the invisible or anonymous properties associated with being
online gave some online groomers the opportunity to change their characteristics, appearance and life history
before meeting young people. This behaviour shows how Ward and Hudson’s theory of underegulation and
Suler’s concept of dissociative imagination appear to be operating concurrently at this phase. That is, low
self esteem can trigger disinhibited behaviour, underpinned by a belief that the virtual environment allows
individuals to leave behind who they really are.
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