14 DAY TRIAL // This is the name of the most incomprehensible crime: pedophilia. A new research made at the University of Missouri has analyzed how these predators entrap their victims.
"Our children are our greatest gift and our greatest responsibility. 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. It's a social problem with grave consequences that is prevalent and needs attention. The sexual abuse of children has dramatic negative consequences to their emotional well-being throughout their lives," said Loreen Olson, MU associate professor of communication in the College of Arts and Science.
The first step taken by the pedophile is to get access to the potential victim via various methods, the main method being "deceptive trust development": building a trusting relationship with the victim, which will later expose the child to the encounter.
The main manipulative strategy is grooming, meant to decrease the child's awareness of the physical contact: sitting on a child's bed, watching it dressing their bedclothes; "accidental" inappropriate touches, exposure of the child to pornographic material and making contact or erotic play with explicit discussions, giving a child a "rubdown," bathing or undressing the child, and instigating wrestling and other physical games that involve physical contact.
Isolating both physically and emotionally the child will leave it defenseless and dependent to the pedophile. This can be obtained by impersonating the baby sitter, taking the child to his home and exploiting weak family and friend relationships (like in one parent households, for example).
The third stage is the physical contact or verbal hints just before the sexual act.
The research team has made a meta-analysis of the researches on pedophilia and child sexual abuse and has come with a new theory, called luring communication or the communication of deviance, explaining the communication process employed by pedophiles.
"The more we know about how these adults are entrapping children and building a sexual relationship with them, the better we can either intervene and stop the cycle from happening, or de-escalate it," said Olson.
The new theory could also explain other social, deviant and communicative issues, like the way con-artists, gangs or cults attract their victims or members.