Co-authors: Tatiana Ringenberg (lead), Julia Rayz Online enticement is a broad category of online child sexual exploitation in which a child is groomed to take sexually explicit images, meet face-to-face with someone for sexual purposes, and/or to engage in cybersex roleplay. These online offenses all involve conversations between minors and offenders in which the offenders engage in child sexual grooming. Through child sexual grooming, the adult uses deceptive trust and friendship formation to lure a minor into engaging in sexual behaviors. Grooming includes non-linear stages, which differ between contact-driven and CSAM-focused offenders. To conduct efficient and successful Internet stings, officers must understand how groomers communicate with real victims. Our previous research suggests officers are more likely to trigger doubts and suspicions in offenders than real victims. However, no prior research explores how officers trigger these suspicions and in what way the communications lexically differ from real minors. In this paper, we use thematic analysis to explore what triggers offender suspicion and how victims and officers respond to accusations from the offender. We examined 40 deidentified child sexual exploitation cases involving chats: 20 undercover officer-offender internet sting cases and 20 minor-offender cases from across the United States. In the first round of coding, we identify instances of groomers becoming suspicious of the identity of the chatter. In the second round, we code lines which appear to lead to the groomer’s suspicion. In the final round, we code how the chatter responded to the groomer’s suspicions. We then aggregate our findings into themes and compare across the victim and Internet sting chats. To reduce bias, the coders are not aware of whether the chats labeled involve a real victim, undercover officer, or any offense details (e.g., contact vs non-contact offense). This study has implications for law enforcement agencies seeking to reduce suspicion and risk assessment by offenders.

Co-author: Roderic Broadhurst The experiences of paedophiles across three stages of the criminal justice experience (i.e., pre- during- and post-custody) will be studied using qualitative content analysis. This study uses data from 590 online forum posts from June 8, 2012, until May 1, 2023 (4,101 days; 134 months, 24 days; 11 years, 2 months, 24 days), from 206 unique users, to examine the experience(s) of paedophiles in the criminal justice system. Forum posts discuss topics such as fear of arrest, therapeutic experiences, and raise questions about the criminal justice system from investigation to experiences in prison. This study contributes to knowledge by providing insight into a ‘hidden population’ which may help inform prevention and treatment options.

Co-authors: Kathryn C. Seigfried-Spellar, Nina L. Matulis, & Jacob S. Heasley Determining the risk that individuals involved in online child sexual offenses pose to re-offend or escalate their criminal behavior has been problematic. Traditional sexual offender risk measures have lower predictive validity when dealing with online child pornography offenders. Recent research argues for the need of a formalized hybrid risk assessment model that combines the current online sex offenses against children risk measures with digital forensics artifact analysis. This study is an initial step toward formalizing the hybrid risk assessment model by identifying the digital forensic artifacts that have the potential to be valid and reliable indicators of risk when assessing CSA offender risk. The current study will examine 10 closed child sexual abuse criminal investigations from the Tippecanoe County High Tech Crime Unit. The following digital forensics artifacts will be examined related to: 1) organization and context of the CSAM collection (e.g., including gender ratio, adult pornography versus child content as suggested by the CPORT scale), 2) evidence of intentional/active dissemination efforts, and 3) activities related to normalizing CSAM behaviors (e.g., membership or networking with online communities). The HTCU Commander will randomly select 10 closed CSA cases; investigation details related to probable cause, final charges, conviction, and/or offender risk will not be shared with the researchers. The research team will only examine the digital forensic artifacts from the offender’s mobile devices and computers. Evidence collected from victim’s devices will not be examined. The analysis will be used to predict whether the offender is a CSAM-only, contact, or dual offender, including the likelihood of recidivism and risk of future CSA offenses. Results will be shared with the HTCU commander and scored for accuracy. Future research recommendations and study limitations will be discussed.