Protecting Children from Child Sexual Grooming: The Notion of the Imperfect Victim

Although the increased awareness within public consciousness of the powerful nature of grooming has framed legal debates around increasing protection to children, these discussions have narrowly focused on the behaviours of perpetrators and have neglected to acknowledge the context in which grooming takes place. This book critically evaluates how and why social, cultural and gendered norms impact on a child’s vulnerability and provide an opportunity to abuse.

This book provide evidence of how and why a fundamental paradigm shift is needed in relation to social and legal understandings of how grooming impacts on child vulnerability during the victimisation process and argues that placing the notion of the ‘child’ at the forefront of the debate surrounding grooming will develop a better understanding of the risk of harms posed to them.