{
  "document_metadata": {
    "page_number": "16",
    "document_number": "397-1",
    "date": "10/29/21",
    "document_type": "Court Document",
    "has_handwriting": false,
    "has_stamps": false
  },
  "full_text": "Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 397-1 Filed 10/29/21 Page 16 of 43\nGrooming in Child Sexual Abuse 971\n4. Having age-appropriate and relationship-appropriate discussions of body parts.\n5. A care-giving figure saying \"I love you\" without the goal of manipulation (not using the phrase to get the child to do something inappropriate).\nTHE ASSESSMENT OF GROOMING\nBecause grooming is a set of common behaviors seen in child sexual offenders (as the previous reviewed literature seems to support this conclusion), it should be possible to assess behaviors to determine whether they are indicative that sexual abuse is likely to occur. We have reviewed the published literature and have not been able to find any measures that validly assess grooming behaviors (by any definition of grooming). This greatly reduces the value of any definition as the practical usefulness of a definition is seen in its ability to be operationalized in valid measurement processes. It is important to develop valid measures as it is not ideal for the detection of grooming to be an entirely post hoc process—that is, only after the abuse occurs are the gifts seen as inappropriate and thus as part of a grooming process. The grooming acts should seem at least somewhat inappropriate at the time they are occurring and thus ideally adults can intervene to stop future abuse. To resolve this problem, grooming requires a valid definition and a psychometrically adequate assessment procedure to reduce both the number of false positives and false negatives.\nWe are currently developing an assessment device that would aid a clinician in coming to a valid conclusion as to whether an individual's behaviors can be considered grooming. As mentioned, an assessment of grooming in our proposed definition would involve a two-step process: (a) determining that the adult's behavior is inappropriate in and of itself, such as if the tickling is excessive or the bikini gift is not justified by the nature of the relationship; and (b) reasonably arguing that the function of this inappropriate behavior is to increase the likelihood of future abusive contact.\nWhat is \"inappropriate\" admittedly is somewhat of a vague term that requires judgment because we need to clearly differentiate the behavior from normal adult-child relationships. However, this judgment requirement currently exists for other psychological constructs as well. For example, the diagnosis of a major depressive episode might require that a clinician judges the client's guilt as \"excessive.\" In addition, under our criteria these judgments of inappropriateness should be explicit (there must be a clear argument as to why the behavior is inappropriate). Since the argument must be explicated, others would be able to evaluate it and decide whether it is a nonproblematic judgment of the behavior.\nTo illustrate, a male coach buying an eight-year-old girl a bikini would generally be considered inappropriate, but the act of buying her a pair of DOJ-OGR-00005883",
  "text_blocks": [
    {
      "type": "printed",
      "content": "Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 397-1 Filed 10/29/21 Page 16 of 43",
      "position": "header"
    },
    {
      "type": "printed",
      "content": "Grooming in Child Sexual Abuse 971",
      "position": "header"
    },
    {
      "type": "printed",
      "content": "4. Having age-appropriate and relationship-appropriate discussions of body parts.\n5. A care-giving figure saying \"I love you\" without the goal of manipulation (not using the phrase to get the child to do something inappropriate).",
      "position": "main"
    },
    {
      "type": "printed",
      "content": "THE ASSESSMENT OF GROOMING",
      "position": "main"
    },
    {
      "type": "printed",
      "content": "Because grooming is a set of common behaviors seen in child sexual offenders (as the previous reviewed literature seems to support this conclusion), it should be possible to assess behaviors to determine whether they are indicative that sexual abuse is likely to occur. We have reviewed the published literature and have not been able to find any measures that validly assess grooming behaviors (by any definition of grooming). This greatly reduces the value of any definition as the practical usefulness of a definition is seen in its ability to be operationalized in valid measurement processes. It is important to develop valid measures as it is not ideal for the detection of grooming to be an entirely post hoc process—that is, only after the abuse occurs are the gifts seen as inappropriate and thus as part of a grooming process. The grooming acts should seem at least somewhat inappropriate at the time they are occurring and thus ideally adults can intervene to stop future abuse. To resolve this problem, grooming requires a valid definition and a psychometrically adequate assessment procedure to reduce both the number of false positives and false negatives.",
      "position": "main"
    },
    {
      "type": "printed",
      "content": "We are currently developing an assessment device that would aid a clinician in coming to a valid conclusion as to whether an individual's behaviors can be considered grooming. As mentioned, an assessment of grooming in our proposed definition would involve a two-step process: (a) determining that the adult's behavior is inappropriate in and of itself, such as if the tickling is excessive or the bikini gift is not justified by the nature of the relationship; and (b) reasonably arguing that the function of this inappropriate behavior is to increase the likelihood of future abusive contact.",
      "position": "main"
    },
    {
      "type": "printed",
      "content": "What is \"inappropriate\" admittedly is somewhat of a vague term that requires judgment because we need to clearly differentiate the behavior from normal adult-child relationships. However, this judgment requirement currently exists for other psychological constructs as well. For example, the diagnosis of a major depressive episode might require that a clinician judges the client's guilt as \"excessive.\" In addition, under our criteria these judgments of inappropriateness should be explicit (there must be a clear argument as to why the behavior is inappropriate). Since the argument must be explicated, others would be able to evaluate it and decide whether it is a nonproblematic judgment of the behavior.",
      "position": "main"
    },
    {
      "type": "printed",
      "content": "To illustrate, a male coach buying an eight-year-old girl a bikini would generally be considered inappropriate, but the act of buying her a pair of",
      "position": "main"
    },
    {
      "type": "printed",
      "content": "DOJ-OGR-00005883",
      "position": "footer"
    }
  ],
  "entities": {
    "people": [],
    "organizations": [],
    "locations": [],
    "dates": [
      "10/29/21"
    ],
    "reference_numbers": [
      "1:20-cr-00330-PAE",
      "397-1",
      "DOJ-OGR-00005883"
    ]
  },
  "additional_notes": "The document appears to be a court filing related to child sexual abuse, discussing the concept of grooming and its assessment. The text is well-formatted and mostly clear, but the last sentence is cut off at the bottom of the page."
}