Child safety experts consider grooming a core component of sexual abuse. Grooming is a manipulative process in which a person who intends harm gains access to a child, often through behaviors that seem innocent, and builds up a relationship that will ultimately allow the predator to abuse the child. Children who are groomed are slowly taught to accept and excuse any behaviors by the predator, because of the relationship that has been built up over time. A predator relies on manipulation to reduce a child’s resistance and to maintain secrecy. For more information on grooming, read the VIRTUS® article “Behind the Smile: Uncovering the Warning Signs of Grooming, Part 1” at lacatholics.org/did-you-know.

Read the VIRTUS® article “Behind the Smile: Uncovering the Warning Signs of Grooming, Part 1” here.