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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 397-1 Filed 10/29/21 Page 4of 43 Grooming in Child Sexual Abuse 959 capture the notion of grooming because these already involve illegal and abusive contract with a child. Grooming is generally regarded as prior activ- ities intended to prepare the child for abuse, not actual illegal or abusive activities themselves. Thus, legitimate questions can be raised about whether showing a child pornography ought not to be regarded as grooming because it constitutes abuse itself. Clarifying a definition of grooming can thus make these laws applicable to many more behaviors that are used by offenders intending to sexually abuse children. It is important to note that clarifying key constructs is a difficult yet important process. The prominent philosopher of science Larry Laudan (1977) suggested that science has both empirical and conceptual prob- lems and that scientific progress is made when either type of problem is addressed. Conceptual analysis is particularly difficult as it is traditionally not included as a part of the research method in the social sciences and also because it involves the inherent complexity of language (O’Donohue, 2013). Here, conceptual analysis of the grooming construct is necessary in the research process, as it is a salient example where the complexity of language contributes to definitional confusion and leads to problematic implications in clinical and forensic fields. The aim of this paper is to highlight the need for a clearer definition of the grooming construct that may be applied to both clinical and foren- sic work. The courts are currently unable to take much legal action against grooming as it is not well understood and clearly demarcated. Furthermore, psychologists are currently using clinical judgment to determine whether an alleged perpetrator’s behaviors are considered grooming. The reliability and validity of these judgments are largely unknown, leaving concerns of unac- ceptable rates of false positives and false negatives. An additional aim is to review the empirical literature regarding what is known about the occurrence of grooming so that a clear definition can be constructed. With a clearer def- inition of grooming, a more scientific assessment of such behavior can be established. This article proposes future directions for research, including validation of the proposed definition and development of an assessment device. CURRENT DEFINITIONS The three tables presented here list various definitions of the construct of “grooming” currently found in the literature. Table 1 provides various general definitions of the term, Table 2 provides subcategories of grooming that some authors have proposed, and Table 3 provides stages of grooming that several authors have suggested. Thus there is a wide variability that exists in defining sexual grooming as well as possible subtypes or stages of grooming. Although many of the DOJ-OGR-00005871