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ase 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 424-4 Filed 11/08/21 Page 8of: 34 Journal of Interpersonal Violence 33(1) “Because the affectional needs of the child are not adequately met by the parents, the child may indiscriminately relate to adults in an affection-seek- ing manner in an effort to ensure her emotional survival. Numerous other investigators have characterized this behavior of the child as ‘seductive’. However, our study indicates that this behavior is instead the child’s often desperate attempt to meet her needs for care and attention . . . The child’s behavior may often appear sexualized to an adult... As a result, it is more appropriate to describe this behavior as affection-seeking rather than seductive” (Johnston, 1979, pp. 948-949). e “Everybody knows’ that adults must protect themselves from ground- less accusations of seductive or vindictive young people. . .. What everybody does not know, and would not want to know, is that the vast majority of investigated accusations prove valid and that most of the young people were less than eight years old at the time of initiation” (Summit, 1983, p. 178). Conclusion Since its introduction to the peer-reviewed professional literature in 1984, the term “grooming” has become so widely adopted that it will remain in widespread use for decades to come. We can and should clarify the meaning of the term wherever possible to avoid misuse or misleading of our audi- ences. We could benefit from prospective studies of the frequency of groom- ing-like behaviors among adults in target-rich environments such as schools, youth sports, and youth groups, which could help distinguish behaviors por- tending risk from those that do not, though it would require a large sample and a long time to reveal at least some of the offenders in the sample. The two archaic uses of the term “seduction” in the context of child sexual abuse identified here are too recent and too widely known to justify completely abandoning the term “grooming” in favor of “seduction,” even if it were possible to do so. Perhaps the best strategy is that adopted by Lanning (2018) of explain- ing the parallel between the courtship and mating rituals that adults use with one another and the courtship and mating rituals that some use with children. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. DOJ-OGR-00006305