Welcome to the season 2 finale! This season has been all about words entering a dark tunnel and coming out on the other end looking completely different. And nothing better encapsulates that than "groomer". As a word that defines a process rather than an outcome, this one is notoriously hard to pin down. It occupies a legal and colloquial grey area which leaves it dangerously vulnerable to misuse. "Groomer" was invented to protect children from abuse but, as so often the case with misused terminology, marginalized people have been harmed as a result (and even children themselves). This episode covers delicate subject matter - please listen at your own discretion.

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Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

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SOURCES:

EJ Dickson, “The Problem With How We Talk About Grooming” Rolling Stone (2021).

“Grooming: Know the Warning Signs” RAINN (2020).

https://www.rainn.org/news/grooming-know-warning-signs

Genyue Fu and Kang Lee, “Social grooming in the kindergarten: the emergence of flattery behavior” Developmental Science, Vol. 10 (2) (2007).

David J. Ley, “Misuse and Abuse of the Term Grooming Hurts Victims” Psychology Today (2022).

“Understanding Sexual Grooming in Child Abuse Cases”, American Bar Association (ABA).

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_interest/child_law/resources/child_law_practiceonline/child_law_practice/vol-34/november-2015/understanding-sexual-grooming-in-child-abuse-cases/

Ann Wolbert Burgess and Carol R. Hartman, “On the Origin of Grooming” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Vol. 33(1) (2018). 

https://calio.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/on-the-origin-of-grooming.pdf 

2001. Coercion and Enticement (18 U.S.C. 2422). The United States Department of Justice Archives. 

https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-2001-coercion-and-enticement-18-usc-2422#:~:text=Section%202422(b)%20of%20Title,imprisonment%20and%2For%20a%20fine.