It often starts with friendship. The groomer will look for ways to gain their target's trust, often with gifts or promises. Eventually they'll start to ask for something in return, and this eventually leads to abuse. Because groomers work to befriend their victims, some organisations refer to it as “mate crime”.
Grooming. You may have heard the term as it applies to children, but adults can also groom other adults – even at work. By definition, grooming is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with someone so they can manipulate, exploit and/or abuse them.
Desensitization to touch and discussion of sexual topics: Abusers will often start to touch a victim in ways that appear harmless, such as hugging, wrestling and tickling, and later escalate to increasingly more sexual contact, such as massages or showering together.
Groomers often aim to isolate their targets from their family or friends. If they seem reluctant to see you, or they refuse a visit, it might be because someone's manipulating them. You notice that sums of money have disappeared from the person's bank account, or the person claims they cannot pay for food or bills.
How does a narcissist groom a person? Narcissists groom their victims in stages. Initially, they may shower the victim with affection and attention, making them feel special. Over time, they start to manipulate the victim subtly, making them dependent on the narcissist's approval and validation.
Sexual grooming is actually a type of abuse. Characterized by the abuser slowly, methodically, and manipulatively getting closer to their victim over time, sexual grooming is a dark and twisted long-game approach to sexual abuse.
Grooming is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them. Children and young people who are groomed can be sexually abused, exploited or trafficked.
Parents or caregivers should also know red flags of what could be grooming behavior. Targeting specific kids for special attention, gifts or activities. Slowly isolating a kid from family members and friends – physically and emotionally.
Grooming, which could include “sexting”, is behaviour that might be viewed as just flirting between colleagues, but may actually mask predatory sexual activity that constitutes a serious risk to employers and young employees.
People who engage in grooming behaviour are in the process of preparing a child or young person for sexual abuse. Grooming is the lead up to conducting acts of sexual abuse. Grooming behaviour involves the perpetrator manipulating a child to gain their trust, build rapport, and exert their power over them.
Attractive: "Grooming allows for a sense of pride and therefore emulates confidence which in turn is an attractive quality. An absence of grooming would imply a lack of basic hygiene and care of presentation."
"They often gravitate towards those who can serve their needs, whether it's through admiration and validation or providing a sense of control and power," she said. "It's a complex dynamic, and understanding it can be helpful in navigating relationships with individuals who exhibit narcissistic traits."
Narcissists get a rush of pleasure when they “win.” Unfortunately, pleasure is superficial and fleeting. The pleasure the narcissist feels is similar to that of a drug high. It's an intensely thrilling but ultimately meaningless experience that leaves them immediately craving the next rush.
In essence, love bombing is grooming: a strategy to build trust and an emotional connection with the victim to gain control over them. Two women describe the beginning or “love bombing phase” of their relationship with a narcissist in a qualitative study: “At first, it was great. He made it seem like he was my saviour.
These become pathological grooming disorders when they are repetitive and intentional acts of habitual behaviours that result in apparent physical harm and shame due to the inability to control the behaviour [1].
Another red flag is a groomer's desire for unconditional control. This can look like controlling what a partner wears, who they see, where they go, and what they do with their free time. It can also look like a groomer using social media to cyberstalk their partner.