Grooming and Age

The age of adults targetted by groomers

Sample size: 374 respondents

From time to time, CAAGe has come across people upset that we are talking about grooming in the context of adults. For us this makes no sense. Depending upon where you live, the definition of child and adult is different (in the UK the age of consent is 16).

• The fact that 374 people have been prepared to share their experiences of being groomed as adults tells the truth of the matter;

• To us it makes no sense that on your 15 year, 364 days of life, grooming is predatory, but it stops being predatory when you turn 16;

• If you’re talking about people having sex with minors, lets call it what it is: rape. Under the age of consent, as a society we have determined that you do not have the capacity to consent and this is statutory rape.

So with that out of the way, what can we learn about who is being targetted by groomers?

Here’s the data:

• 6% of our respondents were aged 18-20. Whilst this might imply that the grooming of this age group is less than other age groups, this represents just two years, where the other age categories cover 9/10 years. Pro rata, rather crudely, if this covered 10 years it would throw the figures considerably, more like 30%;

• 23% of respondents were aged 21-29, a 9 year span. Again pro rata, that would represent 25/26%;

• 29.4% of respondents were aged 30-39;

• 24.1% of respondents were aged 40-49;

• 50-59 year olds represented 13.6% of our sample;

• And the over 60´s represented just 6.1% of our sample.

This flies in the face of viewing people who have been groomed as slightly naive/sa middle aged ‘Shirley Valentine’ type figures as presented all too often in the media.

The reañlity is that people can be groomed at any age. So why is the over 60’s figure so low? There are probably a mix of factors:

• Experience: more likely to spot that something’s off;

• Technology: 25% of people aged 65 and over in the UK don't use the internet (Age UK stats). If this estimate holds true, only a quarter of people who’ve been groomed would be coming online to research/report it (crudely making that 6.1% more like 24%);

• The elderly end of this age group often feel a sense of shame at having been duped, relating it to their age and blaming themselves rather than the groomers.

Using those very crude revised/pro rata percentages, the picture starts to look a lot more even:

Conclusion? You can be groomed at any age!