Background and Objectives: The rise in cases of online child sexual exploitation has become a global problem. Understanding both the psychological profiles of this offender group and the strategies employed during the process of exploitation, is crucial for aiding prevention and detection of these crimes as well as informing treatment and educational programmes. Thus, there were two main aims of the thesis. Firstly, a systematic review was conducted to investigate the psychological characteristics of online child sexual offenders (OCSO). Secondly, research was carried out to examine the utility of a pre-existing process model of grooming in the online sexual exploitation of children (O'Connell, 2003). Methodology: A systematic search of papers published between 2006 and 2016 was carried out. Those eligible for inclusion measured psychological characteristics using psychometric tools. A quality checklist was designed to appraise the methodological robustness of each paper. For the research study, qualitative content analysis of 63 online chat logs between offenders and children was undertaken. Logs were initially coded for correspondence to stages and strategies outlined by O'Connell, and additional codes assigned to themed text that did not fit this model. Results: The systematic review revealed fourteen papers for inclusion, and collective strengths and weaknesses were identified. Compared to contact offenders, few differences in psychological characteristics were identified; however tentative evidence suggests that online offenders experience greater interpersonal deficits whilst contact offenders present with more antisocial difficulties. Qualitative content analysis of chat logs revealed partial support for O'Connell's model. Several offender strategies proposed to take place during the sexual stage were evidenced. However, no logs showed evidence of all six stages. Additional offender strategies identified included flattery and minimising their behaviour. Various child strategies were identified, with children refusing all sexual advances in the majority of logs (n=34). Conclusions: Generic sexual offender treatment packages may not best meet the needs of OCSO. An alternative is discussed. Future research should focus on the development of psychometric tools for use with OCSO. Offenders appear heterogeneous in their approach to online sexual exploitation of children. Effective educational programmes must emphasise the speed at which many offenders will introduce sexual content, for whom traditional notions of grooming do not apply.

Background: The victimization of children has been a prevalent issue long before the emergence of social media. The rapid development of the world wide web during the last decades has created more ways to get access to anyone anywhere at any time. This has brought along a yearly increase in the number of children who are abused online with the help of technological devices. So far, the existing research in the field of online grooming has been limited and especially in Estonia. Although the problem has been acknowledged, little is known about the offenders and how they target children for sexual purposes. Aim: The thesis aims to create a fuller picture of different types of online offenders in Estonia by using typology formed by the European Online Grooming Project. Furthermore, it looks into the rational choice processes of these offenders and how they establish a connection with their victims for personal sexual gratification while minimizing their risk of getting caught. Method: The data consists of 13 court cases of offenders who were found guilty in 2017-2022. The documents were accessed in Estonian Harju County Court and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The results showed that the most common types of online offenders in Estonia are intimacy-seeking and adaptable. The findings add support to previous research, showing that most online offenders use different controlling tactics like emotional abuse, threatening, blackmailing, and flattery to benefit their chances of gaining sexual gratification from the relationship. To minimize their chances of getting caught, the offenders had chosen vulnerable victims, faked details about their personal information, used different social media applications to their own benefit, and consistently asked the victims about their surrounding environment. Conclusion: The findings of the study are in line with previous research about the typologies and strategies of online groomers whilst providing new data for future research on the topic. The hope is that with a deeper analysis of the groomers behavior, the study helps to create further preventative measures to decrease the number of potential future victims.

<p>The live streaming of child sexual abuse is a serious problem that demands urgent attention from law enforcement, legislature, and the platforms that it occurs on. While child sexual exploitation and abuse crimes have been occurring for decades, the growing number of internet users combined with the recent Covid-19 outbreak has shifted a lot of these crimes online. Crimes that occur over live streams are particularly difficult to investigate. Previous research has highlighted four main types of challenges associated with these types of cases: legislative, social, technical, and investigative. While studies have been conducted that explored these challenges individually, this study fills a research gap by exploring which of these challenges affect law enforcement personnel that work live-streamed child sexual abuse cases post-Covid-19. For this study, an anonymous online survey was sent out to law enforcement individuals and agencies nationwide. The survey was actively distributed for one month. Out of the 29 responses received, 13 participants qualified to take the survey and were asked about the challenges they faced working these types of cases and about any solutions to these challenges. After collecting the data, descriptive statistics identified the challenges, and a thematic analysis was conducted. Following a grounded theory process, the analysis identified five main themes that encompassed multiple types of challenges and solutions. These themes were: a lack of consensus, education, the role of application service providers and platforms, a need for better technology, and out-of-jurisdiction challenges. These themes explored in-depth the participants’ responses and further identified the challenges facing law enforcement that work live-streamed child sexual abuse cases, as well as any current solutions to these challenges. Two main challenges frequently mentioned by the participants were end-to-end encryption and anonymizing services, and one of the main solutions to many of the challenges was the education of parents, children, and legislators. For future research, the author recommends exploration of the following topics: the investigation of the factors that play strong roles in determining the time it takes to investigate live-streamed child sexual abuse cases, research related to how AI could assist law enforcement working these cases, further exploration of a framework for the education of parents and children about social media usage and the risks of live streaming, how social platforms can be used in many ways, and research that examines how often law enforcement encounters live-streamed child sexual abuse cases/whether these cases are common or not. </p>