In the summer of 2023, Beata Pienczykowski completed her BA (Hons) English Language and Linguistics at the University of Bedfordshire. She received the Highest Dissertation Grade Award for her brilliant study of 'the linguistic markers of deception in child-groomer conversations', which I co-supervised. 

In 2024, we worked together on turning Beata's dissertation into a publishable article. This involved expanding on and refining the literature search and applying Sorlin (2017)'s (socio)psychological pragmatic model of Manipulative Discourse to the qualitative data that Beata had collected from the Perverted Justice Foundation Archive. Sorlin’s model was based on fictional discourse, from the series House of Cards. Our paper offers the first study to show the relevance of Sorlin’s model to non-fictional discourse and, specifically, to data of an investigative and forensic nature: the Perverted Justice Archive holds recordings of interactions between convicted groomers and decoys (i.e., adults trained to pose as children to catch suspected child sexual offenders). 

In this paper, and beyond the paper, we aim to detect and expose the stylistic modus operandi of online groomers and what to look for, by revealing their use of implicit manipulation tactics, which rely, paradoxically, essentially on conventional, politeness strategies. We show and argue that these tactics contribute to the adultification of the child-victim and likely lead to responsibility reversal, self-blame, and reluctance to report Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA) offences. 

The 5 main linguistic tactics identified as 'polite grooming' strategies are: 

• Boosting the child's self-esteem through praise and compliments, insisting on the maturity of the child  

You seem very mature for your age 

omg you’re soooooooo cute 

what a pretty young lady you are 

You don’t look 13…you look older and more mature 

• Pretending to be the vulnerable one 

I am more worried you will get tired of me sweety 

I was so paranoid about sharing with you

you dont know how heartbroken I was 

• Presenting an idealised version and impression of self 

I’m a very affectionate person

I’ve got this really romantic streak in me

I respect you and want to treat you like the special girl you are 

• Making a sexually explicit comment followed by a mitigating, 'LOL - I like you' tactic 

whats on your mind now?? LOL I like you

Can you send one pic before you go? I like you

do you like older men? Very nice to meet you
I hope I haven’t ever said anything to you that has made you uncomfortable 

• Using the inclusive you-and-I 'we' for identity merge and 'you' for stance attribution  

thats why we chat so well… 

We seem to have a lot in common

You need a guy to play with

you will fall in love 

you won’t want to leave my side 

The paper was presented at the University of Bedfordshire's Annual Research Conference in June 2024. You can access and download the full paper for free. It was published as part of the Springer Collection 'Corpus Pragmatics in Forensic Contexts'. 

Beyond its publication, the paper has received attention from the wider community. It was showcased in episode 16 of A Perspective on Crime, Shane Tanner's podcast exploring contemporary research in criminology. Tune in - the podcast is available on  

The ever-growing interest in using linguistic approaches to detecting and tackling online harm is a testament to the importance of understanding online grooming as a communication-based practice. The increasing prevalence and complexity of online offending calls for a comprehensive and collaborative strategy. 

With this in mind, the paper has also led to further collaborative research, at the Safer Young Lives Research Centre, University of Bedfordshire. Building on the 'polite grooming' strategies,  the research aims to engage young people in co-shaping practical, impactful outputs to inform investigative practice and prevention strategy. The Research England-funded project 'Co-creating Youth-Informed Policy Responses to Online Grooming: Bridging Research and Participation' aligns with national priorities to embed victim-survivor voices in investigative practice, and it is grounded in the 'Participation as Protection' principle. Common efforts towards tackling OCSEA and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) ought to be reflective of young people's realities and young people's voices. 

Through participatory consultations, the study facilitates knowledge exchange between academics in Applied Linguistics and Social Research, youth advisors - the Young Researchers' Advisory Panel, and criminal justice stakeholders: law enforcement, policy, safeguarding, and tech professionals. Together we explore how academic insights can inform real-world, frontline strategies to

(1) detect and prevent online grooming and other types of OCSEA, and

(2) encourage the reporting of OCSEA offences. 

The data analysis is now under way; stay tuned for updates and collaboration news! Blog post 2 'Beyond the 'Polite Grooming' Paper' will be out in the summer.