The occurrence of child sex abuse in the United States has long been considered a problem of paramount importance (e.g. Durkin, 2002; Howitt, 2008; Jenkins, 1998). Historically, the primary assumption was that the sexual solicitation of children occurred face-to-face. However, with the advent of communication technologies, people began to realize the internet's role in child solicitation. In an effort to combat this mode of child luring, a concerned citizen created P-J, an organization that seeks to identify and incriminate online predators (OPs). Members of this organization (PJMs) wait in online spaces for OPs to approach them. Then PJMs communicate as if they are minors to gather incriminating evidence against the OPs. PJMs and OPs have incompatible goals for their interactions. OPs' aim to foster a sexual relationship with a minor without being punished for it. PJMs' aim to gather enough evidence against OPs to convict them and prevent the future luring of children. To accomplish these goals, PJMs and OPs communicate with each other and face unique dilemmas in doing so.
The current dissertation employs Action-Implicative Discourse Analysis (AIDA; Tracy, 1995), a theory-method package that helps identify strategies used by interactants to address their institutionally based communicative dilemmas, to answer the research questions: 1) How do PJMs communicatively address their dilemma of encouraging online predators to pursue sexual contact without entrapping or making OPs suspicious, and 2) How do OPs communicatively address their dilemma of seducing their targets without getting caught or scaring off the presumed minor? By doing so, the project expands extant knowledge of grooming and computer-mediated self-presentation. It also extends the use of AIDA to contexts beyond organizations and formal institutions.
Through the sampling and constant comparison procedure of 40 PJM-OP instant messenger transcripts provided by the organization's website, the researcher identified four overarching categories of strategies that PJMs used to manage their dilemma: Target Presentation, OP Safety, Sexual/Relational Contribution Management, and Bust Facilitation. The researcher also identified five overarching categories of strategies for OPs: Identity Establishment, Relationship Management, Safety Precautions, Sexual Communication Engagement, and Meet Facilitation. Within these categories are many strategies PJMs and OPs utilized in an effort to address their dilemmas of attaining their goals while avoiding risks.
By identifying the aforementioned strategies, the researcher satisfied her primary goal of recognizing and understanding how PJMs and OPs attempt to reach their respective goals while avoiding risks. In addition to fulfilling this primary goal, the results of this project entail implications for several different lines of research. Specifically, the results of this dissertation extend research on traditional and online grooming, self-presentation online, and AIDA. The results also provide practical implications concerning what adolescents should be wary of when communicating with unknown others online. Additionally, the study has the capacity to help PJMs become more aware of OPs' strategies as well as their own. This awareness could help PJMs more efficiently train new PJMs and gain a deeper understanding of their interactions.