Instructing Children in the Martial Arts – Part VII

When a well-known martial artist was recently arrested, I received a private message from someone who knew the details in the case. He told me the instructor had been arrested for “Child Grooming”. This wasn’t a term I was familiar with, so I looked it up and found the following definition in an e-article on the website, Families.Com:

“Grooming is a process of desensitization that predators use on children to prepare and trick them into accepting sexual abuse. Once the predator has gained the child's trust and confidence, they use everyday behaviours, like telling an inappropriate joke, a touch on the upper arm that lingers a little too long or a kiss on the lips to test whether your child is likely to tell on them. If the perpetrator is satisfied that your child won't tell, the predator moves onto other forms of bad touching. If the child still doesn't tell, then the abuse continues along the continuum of abuse from non contact, to contact and often ending with penetration and sometimes even homicide.”

(You can read their entire article on the subject at the following link: http://mental-health.families.com/blog/the-grooming-process-of-a-child-sexual-predator)

I was very familiar with its definition, as I had taught parents and children for almost 30 years in my fixed-length StreetWise and SafeChild programs to recognize and resist anyone who attempts to “groom” them. I just didn’t know there was an official name for it.

It’s important we all know how to recognize sexual predators in order to prepare ourselves, our children, and our students to avoid their advances. But instructors also need to be able to recognize such behavior in anyone, including members of our staffs, who come into contact with our students.

I’ll soon be getting into the signs that can enable you to better recognize sexual predators and the types of behaviors they follow to “groom” their targets. Thanks again for your continued support.