Anatomy of a Research Proposal

Student Name

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Introduction

The cyber-world is a hotspot for crimes against children. Perpetrators hide behind anonymous or different identities when performing criminal acts against children. This creates a small shield that children, parents, and even law enforcement find hard to decipher in identifying the perpetrators. Crime against children on online platforms has mutated into crimes like pornography (where the children are the subject), unwanted solicitation for pictures or sexual contact, bullying and harassment, and unwanted exposure to sexually explicit material (Hunt, et al., 2020). Over the past two decades, there have been various empirical research, surveys, significant studies, and reports evaluating internet crimes against children. This research content highlights the frequency of illegal use of internet services to harass children and the perpetrators' and victims' patterns. Included in the literature review are the various roles parents, educators, and law enforcement play in mitigating sex crimes against children on the internet. This research proposal will highlight such research conducted over the years on the risk factors and incidence of children and youth exposure to sexual content on the internet. The specific research question for this study is “How has incumbent technology impacted cybersex crimes against minors? Intrinsic assessment of the literature review has extrapolated the researcher to identify various research questions to guide this study. What has led to the worsening of cyber sexual abuse against children? How does online time potentially impact sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children? What is the impact of children exposed to sexual abuse? i.e., on children's sexuality, social life, psychological development, education, and early childhood pregnancy. Which are the effective mitigation strategies applied by law enforcement, parents, and educators to deal with online sex crimes against children? These research questions will ensure this study stays on the scope and provides a logical flow for this research. The researcher aims to articulate coherent research that will fill current research gaps on cybersex crimes against children and provide future study recommendations.

Literature Review

This literature review is arranged chronologically based on the mutated online crimes against children, i.e., pornography (where the children are the subject), unwanted solicitation for pictures or sexual contact, bullying and harassment, and unwanted exposure sexually explicit material.

Harassment

Researchers Chaffin and Stacy (2008) conducted online research on online sexual harassment. The study was focused on adolescent peers and online peer sexual harassment. Online sexual peer harassment is witnessed among teenage peers' use of texts, social networking sites, personal websites, polling websites, e-mail, instant messaging, cell phones, etc. to spread sexual rumors and sexual harassment propaganda. The researchers identify that school management should take care of offline sexual harassment among peers and online peer sexual harassment. The researchers identify the drastic impacts of online peer sexual harassment by citing cases of children who have committed suicide upon being sexually harassed by their peers. Chaffin determines court precedence, i.e., Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, to indicate that school administration has the right to punish students for harmful speech. The researcher identifies that online sexual harassment among children should not be protected as free speech under the first amendment. Hence, schools should regulate online peer discussions and punish students who engage in their peers' online sexual harassment.

Unwanted Sexual Solicitation

Dombrowski et al., (2008) articulate the psychoeducational and technological mechanisms applied by guardians to protect their children from sexual solicitation and online pornography. With the enhanced technological advancement of chat rooms, gadgets, e-mail, and social networking services, children can easily and readily access online sexual content. This is given minimal caregiver/guardian supervision of their online activities. Most of the caregivers/parents provide their children with gadgets like phones and PC to access such platforms exposing their children to the risk of sexual content at an early age. The researcher identifies that caregivers can deter sexual solicitation and children's access to online pornography using software tools like firewalls, spyware detection and removal, antivirus protection, wireless encryption, and tracking of their online activities.

Additionally, caregivers can discuss internet dangers, establish internet-use safety contracts with their children, monitor internet use, and supervise their children's internet friendships. This will help improve and safeguard their children's emotional health. The research in his article discusses the user of caregiver vigilance and technological options to protect children against unwanted sexual solicitation.

Child pornography

Bourke et al., (2009) conducted a study to identify whether individuals who accessed child pornography material were sex offenders whose crimes have gone undetected or whether such individuals were at risk of committing sexual crimes on children. The researchers involved two phases in their study. The first study analyzed the criminal sexual history of offenders who were undergoing a treatment program. The second study examined offenders who acknowledged they had committed at least one sex crime against a child once they completed treatment. From this research, the authors identified that offenders who have used the internet to access child pornography were more likely to commit a contact crime. The conclusion from this research is that their population of offenders could very likely be child molesters.

Exposure to sexually explicit material

Sabina et al., (2008), conducts research to identify child exposure to explicit content like pornography. The researcher articulates online survey results involving a questionnaire to sample college students on their exposure to online pornography. The online survey compared the reports of female and male students. 62.1% of female students and 72.8% of male students indicated they had accessed pornographic and other sexually explicit content before 18. 42.3% of female participants said they had never looked for pornography online on purpose, while 6.8% of male participants identified they had never looked for pornography. Several participants indicated that exposure to pornography at a young age had significantly affected their emotions and attitudes on sexuality. The researchers concluded that there were disparate responses and reactions to online pornography, and basing research on gender stereotypes may inhibit the comprehension of how youth and children respond to exposure.

Theoretical framework.

The selection of a theoretical framework for this study was based on identifying the best framework to elicit concepts on sexual offenses and child sexual abuse. The various theoretical frameworks identified include Marshall and Barbaree's Integrated Theory, Thakker and Ward's Integrated Theory of Sexual Reoffending, Ward and Beech's Integrated Theory of Sexual Offending Finkelhor's Precondition Model. The theoretical framework that best articulates the research on cybersex crimes against children is Finkelhor's Precondition Model.

Finkelhor's Precondition Model.

Finkelhor's precondition model is a framework that accentuates child sexual abuse against children by male perpetrators. Finkelhor, (1984) identified four main components/theories that accentuate child sexual abuse, i.e., emotional congruence, sexual arousal to children, blockage, and disinhibition (Fido, et al., 2020).

Emotional congruence theories elaborate and relate to why children sexually arouse adults/offenders; blockage theories identify why other individuals inhibit their identity from having normal sexual relationships with older adults (Dangerfield, et al., 2020). Ideas on disinhibition articulate and process that sex offenders do not have conventional inhibitions against having sex with children. Finkelhor disagrees with traditional comprehension that these four theories are independent entities but identifies that they are interrelated and are complementary processes of one another.

Finkelhor identifies that the first three theories, i.e., emotional congruence, sexual arousal to children, and blockage, identify how individuals develop a sexual interest in children (Ward, et al., 2001). The fourth theory i.e., disinhibition, identifies how this sexual interest translates into actual behavior. Finkelhor's Precondition Model is a combination of these four theories/categories. The Precondition Model also articulates out a classification scheme with the ability to guide treatment. Finkelhor articulates that the factors leading to sexual abuse can be grouped into four preconditions before the actual crime occurs i.e.,

1. 1. The potent offender needs the motivation to abuse a child sexually

2. 2. Offender overcomes internal inhibitions to act on that motivation.

3. 3. Offender defeats external impediments to commit the sex crime on a child.

4. 4. The offender has to overcome/undermine a child's possible resistance to the sex crime.

Figure 1 below shows a graphical representation of Finkelhor's Precondition Model and the various preconditions before an actual sexual abuse act on a child is committed.

Figure 1: Finkelhor Precondition Model

Finkelhor's Precondition Model's significance to this research is that it will help the researcher identify the reason for the worsening of cyber sexual abuse against children and the impact of childhood exposure to sexual abuse? i.e., on children's sexuality, social life, psychological development, education, early childhood pregnancy, and the effective mitigation strategies applied by law enforcement, parents, and educators to deal with online sex crimes against children.

Research Design and Methods

This study includes assessing research materials and datasets composed of demographic, institutional, clinical, and empirical studies on criminal sex offenses to minors on online platforms between the years 2000-2020. The research strategy implemented in this research uses research questions that will guide the research design to be used. The research strategy will involve qualitative interviews to help understand the disparate research perspectives of this study. This section represents a coherent minimalist analysis of the research design, data collection procedures, and data analysis plan.

The study population for this research involves child sex offenders undergoing a treatment plan. The researcher will sample the study population from the target population of sex offenders undergoing a treatment program. The sampling strategy applied in selecting the appropriate study population is probability sampling (Kumar, 2018). Probability sampling will involve a random selection of participants to the research. Due to the limited budget, time, and scope of this research, the sample size will be small. The appropriate number of participants includes a maximum of 6 previous sex offenders and 4 clinicians managing the offenders undergoing the treatment program.

This research will adhere to the ethical considerations of conducting ethical research by considering aspects like participant consent, participant information privacy, storage, and usage of the information collected (Ngozwana, 2018). To ensure this research's success, the research instruments will undergo a piloting assessment to ensure the data collection methods like interviews do not overstep certain bounds. Piloting will also provide the interview questions to procure the needed answers needed for answering the research questions.

The data collection procedures implemented in this research include interviews and participant observation (Mohajan, 2018). Qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment, and People, 7(1), 23-48. The researcher will use semi-structured interviews for first-hand data collection. Participant observation will be used to observe the behavior of the study population for this study. Other data collection sources for this research include the use and analysis of journals, books, online sources, and other sources relevant to this research.

The data analysis technique to be applied in this research is the use of pattern matching. Pattern matching will help triangulate the concepts and answers to the research questions collected during the data collection process. This study's limitations are the limited budget, workforce, and time to conduct mature research (Snyder, 2019). There are many research gaps and scant literature on cyber-sex crimes against children that still need analysis and definitive conclusions. Sample selection and identification is a research limitation. Identifying the appropriate sample size for the research is a limitation that could impact the statistical measurement for this research.

The purpose of this research is to identify what led the child sex offenders to commit their crimes. This will help align the investigation to the theoretical framework of the study. Coherent alignment and data analysis will allow the researcher to make definitive conclusions regarding the task.

Conclusion

Cybersex crimes have been exponentially increasing because of incumbent technologies and broader access to sexual content across the internet. The purpose of this study is to identify the reasons behind sexual abuse on children. Finkelhor's Precondition Model will aid and align this research to meet the research objectives. Mitigating sex abuse against children is a vital aspect of today's society. This will help improve children's psychoeducational, emotional, sexual orientation, psychosocial, and psychological nature.

References

Bourke, Michael L., and Andres E. Hernandez (2009). The 'Butner Study' Redux: A Report of the Incidence of Hands-on Child Victimization by Child Pornography Offenders. Journal of Family Violence 24, no. 3 183–93.

Chaffin, Stacy M. (2008) The New Playground Bullies of Cyberspace: Online Peer Sexual Harassment. Howard Law Journal 51, no. 3 777–818.

Dangerfield, B., Ildeniz, G., & Ó Ciardha, C. (2020). Theories That Explain the Sexual Abuse of Children. The Wiley Handbook of What Works with Sexual Offenders: Contemporary Perspectives, Theory, Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention, 23-37.

Dombrowski, Stefan C., Karen L. Gischlar, and Theo Durst. (2007). Safeguarding Young People from Cyber Pornography and Cyber Sexual Predation: A Major Dilemma of the Internet. Child Abuse Review 16, no. 3 153–70

Fido, D., & Harper, C. A. (2020). Theories of Image-Based Sexual Abuse. In Non-consensual Image-based Sexual Offending (pp. 27-51). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Hunt, X., Tomlinson, M., Sikander, S., Skeen, S., Marlow, M., du Toit, S., & Eisner, M. (2020). Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and mHealth: The Frontiers of the Prevention of Violence Against Children. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 3, 80.

Kumar, R. (2018). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage.

Mohajan, H. K. (2018). Qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment, and People, 7(1), 23-48.

Ngozwana, N. (2018). Ethical Dilemmas in Qualitative Research Methodology: Researcher's Reflections. International Journal of Educational Methodology, 4(1), 19-28.

Sabina, Chiara, Janis Wolak, and David Finkelhor, (2008). Rapid Communication: The Nature and Dynamics of Internet Pornography Exposure for Youth. CyberPsychology and Behavior 11, no. 6 691–93.

Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333-339.

Ward, T., & Hudson, S. M. (2001). Finkelhor's precondition model of child sexual abuse: A critique. Psychology, Crime & Law, 7(4), 291-307.