DEVIANT BEHAVIOR https://doinral0.1080/01639625.2021.1941427 Routledge Taylor &FrancsGroup IA) Chock for updates Toward a Universal Definition of Child Sexual Grooming Georgia M. Winters°, Leah E. Kayloit and Elizabeth L. Jeglicc lairleigh Dickinson University Teaneck United States; ',Saint Louis University St Louis United States; <John Jay College of Criminal Justice New York United States ABSTRACT It is estimated that 30-45% of child sexual abusers use sexual grooming tactics. While sexual grooming is considered integral to the child sexual abuse process, there has yet to be a universally accepted definition of the construct that condenses and summarizes this complex process. Based upon a thorough evaluation and critique of prior definitions and research on a content validated model of sexual grooming, a new operational definition of sexual grooming is proposed. An easily understood and applied definition of sexual grooming is needed for measurement of the construct. Further, having a common language to describe sexual grooming is necessary for research, communication, detection, prevention, and intervention of child sexual abuse. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 19 November 2020 Accepted 5 June 2021 Toward a Universal Definition of Child Sexual Grooming Sexual grooming is a relatively new construct, having first been identified in the early 1980s when law enforcement agencies observed that extrafamilial child sexual abusers gravitated to child-serving organizations to gain access to victims and engaged in pre-offense behaviors prior to the commission of the abuse (Lanning 2018). Given the nonviolent nature of these patterns of behavior, the term "sexual grooming" has been used interchangeably in the literature with "entrapment," "engagement," "subjection," "emotional seduction," or "enticement" (Bennett and O'Donohue 2014; Gallagher 1998; Howitt 1995; Kierkegaard 2008; Lanning 2018; Salter 1995). Research on sexual grooming started to prol