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A Discourse Analysis of Clear-Web Paedophile Communities / Rosie Marsh-Rossney

Swansea University Author: Rosie Marsh-Rossney

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DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.67909

Abstract

Child sexual abuse and exploitation is one of the most paramount issues facing our society. This global problem has been exacerbated in the digital age through increased access to technology, anonymity tools, and platforms enabling communication between paedophiles and children. These offenders also...

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Published: Swansea, Wales, UK 2024
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
Supervisor: Lorenzo-Dus, Nuria
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67909
first_indexed 2024-10-04T09:15:53Z
last_indexed 2024-11-25T14:21:04Z
id cronfa67909
recordtype RisThesis
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spelling 2024-10-04T10:33:53.7217822 v2 67909 2024-10-04 A Discourse Analysis of Clear-Web Paedophile Communities 1e544c4e483133a7b45d2b497e054d8d Rosie Marsh-Rossney Rosie Marsh-Rossney true false 2024-10-04 CACS Child sexual abuse and exploitation is one of the most paramount issues facing our society. This global problem has been exacerbated in the digital age through increased access to technology, anonymity tools, and platforms enabling communication between paedophiles and children. These offenders also congregate in online communities with likeminded individuals to interact with each other and trade child sexual abuse material. Despite their central role in facilitating offending, online paedophile communities remain grossly understudied, particularly using linguistic methods. Thus, this research aims to increase understanding of how these communities are formed, maintained, and participated in – as well as how members construct their identities and express their attitudes to each other. The dataset, provided by UK-based law enforcement, comprised over 100,000 words of approximately 1,600 offenders interacting in clear-web social media chatlogs. A qualitative discourse analysis approach was employed: beginning with a thematic analysis and followed by a computer-mediated discourse analysis within these themes to address the study’s aims. The results revealed that offenders gained access to thriving online networks of paedophiles, trading abusive material; discussing or planning crimes; sharing advice on security measures; teaching technological skills; and forming relationships with one another. Offenders constructed their identities as paedophiles and community members through displays of knowledge about offending, using community-specific language, adhering to behavioural etiquette, and asserting their sexual interests. The groups also provided a supportive echo-chamber that reinforced cognitive distortions and proliferated a pro-paedophilia ideology. This thesis provides a novel insight into the private interactions of paedophiles on the clear-web through the deployment of linguistic methods. The findings support the suggestion that membership of online paedophile communities may be an aggravating factor in offenders posing an increased threat of harm to children. E-Thesis Swansea, Wales, UK discourse analysis; computer mediated discourse analysis; forensic linguistics; identity; child sex offenders; paedophiles; online communities; ideology 27 9 2024 2024-09-27 10.23889/SUthesis.67909 ORCiD identifier: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0743-3514 COLLEGE NANME Culture and Communications School COLLEGE CODE CACS Swansea University Lorenzo-Dus, Nuria Doctoral Ph.D ESRC DTP ESRC DTP 2024-10-04T10:33:53.7217822 2024-10-04T10:11:00.9782314 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - English Language, Tesol, Applied Linguistics Rosie Marsh-Rossney 1 67909__31535__6a69758e76fc4a358078e63592d69cfd.pdf Marsh-Rossney_Rosie_PhD_Thesis_Final_Cronfa.pdf 2024-10-04T10:25:29.6907105 Output 3862612 application/pdf E-Thesis – open access true Copyright: The author, Rosie Marsh-Rossney, 2024. Licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC) license. Third party content is excluded for use under the license terms. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.en
title A Discourse Analysis of Clear-Web Paedophile Communities
spellingShingle A Discourse Analysis of Clear-Web Paedophile Communities
Rosie Marsh-Rossney
title_short A Discourse Analysis of Clear-Web Paedophile Communities
title_full A Discourse Analysis of Clear-Web Paedophile Communities
title_fullStr A Discourse Analysis of Clear-Web Paedophile Communities
title_full_unstemmed A Discourse Analysis of Clear-Web Paedophile Communities
title_sort A Discourse Analysis of Clear-Web Paedophile Communities
author_id_str_mv 1e544c4e483133a7b45d2b497e054d8d
author_id_fullname_str_mv 1e544c4e483133a7b45d2b497e054d8d_***_Rosie Marsh-Rossney
author Rosie Marsh-Rossney
author2 Rosie Marsh-Rossney
format E-Thesis
publishDate 2024
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.23889/SUthesis.67909
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - English Language, Tesol, Applied Linguistics{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - English Language, Tesol, Applied Linguistics
document_store_str 1
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description Child sexual abuse and exploitation is one of the most paramount issues facing our society. This global problem has been exacerbated in the digital age through increased access to technology, anonymity tools, and platforms enabling communication between paedophiles and children. These offenders also congregate in online communities with likeminded individuals to interact with each other and trade child sexual abuse material. Despite their central role in facilitating offending, online paedophile communities remain grossly understudied, particularly using linguistic methods. Thus, this research aims to increase understanding of how these communities are formed, maintained, and participated in – as well as how members construct their identities and express their attitudes to each other. The dataset, provided by UK-based law enforcement, comprised over 100,000 words of approximately 1,600 offenders interacting in clear-web social media chatlogs. A qualitative discourse analysis approach was employed: beginning with a thematic analysis and followed by a computer-mediated discourse analysis within these themes to address the study’s aims. The results revealed that offenders gained access to thriving online networks of paedophiles, trading abusive material; discussing or planning crimes; sharing advice on security measures; teaching technological skills; and forming relationships with one another. Offenders constructed their identities as paedophiles and community members through displays of knowledge about offending, using community-specific language, adhering to behavioural etiquette, and asserting their sexual interests. The groups also provided a supportive echo-chamber that reinforced cognitive distortions and proliferated a pro-paedophilia ideology. This thesis provides a novel insight into the private interactions of paedophiles on the clear-web through the deployment of linguistic methods. The findings support the suggestion that membership of online paedophile communities may be an aggravating factor in offenders posing an increased threat of harm to children.
published_date 2024-09-27T08:34:25Z
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score 11.048042

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