Linguistic Grooming in Higher Education: A Forensic Discourse Analysis of Power, Manipulation, and Symbolic Control in Academic Relations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26877/eternal.v7i1.2863Keywords:
forensic linguistics, grooming, discourse analysis, sexual violence, higher educationAbstract
This study examines how language operates as a tool of manipulation in academic grooming within Indonesian higher education. Using a qualitative forensic-linguistic approach integrating Critical Discourse Analysis, Speech Act Theory, and Thematic Analysis, it analyses approximately 850 utterances from authentic lecturer–student communications, supplemented by interviews with six victims and one expert. The findings show that grooming unfolds through three interrelated linguistic mechanisms, affective persuasion, instrumental exploitation, and symbolic control, that gradually transform professional discourse into emotional dependency and compliance. Affective and instrumental lexis dominates grooming communication (71%), embedding coercion within rhetoric of care, mentorship, and professionalism, and producing discursive entrapment in which victims internalise control as trust. The study proposes a Forensic Linguistic Indicator Model (FLIM) for the early detection of grooming language, conceptualising academic grooming as institutionalised linguistic coercion and offering policy-relevant insights for safeguarding and prevention in higher education.
References
Bachmann, Reinhard, and Andrew C. Inkpen. 2011. “Understanding Institutional-Based Trust Building Processes in Inter-Organizational Relationships.” Organization Studies 32(2):281–301.
Black, Pamela J., Melissa Wollis, Michael Woodworth, and Jeffrey T. Hancock. 2015. “A Linguistic Analysis of Grooming Strategies of Online Child Sex Offenders: Implications for Our Understanding of Predatory Sexual Behavior in an Increasingly Computer-Mediated World.” Child Abuse & Neglect 44:140–49.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. “Language and Symbolic Power.” Polity.
Bull, Anna, and Tiffany Page. 2021. “Students’ Accounts of Grooming and Boundary-Blurring Behaviours by Academic Staff in UK Higher Education.” Gender and Education 33(8):1057–72.
Craven, Samantha, Sarah Brown, and Elizabeth Gilchrist. 2006. “Sexual Grooming of Children: Review of Literature and Theoretical Considerations.” Journal of Sexual Aggression 12(3):287–99.
Fairclough, Norman. 2013. Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. Routledge.
Fileborn, Bianca, and Rachel Loney-Howes. 2019. # MeToo and the Politics of Social Change. Springer Nature.
Gordon, C., and M. Foucault. 1980. “Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972− 1977.”
Harper, Craig A., and Rachel A. Hicks. 2022. “The Effect of Attitudes towards Individuals with Sexual Convictions on Professional and Student Risk Judgments.” Sexual Abuse 34(8):948–72.
Jones, Lisa M. 2001. Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases. US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile ….
Kleinberg, Bennett, Maximilian Mozes, Arnoud Arntz, and Bruno Verschuere. 2018. “Using Named Entities for Computer‐automated Verbal Deception Detection.” Journal of Forensic Sciences 63(3):714–23.
Kloess, Juliane A., Catherine E. Hamilton-Giachritsis, and Anthony R. Beech. 2019. “Offense Processes of Online Sexual Grooming and Abuse of Children via Internet Communication Platforms.” Sexual Abuse 31(1):73–96.
Lisa, Salmonsson. 2022. “Sexual Misconduct, Harassment and Power in Higher Education Institutions.” in Myths and Realities of the Nordic Welfare State 30th Nordic Sociological Association Conference University of Iceland, Reykjavik, 10–12 August 2022.
McAlinden, Anne-Marie. 2012. ’Grooming’and the Sexual Abuse of Children: Institutional, Internet, and Familial Dimensions. Oxford University Press.
O’Connell, Rachel. 2003. “A Typology of Cybersexploitation and Online Grooming Practices.”
Page, Tiffany. 2022. “Sexual Misconduct in UK Higher Education and the Precarity of Institutional Knowledge.” British Journal of Sociology of Education 43(4):566–83.
Steele, Bridget, Michelle Degli Esposti, Pete Mandeville, and David K. Humphreys. 2024. “Sexual Violence among Higher Education Students in the United Kingdom: Results from the Oxford Understanding Relationships, Sex, Power, Abuse and Consent Experiences Study.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 39(9–10):1926–51.
Whittle, Helen C., Catherine E. Hamilton-Giachritsis, and Anthony R. Beech. 2014. “‘Under His Spell’: Victims’ Perspectives of Being Groomed Online.” Social Sciences 3(3):404–26.
