Who Are Your Kids Talking To? An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding Online Child Sexual Exploitation Offenders

Kathryn Seigfried- Spellar - Purdue University

This talk will discuss the need for an interdisciplinary approach to understanding child sexual abuse, which intersects multiple fields, including the behavioral sciences, criminal justice, artificial intelligence, biometrics, and digital forensics. Online child sexual exploitation is a global problem facilitated by technological advancements, which enable child sex offenders to target any number of victims simultaneously, whenever from anywhere. It is estimated that 1/3 of online child sex offenders are contact-driven, meaning they are motivated to have sex with the minor in the real world. However, the sheer volume and complexity of reports/cases make it difficult for law enforcement to triage and investigate high-priority cases.

In this talk, Dr. Seigfried-Spellar will discuss her interdisciplinary approach to combating online child sexual exploitation, including:

- Criminological differences between contact and noncontact-driven offenders;

- Variations in their grooming strategies and use of self-disclosures when chatting with minors;

- The role of knuckle and nailbed biometrics as a law enforcement tool for offender identification;

- The importance of digital forensic artifacts when assessing offender risk.

Presenter bio

Kathryn Seigfried-Spellar, PhD, MA is a Professor (Effective Aug 2024) in the cyberforensics program in the Department of Computer and Information Technology. She is a globally recognized expert in the area of internet crimes against children, specifically on the criminological characteristics and grooming strategies of online child sex offenders. She is a member of the Tippecanoe High Tech Crime Unit and has Special Deputy status for the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor’s Office. Dr. Seigfried-Spellar was a 2022-2023 U.S. Fulbright Scholar awardee for her research at the University of Valencia, Spain: “Analyzing Criminological Differences and Online Grooming Strategies of Child Sex Offenders in Spain.” She is also a recipient of the International Fellows Award for Summer 2024 at the University of Adelaide, Australia to collaborate with faculty from the Adelaide Cybercrime Laboratory and Australian law enforcement. Dr. Seigfried-Spellar is a Fellow and the Chair of the Digital and Multimedia Sciences section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, member of the American Psychological Association, and member of the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts.