Education about grooming is important given the increasing number of perpetrators of sexual manipulation

JAKARTA The day after tomorrow, the types of sexual violence are becoming more and more diverse, one of which is sex-halling. Perpetrators who are sex victims usually lay bait or deceive their victims to gain complete control over a relationship.

Cases of sexual violence preceded by enticements or attempts at persuasion to trick the victim are becoming increasingly common. This is often the case with perpetrators who have power, and the victims are usually minors. However, according to psychologists, victims of sexual assault today are not always minors, but can also affect adults.

Recently, news broke that Muhammad Erik alias Muhammad Arifin married a 16-year-old girl without a guardian as his parents did not know about the marriage. Erik or Arifin is one of the administrators of the Prophet Muhammad SAW Hubbun Islamic Boarding School in Lumajang, East Java.

The married victim admitted that she was lured with Rs 300,000 and that she would be happy. Moreover, the victim is supposed to go to heaven if she is willing to become a Siri wife, even though the perpetrator already has a legal wife.

Lumajang police have named Muhammad Erik as a suspect after he was reported to the police by the victim’s father, M, on May 14, 2024, while the second wedding will take place on August 15, 2023.

Sex dressing is one of the most common forms of sexual violence in recent times. According to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), rooming is the building of a relationship, trust and emotional bond with children or young people in order to manipulate, exploit and inflict violence on them.

Anyone can become an outstanding actor, because Roomers do not pay attention to age, gender or race. Teachers, religious leaders, sports coaches can become street vendors, even the closest family members.

To find its victims, both a short-term and a long-term period of time ranging from one week to one year is required.

Meanwhile, psychology lecturer at the State University of Surabaya (UNESA), Nanda Audi, S.Psi. M. Psi, explained that the term sex or sexual opening refers to the lure of perpetrators of sexual violence to gain trust and control over victims. He said the groundbreaking process is manipulatively packaged to trap victims, especially those involved in sexual activities.

“Usually, the term ‘sex rooming’ was first experienced by minors because they did not understand the dangers of sexual violence, but there have also been victims among school students,” Nanda said, according to UNESA’s official website.

Perpetrators have become more flexible in carrying out their acts as social media has grown rapidly. This was also noted by Nanda. He admitted that the strategy of carrying out the act often starts from social media, especially dating applications. However, it is possible that the perpetrators also launch their acts through various social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and messaging applications such as WhatsApp.

Through these social media, the perpetrators attempted to further approach the victim, create an impression of security and push the victim into a more defensive situation in which he or she would be more vulnerable.

Put simply, perpetrators develop strategies to prepare, build relationships and manipulate victims with the ultimate goal of sexually exploiting them.

“The perpetrator’s strategy usually involves paying special attention to victims, giving them gifts, providing emotional support and exploiting the victim’s vulnerability,” Nanda said.

Grooming can have a very negative impact on victims. Not only do victims suffer emotional trauma, but they may also experience deep feelings of guilt, shame or fear that affect their overall mental health.

Choosing victims who tend to be more vulnerable or who have no experience of such situations can increase the traumatic impact on the victims.

“Sex dressing in the context of sexual crimes is not only physical, it can still involve psychological and digital dimensions,” said Nanda.

Until now, it has been difficult to recognize whether someone is a victim of aggroming because the signals are not always clearly recognizable. This is especially true when the perpetrator’s target group is children who may perceive the behavior or beliefs of these perpetrators as normal.

Returning to the case of the serial marriage of a 16-year-old girl with the head of the Islamic boarding school in Lumajang, Nahar, Deputy for Special Protection of Children in the Ministry of PPPA, said that the current practice of placing children in rooms is increasingly worrying. Looking at the conversation between the alleged perpetrator and the victim, one can see that the victim finds it difficult to refuse because she perceives the perpetrator as a trustworthy person and has a special relationship with him.

Nahar hopes that investigators can use the weighting of sentences against boarding school counselors to identify perpetrators in cases of alleged sexual violence in child marriages.

“We hope that investigators will be able to apply Article 81 of Law No. 17/2016 with a punitive weight because the alleged perpetrator, as the head of an educational institution, fails to fulfill his responsibility to fulfill children’s rights and provide special protection to children,” said Nahar, quoted by ANTARA.

The Head of the Sub-Directorate for the Prevention and Response of Sexual Violence at UNESA, Iman Pasu Marganda Hadiarto Purba, SH, MH, said that from a legal perspective, although ex-grooming is not directly enshrined in the law, it is nevertheless part of sexual violence.

“If we refer to the PPKS law on sexual violence, it states that sexual violence is degrading, harassing and in no way justified,” he explained.

As a precautionary measure, sexual openness must be a common theme and part of the educational content to raise awareness of risks such as excessive attention, too rapid formation of emotional relationships and inappropriate perception of sexual elements.

“When dealing with new people, stick to your boundaries, especially do not reveal too detailed personal information and avoid sharing too detailed personal information publicly,” Iman concluded.

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