CERES - Cybergrooming – Exploring risk factors, investigative practice, and protective measures

Project date range: 15.04.2023 – 15.04.2026
Affiliated partners:
Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt; BKA), Criminalistic-Criminological Research Unit of the State Criminal Police Office North Rhine-Westphalia (Kriminalistisch-Kriminologische Forschungsstelle LKA NRW; KKF), University of Münster

Description

KrimZ is part of the national research network CERES (Cybergrooming – Exploring risk factors, investigative practice, and protective measures) which is being funded as part of the German Federal Government's civil security research program. This interdisciplinary research network includes projects on the detection of cybergrooming as well as victims’ and offenders’ perspectives. CERES aim is to establish a recommended course of action for law enforcement, crime prevention and victim assistance when dealing with cybergrooming.

As a part of this network, KrimZ aims to research cybergrooming offenders by analyzing reported crimes as well as the dark figure of crime, with the goal of identifying potential risk factors for offenders, types of cybergrooming offenders and their strategies, while the University of Münster is responsible for researching victims of cybergrooming. Both the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Criminalistic-Criminological Research Unit of the State Criminal Police Office North Rhine-Westphalia (LKA, NRW), who are also part of the research network, aim to highlight a more practical approach to cybergrooming and its detection and prevention, establishing a recommended course of action for law enforcement agencies in cases of cybergrooming.

Overall, results from the CERES network should equip practitioners with concrete, evidence-based tools for combatting cybergrooming.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Martin Rettenberger
Theresa Kuban, M.Sc.
Maeve Moosburner, M.Sc.