Bram, Jakson, and Lorenzo; what do these three guys have in common? They are all the same person! Bram Kendall Henderson, 37, married and father of two, pretended to be Jakson Dunn, 17, and Lorenzo (a friend of Dunn’s). Henderson created Dunn in order to engage in an “intense” online relationship with a 14-year old girl from August to October 2005 in Australia. The relationship began online and then turned physical. Dunn blamed her for losing his “job” and said that the only way he could get it back was if she provided sexual favors for his “boss” (i.e. Henderson’s actual 37-year old self). Lorenzo, Henderson’s other character, said that Dunn might to damage to himself if she did not help him. She was tricked into believing that she was responsible for her “boyfriend” losing his job, and consented to sexual activity with the his “boss” (a.k.a. Henderson). Henderson (acting thru Dunn) also pressured her to take a picture of her genitals and give it to him. The relationship ended when Henderson was arrested in the end of October. The girl later stated that she was in love with him (Dunn).
This story is almost as twisted as the “Tommy, Jessi, and Montgomery” case, expect this one doesn’t end in a death (rather a six-year prison sentence for participating in an indecent act with a minor and producing and possessing child pornography). Henderson played three roles: Dunn (the “boyfriend”), Lorenzo (Dunn’s “friend’) and Dunn’s “boss” (his own physical self). The first two were carefully constructed to conceal identity and avoid suspicion in the online world. Henderson was able to mislead the girl by having identity- and message-based deception. He intentionally “controlled information in a technologically mediated message to create a false belief in a receiver of the message.” Since the relationship began online, he was able to manipulate conventional signals (gender, name, etc.). But because he could not alter his physical appearance (an assessment signal) he had to pretend to be Dunn’s boss, in order to have sexual relations with the girl. His deception follows Social Distance Theory because he lied in a more “socially distant” media (email, IM) to avoid revealing his actual self.
In terms of this relationship, both Wallace and McKenna’s factors apply. Wallace’s online attraction factors include physical attractiveness, proximity, common ground, and disinhibition. In CMC, attraction is reversed – you get to know the person, then they become attractive to you. In this case, the girl got to know Dunn (Henderson), then was attracted to him because they had never met in person. Dunn wanted behavioral confirmation of their relationship when he told her to help him keep his job by sleeping with his boss; she believed that he lost his job and was going to hurt himself, and she consented to sexual activity. Judging by the two-month span of the relationship, I’m guessing that their intersections were frequent; especially because she admitted to falling in love with Dunn. Both parties shared a common ground (living in the same area), however, Henderson lied about more (age, etc.) in order to have more in common to better build the relationship. Disinhibition was definitely a factor, because Henderson, a father, participated in this relationship (letting go of society’s view on the proposed relationship); also, the girl shared intimate pictures with him, a sign of increased disclosure. According to McKenna’s relationship facilitation factors, the identifiability in this case was the “stranger on the train” effect – anonymity leads to increased self disclosure, which leads to increased relationship development. In all, the visual anonymity lead to increased private self-awareness (Henderson created Lorenzo to affirm Dunn’s presence) and decreased public self-awareness (Henderson created several identities to mask his true identity), which dictate self disclosure. Since the communication was text-based, gating features (physical appearance, race, disability) were removed. Henderson controlled his cues by selectively self-presenting, like the Hyperpersonal model, and developing the relationship over time, like the Social Information Processing theory.
This online relationship was very complex with intricate details to keep Henderson’s lie a reality. I’d like to think that since they caught this guy that others like him will stop in fear of being discovered, but CMC still allows us to be who ever we want to be online because we are virtually invisible to the world, except for the few words we type.
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Comments:
http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/09/assignment-4-option-2-twisted-online.html
http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/09/5-i-3-u-long-distance-relationships.html
2 comments:
Wow, that's an unbelievable story. Since the girl actually said that she was in love with the character that Henderson created, it really illustrates the power of the truth bias in CMC. Henderson also used the power of the disinhibition effect to his advantage by making the girl believe that Dunn was disclosing very personal information, increasing the attraction that she felt and making her feel obligated to help him. It's even more incredible that he successfully kept up the charade after meeting her in person. Great post!
Samantha,
That is very disturbing for two distinct reasons, first: I don’t think most online predators begin soliciting their prey with such an intricately planned scheme, and secondly: because even after the girl found out it was a scheme to solicit sex, she still thought that she loved the person her predator had created.
I think that the truth bias definitely played a role in this story. Because of her nature, the girl believed not only that Dunn was who he said he was, but also that he was telling the truth about losing his job and it being her fault. If she had been the least bit skeptical about the truth of either of those things, then she (hopefully) would not have done anything that he asked.
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