Identifying Cyber Predators through Forensic Authorship Analysis of Chat Logs

Online Grooming is a growing phenomenon within online environments. One of the major problems encountered in qualitative internet research of chat communication is the issue of anonymity which is being exploited and greatly enjoyed by chatters. An important question that has been asked in the literature is 'How can a researcher be sure to analyse the communication of children and adolescents and not the chat communication of adults who pretend to be under 18?'. Our reply to this question would be the field of Authorship Analysis. Authorship Analysis offers a way to unmask the anonymity of cyber predators. Stylometry, as used in this chat log analysis, is a type of Authorship Analysis that is not based on an author's handwriting but includes contextual clues from the content of their writings. This research paper will analyse the application of different authorship attribution techniques to chat log from a forensic perspective.