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Implementation
offences refer to digital data storage media within the context of an informative interview, no reference is
made to seizure. 361 By emphasising the importance of seizure of data storage media in both the Implementation
Provisions concerning child pornography and the Implementation Provisions concerning public decency
offences, the efficacy of detection can be improved and the focus can actually be shifted to the abuse.
Thirdly, more information regarding the efficacy of detection needs to be collected. For example, the
number of victims that were found via the Internet is practically unknown. For that reason, details of
victims must be recorded. As a result, we will have greater insight into the efficacy of detection, which
may have implications for the policy to be implemented. 362
Pending cases
The current number of pending cases forms a burden for the police and the judicial authorities. The proposed
new structure does not (yet) offer any insight into the way in which the pending cases could be
worked through, except for the alternative means of settling cases. 363 No analysis of the nature of the pending
cases is available and consequently it is almost impossible to draft a policy. The minimal capacity available
has also been designated as a cause for the pending cases. This is the issue, however, as the number of
pending cases should increase if 100 to 300 cases are received every year. This is not happening, though, as
although the number of pending cases cannot be controlled, it is nevertheless relatively stable and even
decreases now and then. An investigation of the inflow and outflow of the pending cases could provide an
insight into this situation. The existence of pending cases may potentially be the result of the low priority
that is assigned to child pornography cases, the working method being used, or the influx of investigations
from other countries. The assumption that a shortage in capacity forms the cause of the pending cases
is partly unfounded. A potential solution could be to develop an international prioritisation model. To
this end, the possibilities for making international agreements in this regard could be explored further.
3.5 Prosecution and trial
In this section, we will firstly discuss the prosecution of child pornography offences, and the subsequent
trials. Sentences and orders are the subject of §3.5.3, whereby we must take into account that in terms
of the sentence carried, Article 240b of the Dutch Criminal Code does not distinguish between different
forms of conduct, such as the possession, distribution or production of child pornography. A separate
section is then devoted to statistics regarding prosecutions, decisions not to prosecute, sentences and
convictions. In addition to this, we will also address the characteristics of suspects and convicted perpetrators.
Finally, this section will set out a number of trends that can be ascertained from the statistics.
3.5.1 Prosecution
For the detection and prosecution of child pornography offences, the Implementation Provisions
concerning child pornography govern all actions undertaken by the police and the Public Prosecution
361 Dutch Government Gazette, no.12123.
362 The Korpsmonitor 2011 states the following: “One area for attention with regard to registration and monitoring
concerns rescued and/or identified victims. In order to record these numbers more effectively,
it is important that an unequivocal definition of (the types of ) victims is provided.”
363 The question remains as to the extent to which this is applies with regard to old cases.
175