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<strong>Child</strong> PornograPhy First report oF the Dutch NatioNal rapporteur
cluding points of note) in which the statistics originated is also clearly described. 374 The boxed text below
provides one example of this.
Amongst other details, a publication produced on behalf of ECPAT International in 2008 375 cited
the following estimate as an illustration: Between 50,000 and 100,000 paedophiles are involved in
organised child pornography groups across the entire world, and one third of those operate from
the United States of America. The reader is referred for further information to a manual written
for the police in 2006, 376 which manual subsequently refers to a study published in 2001. 377 The
latter publication shows the results of a two-year study (starting in 1999) of child pornography
users on the basis of participating observation in newsgroups and on forums and message boards
on the Internet. The following conclusion was amongst those that were drawn as a result of this
study:
“Confirming the general scale suggested here, Interpol, the international police agency, has suggested “that over
30,000 paedophiles are involved in organised child pornography rings in Europe, which began forming through
the Internet.” I stress, though, that we are dealing with core activists, since casual browsers may be much more
numerous.” 378
It continues:
“Putting the different boards together, I would guess that the core population as of 2001 should be counted
somewhere in the range of fifty to a hundred thousand individuals, though that is a very loose figure. It is
also a global number: perhaps a third of these are located in the United States. Given the phenomenal expansion
of the Internet since the mid-1990s, we can assume that this figure is changing very rapidly, and certainly
expanding.” 379
The above clearly illustrates the hazard in repeatedly borrowing statistical data without bearing in
mind/citing the source and context of those figures. 380
It is obvious that we are in even less of a position to make a judgment based upon statistics with regard
to the number of perpetrators in the Netherlands in proportion to the number of perpetrators in other
countries. However, one indication is that in large-scale international investigations of child pornography,
the Netherlands always features in the global top ten whenever the numbers of suspects and/or
suspected web addresses are examined. 381
374 It can also be the case that statistics are borrowed that are not published without context, but are completely
unjustly placed into a new context. It goes without saying that such use is incorrect.
375 Quayle et al., 2008, p.27.
376 Wortley & Smallbone, 2006, p.13.
377 Jenkins, 2001, p.74.
378 Jenkins, 2001, p.74.
379 Jenkins, 2001, p.74.
380 For that matter, the figure from Interpol that Jenkins cites in his 2001 publication was also borrowed
from yet another source (not Interpol).
381 Written information from KLPD, Team Beeld en Internet, 4 February 2011.