413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

Chapter 9
Child Pornography Offenses in the Digital
Age
Introduction
Over the last 20 years, the popularization of the Internet has profoundly increased the availability and
accessibility of child pornography, in addition to fostering the establishment of a child pornography
subculture. Technological advancements have facilitated the production of child pornography and
increased image and video storage capacity. Concurrently, online communities have increasingly
normalized producing and possessing child pornography for members in these communities.
This study is based on interviews with 21 incarcerated male offenders who used the Internet to collect
child pornography and 35 local and federal investigators and prosecutors who have experience
investigating and prosecuting child pornography cases. We document how offenders use technology to
access, store, and share child pornography, as well as the social networks that develop through online
communities. In addition to providing insight on the behavior of online child pornography offenders, this
chapter describes how offenders perceive and justify their behavior, as well as their impressions of how
the market has changed over time. Stakeholders were asked to describe the structure of the market for
child pornography, trends in the nature of the crime, and characteristics of offenders and victims.
Main Findings from this Chapter Include:
Background and Demographic Information: Consistent with extant research, child pornography offenders are primarily
white, highly-educated males.
Technology: The Internet and other technological advances have facilitated the dissemination of child pornography, making it
widely accessible and enabling offenders to obtain material for free, thereby shrinking the commercial market within the
United States.
Networking: Online child pornography communities normalize behavior, provide networks for offenders to share materials
and strategies to evade detection, and encourage production of child pornography in exchange for newer videos and images.
Trends: Over time, offenders have observed increased availability, changes in location of production, and progressively
graphic content of child pornography.
Perceptions: Most offenders perceived child pornography possession to be a victimless crime and expressed surprise about
penalties associated with child pornography offenses.
Outliers: Though the majority of child pornography offenders used the Internet to acquire and share child pornography,
some respondents do not fall within that mold.
Definitions
Difficulties arise in establishing a global definition of child pornography, as legal definitions, including the
age of consent, vary across countries. Within the United States penal code, Title 18 § 2256 defines child
pornography as any visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, with a minor
defined as anyone under the age of 18. Sexually explicit conduct is not limited to sexual intercourse and
masturbation, but also lascivious and sexually suggestive behavior, which can include images focused on
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