413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

Educational Attainment
The education level of the sample was very high, especially when compared to the general prisoner
population. Of the 21 offenders in the sample, 90 percent had some postsecondary education and had
either earned their bachelor’s degree (19 percent) or associate’s degree (24 percent) or attended some
college (48 percent). This number contrasts with the percentage of the adult prison population with
postsecondary education, found to be only 22 percent (Greenberg, Dunleavy, and Kutner 2007). Similarly,
though not as pronounced as our sample, the National Juvenile Online Victimization Study found 51
percent of 2006 offenders to have some postsecondary education (Wolak et al. 2011).
Seven (33 percent) of the offender respondents studied computer-related subjects, such as information
and communications technology, and three (14 percent) studied business. Two additional offenders, who
did not study computer-related subjects, had an information technology (IT) background or worked with
computers. The importance of technological expertise will be explored later in this chapter, particularly in
relation to strategies to evade detection from law enforcement.
Age
The age of respondents ranged from 26 to 70, with an average age of 46 years old and over a third (38
percent) in their forties. At the time of interview, offenders had served between one to six years of their
sentence, with an average of almost three years. The respondents in our sample were older than the
average Bureau of Prison (BOP) inmate (39 years old), and also older than the average age reported in
other child pornography studies. For example, the average age found through a 2011 meta-analysis of 27
online sex offenders studies was 39 years old (Babchishin et al. 2011).
Race
Ten offenders (82 percent) self-identified as white or Caucasian, with two (9 percent) identifying as
Latino or Hispanic and one individuals not providing his race. This contrasts with general demographics
of BOP male prisoners, which break down to 32 percent white, 39 percent black, and 23 percent Hispanic
(Carson and Sabol 2012), but supports past findings about the predominance of white online child
pornography offenders (Babchishin et al. 2011; Bourke and Hernandez 2009; Jenkins 2001).
Offenders’ race may also influence the preferred race of victims depicted in pornographic materials, as
offenders seek images of victims that reflect their own race (Bachishin et al. 2011). In support of this, child
pornography victims are primarily white (Jenkins 2001; Taylor and Quayle 2003).
History of Experiencing Abuse
While the interviews did not ask about respondents’ history of abuse, three offenders (14 percent) shared
that they experienced abuse as children, two of whom were molested. A 2011 meta-analysis found that 21
percent of online sexual offenders experienced childhood sexual abuse and 24 percent experienced
childhood physical abuse (Babchishin et al. 2011).
Sexuality & Relationship Status
Through the interviews, five respondents (24 percent) volunteered information that they identified as
homosexual, six respondents (29 percent) were in long-term relationships or married at the time of their
arrest, and six respondents (29 percent) had children. The only other study to report on sexuality found
that within a sample of 43 Dutch, Internet-only offenders, 74.5 percent claimed to be heterosexual, 7
percent homosexual, 7 percent bisexual, and 11.5 percent claimed to have pedophilic interests (Surjadi et
al. 2010).
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