413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

and eventually, it works its way towards child pornography. (Kansas City Law
Enforcement Official)
Leading to Contact Crimes
Past research has attempted to determine the correlation between viewing child pornography and
committing contact sexual offenses, including the likelihood that non-contact sexual offenders would
cross over to contact sexual offenses. A meta-analysis of nine studies found that only 2 percent of online
sex offenders committed a sexual offense over a 1.5 to 6 year follow up period (Seto, Hanson, and
Babchishin 2011). Nine of the ten offenders in our sample with non-contact charges of possession or
distribution of child pornography maintained they would never hurt a child, though none acknowledged
any indirect abuse caused by viewing child pornography.
An offender convicted for the production of child pornography, however, observed that viewing child
pornography normalizes behavior that would make contact offenses more likely:
I’m of a belief it needs to stop. I do believe it becomes a gateway kind of process. I don’t
believe that every person that does child pornography will abuse kids. But I do believe
that the more desensitized you get to objectifying kids, the more you might do that. (C7)
Another offender, also incarcerated for production of child pornography, commented that viewing child
pornography triggered his production:
I knew I had it in me, but man that just busted it lose. I hadn’t messed with her, then I
looked at the pictures, and started messing with her. I hate to blame it for it, but the fact
that I got access to the child pornography, absolutely. (I1)
Similarly, one offender learned about sex tourism through newsgroups, as he saw photos that men post to
“brag about their exploits and share their stories.” He researched his trips for years and was able to
communicate with other individuals engaging in sex tourism, in order to “fulfill his fantasy”:
I read on the Internet about men going to Philippines, Cambodia, India, etc. and had sex
with underage girls and got away with it and I thought well, it would be great if I could do
it just once to fulfill my fantasy and get away with it. (B2)
One offender, convicted for possession of child pornography, used child pornography as a tool to prevent
sexual offenses:
I was using it to keep from offending and keep away from people. I never went into
anything that would lead me back into that. And it was working too. … Anytime I got the
urge to go out and look for a little girl, I’d go on the Internet and stay. (B1)
Stakeholders surmised that child pornography may be linked to other types of crimes, but either due to
resource restraints or legal restraints, they have been unable to fully follow some of these leads. One state
prosecutor from Seattle described that privacy laws may sometimes inhibit the ability for investigators
and prosecutors (and the public) to understand how common the overlap is between possession of child
pornography and commission of sexual abuse of a child:
I think it is not uncommon to see an abuser have child pornography. We don’t always get
access to their computer just because they’re committing an offense of child abuse and
just because there may be a computer in the house. If we don’t have a nexus to the
computer we don’t necessarily get to go into their computer. There are very strict privacy
laws in the state of Washington. So if a child who is being abused said he [was shown]
pornography on the computer or he was taking my picture and was using a digital
camera, then we have the nexus that gives us access, but just because we have a dad who
is molesting his child doesn’t mean that we are going to have access to his computer.
(Washington State Prosecutor)
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