413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

with these ones that are from contraband images or videos. If someone has produced
content and then posted it on Instagram, you can match the camera. Even something as
specific as a serial number, or camera model and aperture settings, every little bit helps.
(E9)
The last strategy was to target the owners of websites, since they provide the platform and enable child
pornography trading:
Respondent: My philosophy is that the owners of these sites know what is going on.
Interviewer: Do you think the owners should be arrested
Respondent: I do, they’re facilitating it and making a lot of money off it. (C7)
Outliers
While we conducted 33 interviews with offenders incarcerated for child pornography related offenses,
only information from 21 of those interviews is included in the preceding sections. Of the twelve
interviews not included, information from seven shed light on how offenders who did not trade child
pornography online incur child pornography charges.
Four of the offenders possessed less than five child pornography images that were never shared on the
Internet. In one case, images were used as evidence to charge an offender with lewd and lascivious acts
with a child, which he admitted to, though he defended as being acceptable within his culture. Another
offender claimed that while he gave a minor his cell phone, he did not encourage or even know that she
had taken photos of herself with the cell phone camera. The other two offenders admitted to taking a few
photos on their cell phones, but said they were never shared online.
The fifth offender set up a hidden camera to capture images of naked women. As he acquired photos of
some minors, in addition to adults, he was charged with production of child pornography. The sixth
offender admitted to purchasing four videos, for $30 each, but contends he was the victim of a federal
sting operation since he purchased non-pornographic videos. In his account, a child pornographer had a
front selling non-pornographic material of women dancing, which is what he purchased.
The last offender’s charges included purchasing a minor with the intent to produce child pornography.
This individual claims he believed the girl to be an adult, since she possessed documentation stating her
age as 18. This incident took place abroad and the offender discussed using websites to learn about
prostitution in other countries, including rates at different brothels, but he denied any involvement with
child pornography.
Summary
Through the analysis of 21 offender interviews and 35 stakeholder interviews, this chapter provides
insight into the Internet’s role in how offenders acquire and distribute child pornography. As supported
by extant research, child pornography is increasingly easy to find, with a high number of offenders
reporting accidentally stumbling across material online. The ease of accessibility affected offenders’
understanding of the crime, some respondents shared that they felt any material so easily available must
be sanctioned; other offenders described feeling protected, or invisible, due to the high number of
individuals accessing child pornography.
While aspects of child pornography are commercial, there has been a shift toward free trading of videos
and images since the advent of the Internet and the creation of peer-to-peer file sharing. Thus, relative to
other activities within the underground commercial sex economy—adult and child sex trafficking and
prostitution—child pornography represents a large, but commonly noncommercial economy in the United
States. This does not mean, however, that profits aren’t generated and that the crimes committed are any
less severe. As multiple stakeholders across all sites pointed out, the ease of accessing free child
pornography may be the driving force behind a trend toward increasingly graphic images and videos of
younger children. However, they also noted that the majority of those profiting from child pornography
are located overseas, particularly in Eastern European countries.
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