413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

Child Pornography Major Findings
Finding 1: Child pornography is an escalating problem and has become
increasingly graphic with younger victims.
Both stakeholders and inmates incarcerated on child pornography charges described a growing number of
individuals viewing online child pornography. Researchers acknowledge the inherent difficulty in
calculating the total number of offenders worldwide; estimates range from 50,000 members of organized
rings to millions of individuals accessing Internet child pornography (Wortley and Smallbone 2012). In
addition to increasing numbers of offenders, child pornography collections are getting larger as
technological advancements support faster download times and greater home data storage capacity.
Stakeholders and inmates pointed to increasingly graphic content, often featuring violent acts against
infants and toddlers.
Child pornography’s heightened availability also affected offenders’ perceptions of the crime, as it
lessened their sense of wrongdoing and granted them a sense of security due to their perceived invisibility
within a virtual crowd. Without enough resources to target all offenders, stakeholders are overwhelmed by
the amount of accessible child pornography. Unable to conduct proactive investigations, they instead
focus on responding to tips and referrals, often from federal agencies. The high volume of tips frequently
results in primarily reactive work, which typically leads to the targeting of less sophisticated offenders.
Practice Implications
Stakeholders described a lack of awareness from the public and criminal justice stakeholders as a major
impediment to garnering support for increased funding to combat child pornography. Education about
child pornography’s prevalence, in addition to its violent content, could put pressure on politicians and
policymakers to support effective investigative strategies. Increased manpower may also allow
stakeholders to stay current with constantly evolving technology and focus resources on serious offenders
producing child pornography.
Finding 2: Child pornography is an international crime that transcends
real and virtual borders.
Child pornography is a crime that has become global in scope, particularly with the advent of the Internet.
Individuals interested in trading child pornography no longer have to rely on the postal service or
clandestine meet-ups to share images. Through technology and the Internet, individuals can download,
trade, and produce child pornography with anyone in the world at any time during the day, which may
help offenders elude detection. According to both law enforcement and offenders currently incarcerated
on child pornography charges, child pornography is produced, traded, and downloaded by individuals all
over the world—sometimes for profit, but most often not. For example, pornographic images of children
produced in Russia can be posted on a website hosted on a server in Germany which can be accessed by
someone in the United States. In this scenario, cooperation between authorities in Russia, Germany, and
the United States would aid the apprehension of all the players involved in the crime.
Sex tourism was cited by stakeholders interviewed for this study as an international problem that is
growing in both scope and scale and is greatly facilitated by the Internet. Stakeholders shared that sex
tourists travel to an impoverished country (often with lax law enforcement) to engage in commercial sex,
and in the cases where a minor is involved, often produce child pornography. Additionally, the Internet
has made it much easier for an individual to book a flight, find a hotel, and identify an individual or
individuals in the host country willing to facilitate this crime. The Internet has also made it possible for
individuals to virtually travel to foreign countries to direct and produce their own child pornography.
These encounters occur through live web cams and entail payment to the individual orchestrating the
child pornography in the foreign country. Similar to the scenario provided above, authorities in both the
foreign country and the United States would need to work together to identify and apprehend the
offenders.
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