National Threat Assessment 2008. Organised Crime - Politie

them illegally into the Netherlands, but this is not part of organised trading
and smuggling.
The involvement of criminal organisations may have been demonstrated,
but it is also fragmented and small-scale, the period of collaboration is limited
and the proceeds are small.
All in all, the illegal trading in and smuggling of firearms and explosives
constitutes no specific threat to Dutch society for the next four years.
2.9 Producing and distributing child pornography 32
2.9.1 Introduction and scope
The scope of the research is defined by Section 240b of the Penal Code and
by the Child Pornography policy instructions (Aanwijzing Kinderpornografie)
drawn up by the Board of Procurators General, which provide more specific rules
for criminal investigations and prosecutions. According to Section 240b of the
Penal Code, anyone who distributes, publicly displays, manufactures, imports,
tranships, exports or possesses an image or a data carrier is committing a
criminal offence if that image or data carrier shows a sexual act involving
(or seemingly involving) a person who has apparently not yet reached the age
of 18. The words ‘seemingly involving’ eliminate the need to prove that an
‘actual’ child was used to manufacture the image. This makes virtual child
pornography also a criminal offence.
In legal terms, paintings and drawings fall outside of the scope of Section 240b
of the Penal Code because, according to the legislation, paintings and drawings
‘demonstrate insufficient lifelike character’. The ‘Child Pornography policy
instructions’ do, however, state that this exception should be treated critically,
as some drawings and animations definitely refer to the sexual abuse of children.
2.9.2 General context: nature and scale
Production of images of child abuse
The IPOL document distinguishes between production on a small scale that is
not focused on financial gain and production for commercial purposes.
32
This section is based on an internal document on this subject that was drawn up for
the NTA 2008 preliminary study; no separate substudy was carried out on this subject
(see Chapter 1). The authors of this document are S. van der Zee and C. Groenveld of the
Department of International Police Information (Dienst IPOL). The document is compiled
using information provided by IPOL’s Child Pornography Prevention Team.
chapter 2 – Illegal markets
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