1. child pornography owners: trends in offender and case characteristics (2011)
This study describes "trends" in child pornography possession cases in the United States. Only cases from the years 2000 and 2006 were analyzed in which persons were in possession of child pornography and were arrested for this (in 2000: 1,713 arrests; in 2006: 3,672 arrests)
- Comparing the two survey years, many characteristics of offenders and offenses remained stable.
- Most of the offenders were male and white, non-Hispanic, and from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.
- Only a few were known to the police (due to sex crimes)
- In 2006, a higher proportion of offenders were aged between 18 and 25, used file-sharing networks (file sharing via decentralized peer-to-peer network servers), were in possession of images of children (< 3 years) and had child pornography videos.
- P2P network users had on average more extreme images (e.g. younger victims, sexual violence) and a greater number of images than those who did not use P2P networks. Furthermore, when using a file-sharing network, the downloaded material is simultaneously offered for further download by the user concerned, which leads to material spreading extremely quickly.
- The possession and consumption of child abuse images does not always necessarily go hand in hand with a sexual motive/interest in children; conversely, people with a sexual interest in children are often in possession of child abuse images.
- The rate of child abuse cases has fallen since the mid-1990s (data from victim surveys, the criminal justice system, victim protection organizations, etc.), which is offset by increased availability and easier access to child abuse images via the Internet. Correlations to this have not yet been researched in more detail, but more child abuse crimes are being photographed/filmed and circulated.
It can therefore be assumed that in many cases of (online) child abuse images, especially of younger victims, these were not prosecuted and recorded in databases.
Source: Wolak, J., Finkelhor, D., & Mitchell, K. (2011). Child pornography possessors: Trends in offender and case characteristics. Sexual Abuse, 23 (1), 22-42.
2. Production and distribution of child pornography via the Internet (2011)
This study examines how much and what kind of child pornography material is actually in circulation. The study is based on the analysis of public prosecutor's files with a total of 1,712 child pornographic images or screenshots from films. All child pornographic images were initially categorized using the so-called Copine scale (Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe) in order to obtain an overview of the severity of the abuse (level 1-3: not relevant under criminal law, level 4-6 "posing material", level 7-10 "real" child pornography)
- Almost 35% of the material analyzed were level nine images ("aggravated assault"), around 26% were level six images ("detailed erotic posing") and almost 12% were level seven material ("sexual acts of a child").
- The victim ratio between boys and girls in child pornography is around 50:50 (data from interviews with investigating officers).
- It was particularly difficult to estimate the age of the children involved. A total of 1,276 girls and boys could be assessed in terms of their age.
Largest proportion of victims in the 9 to 13 age group (77 percent in total)
Second largest proportion in the age group of 4 to 8-year-olds (20.5 percent in total)
The number of younger victims aged between a few months and three years has increased further (2 percent in total)
Source: Meier, B. D. & Hüneke, A. (2011). Research Report "Production and Distribution of Child Pornography via the Internet". Institute of Criminology of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University of Hanover, Hanover
3. Child pornography, the Internet and juvenile suspects
An example of a recurring problem in the legal system is the prosecution of young offenders. This article focuses on juvenile suspects in the context of child pornography. Two areas are discussed: the nature of the crimes and the characteristics of suspects. For this purpose, 159 Dutch police files in the field of child pornography were analyzed.
- Almost a quarter of the suspects are under 24 years old. 35 percent of this group is under the age of 18.
- Young people often produced sexualized images of themselves and/or videos of themselves with each other. If this material is distributed "voluntarily" via the internet, it becomes a matter for law enforcement agencies.
- Suspects come from all demographic groups and vary in education, occupation, marriage, status, age (from minors to the elderly) and sexual interest.
- Seto, Reeves and Jung (2010) report that most offenders report that they were accidentally exposed to child pornography for the first time and were subsequently curious and aroused.
Type of crime:
- Most suspects act alone/independently and are therefore not part of organized crime (93.6 percent).
- In 56.6 percent of cases, the suspects were not connected to other crimes
- In 39.1 percent of cases, links to offline crime were found:
- Possession of child pornography (e.g. DVDs and printed material) (34.1 percent)
- Production of child pornography (5.0 percent)
- In cases where identity abuse played a role, suspects had created a false identity to trick child victims into making sexual images or videos of themselves
Properties of suspects:
- Of the 167 files that could be analyzed, 164 suspects were male and three were female
- Most of the offenders were between 18 and 54 years old (total age range 14 to 83 years).
Percentage distribution of age and gender is comparable to other sexual offenses in the Netherlands, Prins, 2008
Source: Leukfeldt, E. R., Jansen, J., & Stol, W. P. (2014). Child pornography, the Internet and juvenile suspects. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 36 (1), 3-13.
Seto, M. C., Reeves, L., & Jung, S. (2010). Explanations given by child pornography offenders for their crimes. Journal of sexual aggression, 16 (2), 169-180.
4. The Internet - a billion-dollar market for child pornography?
When the Access Blocking Act came into force in 2009, the German government justified this action by claiming that there were numerous sources for obtaining child pornography on the World Wide Web. The Access Blocking Act was therefore intended to block known internet addresses of these sources by entering them in a list. In view of the quantities that are distributed in the file-sharing networks, the acquisition of child pornography on the World Wide Web for a fee is rather pointless.
- While the distribution channels through peer-to-peer networks, user networks or via the World Wide Web are largely easy to identify, there are considerable problems for the investigating authorities with other distribution channels.
- In the case of closed user groups, which can also be realized on the World Wide Web, access is only possible if the interested party has to provide a certain service in advance. And this hurdle is high. As has become known from the reports of the law enforcement authorities, this is usually new child pornography, which must be provided as an entry service.
Source: Hüneke, A. (2012). The Internet - a billion-dollar market for child pornography? Retrieved from https://www.uni-hannover.de/fileadmin/luh/content/alumni/alumnicampus/AC_8_2012/i34-36__hueneke.pdf
5. Complex experiences of child pornography survivors (2018)
This study explores the complex experiences of survivors of child pornography production. Participants in the online survey were 133 adults who were victims of child pornography in childhood.
- Almost half of the respondents indicated that the production/creation of sexual images caused specific problems that were different from the effects of abuse experiences.
- Also half of the sample stated that they suffered permanently from the fact that consumers of child pornography believed that they had participated voluntarily. In addition, those affected are often concerned that consumers would recognize them.
- One third of participants refused to talk about the images.
- 22 percent of participants denied that these images exist.
The qualitative analysis identified three key themes that emerged from the survivors' statements (from their current perspective as adults):
- Guilt and shame
- Persistent vulnerability
Source: Gewirtz-Meydan, A., Walsh, W., Wolak, J., & Finkelhor, D. (2018). The complex experience of child pornography survivors. Child abuse & neglect, 80, 238-248.
6. Sexual abuse of a child
According to criminological estimates (e.g. G. Kaiser), 60 to 80 percent of perpetrators in cases of child sexual abuse are acquaintances or even relatives of the child victim. In around half of the cases, the victims passively accept the crime, in 10 to 15 percent of cases they actively participate (depending on their age) or even initiate it.
Source: Hagen, K. R., Olek, K. & Dickgieser, N. (2000). Sexual abuse of a child. Criminalistics, 54 (4), 240-242.
7. Sexual abusers: perpetrators on the spectrum of normality
Contrary to all prejudices and desires to limit the perpetration of sexual abuse to a specific group of deviant men, research on this group of offenders consistently comes to the conclusion that there is no uniform perpetrator personality.
- Persons who commit sexual abuse do not come from a particular social background, nor do they stand out psychologically or in their social behavior in a way that would clearly distinguish them from other men (see Herman, 1990; Bange, 1993; Jungjohann, 1993; Russel, 1984; Brockhaus & Kolshorn, 1993; Finkelhor, 1990).
- They come from all social classes, tend to behave inconspicuously and conformistically, are married, single or in relationships, etc.
- This conformity is the most effective protection against detection and repeatedly leads to stereotypical reactions from neighbors and acquaintances who want to conjure up the alleged innocence of the perpetrators.
Source: Heiliger, A. (1996). Sexual abusers: Perpetrators in the spectrum of normality. Psychology and Social Criticism, 20 (1/2), 29-42.
8. The connection between the consumption of child pornography and sexual abuse of children
In addition to figures from the police crime statistics, the results of two empirical studies serve as a basis for this
Wolak, J., Finkelhor, D. & Mitchell, K. (2005). Child pornography possessors arrested for Internet related crimes: A national study (No. 0605023). Report prepared for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Alexandria, VA.
Endrass, J., Urbaniok, F., Hammermeister, L. C., Benz, C., Elbert, T., Laubacher, A. & Rossegger, A. (2009). Child pornography use on the internet and violent and sexual offending. BMC Psychiatry, 9, 1-7.
- The predominantly male offenders (95 percent) are between 30 and 50 years old.
- The proportion of non-German perpetrators is at a low level of 3 to 5 percent.
- 30 percent of perpetrators are married or in a partnered relationship, have children of their own or live with children.
- In one of the two studies, 87 percent of the perpetrators identified had not previously been convicted of child sexual abuse.
- They also did not exhibit any sexual dysfunctions.
- About 15 percent stated that they had drug or alcohol problems.
These results show that it is difficult to create a uniform offender profile for the consumption of child pornography
Source: Laumer, M. (2012). The connection between the consumption of child pornography and sexual abuse of children - An overview of the current state of research. Criminalistics, 3/2012, 139-144.
9. The Internet - basic knowledge for the police
The abuse of victims usually takes place over a longer period of time. There are only a few known cases of victims being intercepted by professional porn producers in public spaces. The following overview provides an overview of the perpetrators and their approach to child abuse and child pornography:
- The majority of victims already know the perpetrators before the sexual abuse takes place.
- About one third of girls are abused by perpetrators from the family.
- Male victims are usually sexually exploited by caregivers from outside the family and by strangers.
- One third of perpetrators are still children and adolescents themselves.
- Single perpetrators abuse many children.
- Two thirds of perpetrators who abuse within the family also have victims outside the family.
- The perpetrators come from all social classes.
- They are often close to children in a professional (or voluntary) capacity.
- Sometimes single mothers are specifically contacted.
- Offenders pay victims to bring other victims to the offender ("traffickers").
Source: Siegert, M. (2002). The Internet - basic knowledge for the police.
Further link http://www.mikado-studie.de/tl_files/mikado/upload/MiKADO_Zusammenfassung.pdf
