Understanding the role of technology in the commercial sexual exploitation of children: the perspective of law enforcement.

This exploratory study was conducted to better assess how technology can be used in criminal investigations; it is important to get a better understanding of how technology is currently employed in child sex trafficking as well as the approaches and needs of law enforcement. 144 investigators from Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces and affiliate agencies responded to an online semi‐structured survey, including 45 investigators with experience conducting investigations of the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) that involved technology. Participants included investigators working in local, county, and state law enforcement agencies in the United States. The discussion suggested a great deal of variation in perspectives and experiences surrounding the problem of CSEC and technology. Investigators were able to highlight both benefits and obstacles. Benefits included the availability of digital evidence instead of relying on personal accounts, the monitoring capabilities of police, and the ability to conduct extensive undercover operations. Obstacles tended to focus on financial concerns, the continual need for training and technical assistance, and the rapidly changing technological environment. Findings highlight the vast complexity and variability in these crimes. There is still quite a bit of the unknown when it comes to investigating CSEC – technology changes rapidly and avenues for marketing and communicating are vast. Continual education, training and technical assistance are central to investigators’ needs in this area

Internet-Facilitated Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.

This bulletin summarizes findings from the Internet‐Facilitated Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (IF‐CSEC) component of the 2006 Second National Juvenile Online Victimization study. Following are some key findings from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention‐sponsored study: • An estimated 569 arrests for IF‐CSEC were made in the United States in 2006; more than half of the arrests involved the offender marketing and selling child pornography. • Most offenders (83%) purchased child pornography or sex with a minor, but an important minority (17%) profited from the exploitation. Profiteers appeared to be more seasoned offenders who were involved in larger, organized networks of criminals, such as prostitution and human trafficking rings. • Many offenders (39%) were acquaintances of the IF‐CSEC victims, 23% were family members, and 17% were people the victims had met online. The rest were mostly pimps. • Compared with victims of Internet sexual crimes that do not involve a commercial aspect, a greater per‐ centage of IF‐CSEC victims, as part of the current crime, were assaulted, given drugs or alcohol, and were the subject of child pornography

Youth Internet Safety Study (YISS): Methodology Report.

The Youth Internet Safety Surveys (YISS‐1, YISS‐2, and YISS‐3) were conducted in order to quantify and detail youth experiences with unwanted or problematic Internet experiences including sexual solicitations, harassment, and unwanted exposure to pornography on the Internet. YISS‐3 collected additional information about youth produced sexual images (YPSI) or “sexting.” The YISS‐1, YISS‐2 and YISS‐3 studies were conducted in 2000, 2005 and 2010, respectively, providing important comparative information on changes in the numbers of youth reporting unwanted or problematic Internet experiences at 5‐year intervals since 2000. This is a critical timeframe for observation given the sharp rise in the use of Internet and new technologies by youth from 2000‐2010 1 . The YISS were conducted via telephone surveys with separate national samples of 1500 youth Internet users, ages 10 to 17, and their parents. A sample size of 1,500 was pre‐determined based upon a maximum expected sampling error of +/‐2.5% at the 5% significance level. Human subject participation in the YISS studies were reviewed and approved by the University of New Hampshire Institutional Review Board (IRB) and conformed to the rules mandated for research projects funded by the U.S. Department of Justice

Internet Sex Crimes Against Minors: The Response of Law Enforcement.

The Internet1 and computers have come to play a growing role in sex crimes that are committed against children and youth.2 Since the mid-1990s these developing technologies have posed challenges for law enforcement requiring them to confront situations not anticipated in criminal statutes, master technical advances, develop new investigative techniques, and handle criminal cases that often span multiple jurisdictions. To assist, legislators have acted on a number of fronts creating new statutes that encompass Internet offenses, stiffening penalties, and creating a national clearinghouse for reports of Internet-related crimes against children and the CyberTipline® operated by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. In addition the federal government has increased funding in this area creating Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces to support state and local law enforcement and specialized Internet, child-exploitation units in federal, law-enforcement agencies. Unfortunately the results of these initiatives are difficult to track. Criminaljustice authorities do not collect information specifically about Internet-related crimes. The National Juvenile Online Victimization (N-JOV) Study was undertaken to get a sense of the scope and types of law-enforcement activity in this area and serve as a baseline for monitoring the growth of Internet sex crimes against minors and related law-enforcement activities

Child-Pornography Possessors Arrested in Internet-Related Crimes: Findings From the National Juvenile Online Victimization Study.

The goals of the National Juvenile Online Victimization (N-JOV) Study were to survey law-enforcement agencies within the United States (U.S.) to count arrests for Internet-related sex crimes committed against minors and describe the characteristics of the offenders, the crimes they committed, and their victims. This report focuses on a representative national sample of arrested offenders who possessed child pornography

National Juvenile Online Victimization Study (N-JOV): Methodology Report.

The National Juvenile Online Victimization Study (N-JOV Study) was conducted by the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, under grants from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice. The N-JOV study collected information from a national sample of law enforcement agencies about the characteristics of Internet sex crimes against minors and the numbers of arrests for these crimes during a one-year period. The goals of our methodology were to 1) design a representative national sample of law enforcement agencies that would give us an overall picture of these crimes in the U.S., 2) understand how these cases emerged and were handled in a diverse group of agencies, and 3) get detailed data about the characteristics of these crimes from well-informed, reliable sources. We used a two-phase process to collect data from a national sample of local, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies. In Phase 1, we sent a mail survey to a national sample of law enforcement agencies asking if they had made arrests in Internet-related child pornography or sexual exploitation cases between July 1, 2000 and June 30, 2001. In Phase 2, we conducted telephone interviews with law enforcement investigators about a sample of the cases reported in the mail survey. The final data set, weighted to account for sampling procedures and other factors, includes data from 612 completed interviews

Online victimization: A report on the nation’s youth.

The Internet is an exciting new territory for many young people. Nearly 24 million youth ages 10 through 17 were online regularly in 1999, and millions more are expected to join them shortly. They go there to Iearn, play, meet people, and explore the world. But stories from law-enforcement officials, parents, and young people themselves suggest that not every online adventure is a happy one. The Internet has a seamier side that young people seem to he encountering with great frequency. This national survey confirms many of the stories. Large numbers of young people are encountering sexual solicitations they did not want, sexual material they did not seek, and people who threatened and harassed them in a variety of ways. While many are able to glide past these encounters as mere litter on the information super highway, some experience them as real collisions with a reality they did not expect and were distressed to find. Some of these young people report being upset and afraid in the wake of their encounters and have elevated symptoms of stress and depression. This report describes the variety of disconcerting experiences young lnternet users say they have online and ways they react. It also provides a window into how families and young people are addressing matters of danger and protection on the Internet. Some of the news is reassuring. At the same time, it suggests that the seamy side of the Internet spills into the lives of an uncomfortably large number of youth and relatively few families or young people do much about it. It highlights a great need for private and public initiatives to raise awareness and provide solutions. Nothing in this report contradicts the increasingly well-documented fact that youth and their families are excited about the Internet and its possibilities. They are voting for the Internet with their fingers and pocket books, even as they are aware of some of its drawbacks. But because it is destined to play such an important role in the lives of those growing up today, the question of how to temper some of the drawbacks of this revolutionary medium is worthy of thorough consideration now at the dawn of its development

Is talking online to unknown people always risky? Distinguishing online interaction styles in a national sample of youth Internet users.

Abstract We examined the risk of unwanted online sexual solicitations and characteristics associated with four online interaction styles among youth Internet users. The interaction styles took into account the people with whom youth interacted online (people known in person only, unknown people met through face-to-face friends, unknown people met in chatroom, and other places online) and high- and low-risk patterns of online behavior. The aim was to provide a basis for identifying which youth may be most at risk from interacting online with unknown people

Sex trafficking cases involving minors.

This bulletin summarizes findings from the National Juvenile Prostitution Study (N‐JPS). It describes the prevalence and types of sex trafficking cases that ended in arrests or detentions by U.S. law enforcement agencies in 2005 and explores the characteristics of youth involved in sex trafficking, the characteristics of the cases themselves, and how police view these juveniles—as victims or as delinquents. The bulletin also covers policy and practice implica‐ tions and recommends several next steps for advancing the handling of these cases. Some findings include the fol‐ lowing: • There were an estimated 1,450 arrests and detentions for sex trafficking crimes involving youth in the United States in 2005. • Sex trafficking cases involving minors fell into three groups: (1) Third‐party exploiter cases, (2) Solo juvenile cases, and (3) Child sexual abuse cases involving payment. • Police treated 69% of juveniles as victims and 31% as delinquents. • Findings indicate a strong relationship between a case originating with an outside report to police and the juvenile being treated as a victim