1254 Old College Student St.
Indiana, PA 15701
December 17, 2009
Dr. Ken Sherwood
Professor
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Department of English
Leonard Hall, Room 110
421 North Walk
Indiana, Pa 15701-1094
Dear Dr. Sherwood:
This semester has been filled with the ups and downs of writing the end research paper that was submitted to you on December 10, 2009. There were plenty of tools in which you had provided as I found to be beneficial. With the experience I have gained from this ENGL 202 class, it has definitely helped in my efforts with other research papers conducted throughout this semester. One such tool was the breakdown of an abstract into ten lines. I found this format was much easier to understand and has been used numerous times when writing my research papers for my Criminology classes. I will say in the beginning, with my original topic when writing the mini-essay, there was a lot of ease. Later, as I had changed my topic, going line by line in this ten step process, I felt using this format helped me define and better understand my research question. The following two links will show how my rough draft abstract was still in its infancy and my final draft abstract was clearer as to what my research paper was about.
What I have also learned from this class was not to think too broad. I had to learn to self edit the things that were not relevant, and to emphasize the things that were important and relevant when trying to complete a thought process. It was definitely an arduous task to be narrow minded when coming up with my research question as the topic could have gone in many different directions. While editing my draft, I had found my thought process was still a bit erratic and found the outline tool to be most beneficial. In the future, to help improve my thought process, I will definitely use the outline tool, whereas before, I would type and then go back to edit and add additional. I did implement the outline tool when I had written a final paper for one of my Criminology classes this semester.
The one aspect for the revision of my draft was developing more sources on a subject I did not know, nor even knew how to research. This part was what I felt to be the roadblock for myself. I had trouble gaining more technical, in depth information on peer-to-peer programs (P2P), but what was found were brief descriptions on the subject. My knowledge of computers is, in some ways, still at a novice level. This point alone could be the reason why I could not find enough information because I did not understand the language that was used, and found it to be useless. This was a great hindrance since P2Ps would have improved my paper exponentially.
This class has made me more aware of the digital world around me. I have a renewed optimism in trying to understand technology and all that it entails instead of being fearful of what it might do. I feel that ENGL 202 should be a class taught in a computer classroom. I believe this to be true because of how steps can be better explained in the research process. I know coming back to school after a five year absence where I had very little contact with computers other than the programs used by the companies I worked for, I had definitely forgotten how to research adequate sources for papers. The scavenger hunt was probably the most informative task I had done to date, though it was definitely hard to understand how to formulate the right phrase to get the best results. But as evidence today, I had finally learned how to create a link within a paper! This alone has proven that I do have the aptitude to work with technology, and quite possibly want to look into cybersecurity/cybercrime classes as a new avenue for my studies.
Sincerely,
Megan S. Osorio
]]>With the popularity of the internet and peer- to- peer (P2P) programs, the perception has become more acts are becoming criminal, in the efforts to keep up with the digital age. Because of the digital age, there are various websites, and chat rooms that have made it a lot easier for people to share information, and images. One of the debates in the digital world today is whether or not images of a certain kind are criminal. The crime of internet child pornography has been at the center of this debate. When digging deeper into child pornography and innocent images, the predominant question in court cases is, can the intent to possess internet child pornography be proven? This paper will begin with a look at policing child pornography before the internet, then evolve and compare it to the policing of such images when the internet is used. We will realize at the end of this research that policing child pornography on the internet has run into some obstacles, but also look at the advancements of law to protect us from the digital world.
]]>With the popularity of the internet and file sharing, more acts are becoming criminal, in the efforts to keep up with the digital age. Social networking sites have made it a lot easier for people to share information, and images. The debate as to whether or not a certain crimes occur via the internet is too broad of a topic to touch base on. The crime intended to be the focal point of this research is child pornography. Has the internet inhibited or enabled law enforcement in policing child pornography? This paper will begin with a look at policing child pornography before the internet, then evolve and compare it to the policing of such images when the internet is used. We will realize at the end of this research that policing child pornography on the internet has run into some obstacles, but also look at the advancements of law to protect us from the digital world.
]]>Abstract
With the popularity of the internet and file sharing, more acts are becoming criminal, in the efforts to keep up with the digital age. Social networking sites have made it a lot easier for people to share information, and images. The debate as to whether or not a certain crimes occur via the internet is too broad of a topic to touch base on. The crime intended to be the focal point of this research is child pornography. Has the internet inhibited or enabled law enforcement in policing child pornography? This paper will begin with a look at policing child pornography before the internet, then evolve and compare it to the policing of such images when the internet is used. We will realize at the end of this research that policing child pornography on the internet has run into some obstacles, but also look at the advancements of law to protect us from the digital world.
Introduction
From the research that has been conducted, this paper will reflect on the ups and downs of enforcing and applying child pornography laws when dealing with internet offenders. Child pornography is a topic that is hard to research and discuss because of the nature of the crime, despite this hardship there are numerous studies looking at offenders, why they offend, and whether or not the internet has enabled these pedophiles to hide from law enforcement. ~trying to develop this a little further~
Prior to 1995 and the boom of the internet becoming readily available to the general public, child pornography was produced, obtained, and traded through who one knew, the availability of children to create such images, and even through the mail. Offenders during this time had more anonymity because of the discreetness of obtaining the pornography. With the age of the internet, law enforcement can track child pornographers more easily with websites that offer services for a fee, and even some defaults embedded into peer - to - peer (P2P) sharing programs that make it impossible to rid all evidence of images in the computer system. P2P programs have greatly increased the capabilities to narrow down possible suspects who are creating, distributing and downloading images. This is a far cry from the times of undercover operations into child pornography rings.
Sometimes P2P programs can create more of a nightmare for someone who is innocent rather than catching the true perpetrator. There is such a case in the book Cybercrime by Balkin, Grimmelmann, Katz, Kozlovski, Wagman, and Zarsky (2007) about a teenager who download a file sharing program named KaZaa. The teenager had downloaded pornographic material, some of which were child pornography, and saved it to his shared KaZaa folder. Because of saving this information to his folder and not knowing how to turn off the option, his computer became a supernode. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) was then capable of tracing those who downloaded images to one mainframe (the teenager) and seek him out for distribution of child pornography. This one case shows how it is hard to find those who maliciously and knowingly intend on downloading and sharing child pornography.
Child porn images that were not intentionally downloaded or saved, but popped up in an ad or by accident are saved into a temporary internet file on the internet, are still subject to persecution because it still remains on the computer (Balkin, Grimmelmann, etc... 94). The case of The People of the State of Illinois v. Richard Scolaro with the appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County, Scolaro was convicted of possessing child pornography with a sentence of twelve months probation, but the defendant believed the court "failed to find him guilty of possession of child pornography beyond a reasonable doubt" (Tucker 1). Scolaro had admitted to police officers that he viewed multiple images of child porn but he never saved the images to his hard drive (Illinois v. Scolaro 2). Scolaro stated he frequented five different child pornography sites in which he would look at the initial image and then give up his credit card information, at a monthly rate, to view more images. He occasionally frequented chat rooms, instant messaging with individuals and traded images, most of what he sent were items he had previously received from other individuals. These images he usually traded were always of naked boys.
When a computer forensic examiner took a look at Scolaro's hard drive, he found a program that would help in erasing all evidence of possession. This product does not warrant guilt as it is a commonly bought product to get rid of spam and increase the speed your computer can run. When the examiner did a further investigation, he found one folder that could not be accessed. Once the investigator was capable of cracking into the folder, he found 689 images of child pornography. Some websites and P2P programs can automatically save to this cache folder without the user knowing (Illinois v. Scolaro 2009).
It was the court's decision that simply by viewing the pages initially, then submit credit card information in order to view more pictures, was enough evidence of possession despite not knowing of the imbedded programs that automatically saved pictures to the hard drive. The other factor the courts took into account was Scolaro admitting to trading and emailing images with those he made contact with in chat rooms. If one is capable of emailing images, that means he or she is in control of the images.
Out of the Scolaro case, he briefly talks about using chat rooms and instant messaging to develop a report with someone who will eventually share their images, free of cost. In order to gain respect in these chat rooms, one have to share "quality" images, otherwise no one will be willing to exchange. This is one of the major downfalls in regulation for law enforcement. Within the chat rooms and messaging, the exchange happens so quickly, that it is hard for law enforcement to trace the owner of the images unless they themselves are in the chat rooms undercover, gaining friendships with the offenders and collecting the images they give the investigator.
Internet sex offenders have become very clever on how they obtain their "art collection" (Quayle et. al. 346). As recent as November 9, 2009, in an article on the huffingtonpost.com, author Jordan Robertson reports on a computer virus which steals one's credit card information, then takes that information and goes on to child pornography websites, purchases images and store them back to the infected computer. When the images are stored into the victim's system, the offender can remotely access, peruse, and enjoy them at anytime he or she may choose. This particular method helps the offender avoid any detection by putting the blame on an innocent person.
Robertson (2009) mentioned a case in which a man by the name of Michael Fiola had spent his entire life savings, sold his car, and put a second mortgage on his home in order to pay the $250k lawyer bills he had accumulated in trying to prove his innocence. Not only was there monetary loss, but the Fiola and his family had been shunned from their circle of friends, harassed, and their lost their reputation. It took eleven months for the charges to finally be dropped when an investigator ran a different test that showed the extent of how infected the Fiola's work computer was. The other piece of evidence that proved the victim's innocence was they found his laptop "was programmed to visit as many as 40 child porn sites per minute - an inhuman feat. While Fiola and his wife were out to dinner one night, someone logged on to the computer and porn flowed in for an hour and a half" (Robertson 2009).
This virus has added to the law enforcements headaches in trying to persecute child pornography offenders. Law enforcement and the legal system, because of past experiences with true offenders, have trouble believing someone when they declare their innocence with giving the idea of a virus had infiltrated their computer. As Robertson (2009) stated in his article, when an offender gives this defense "it's an example of the old `dog ate my homework' excuse." The other hardship of prosecuting the virus scam is the cost of an expert forensic examiner to disprove any wrong doing. The cost to taxpayers in all cases dealing with investigating, as well as prosecuting internet child pornography probably would have been stopped if it weren't for children being the victims.
One thing to remember with pedophiles, they need to be able to revisit their victims even when they don't always have access to them. Usually a pedophile will keep an article of clothing, or a lock of hair, but when the technology world improved, pedophiles became tech savvy and started to produce pictures and films. When the internet became accessible to everyone, not just universities and companies, pedophiles infiltrated the internet to gain more pictures to satiate their needs and desires. By being present on the internet, as mentioned earlier, pedophiles are capable of creating relationships that will give them more material, but it will also increase the demand for that person to produce new material as well.
In the United Kingdom, starting in 1996, children were seen as "tragic victims" when the start of pedophilia came to prominence. This prominence is believed to be the direct cause of the media's emphasis on rare cases where a stranger committed criminal sexual acts on children (Jewkes 95). The term "tragic victims," coined by Jewkes simply means "childhood innocence and vulnerability" (Jewkes 105). The perception of who is a pedophile is based on the media's coverage in what they report and what they want you to focus on. "Crimes involving young victims of older or adult offenders are therefore a primary vehicle for expressions of community 'togetherness,' ranging from vigilance to vigilantism, and from public sorrow to public vengeance" (Jewkes 105). Because of the media's focus on pedophilia and community togetherness, law enforcement, the legal system, and legislators are forced to crackdown on pedophiles and internet child pornography. The immediate response to meet with the demands of the general population's outcry was an adequate response.
The issue with the media "educating" the general population on crime in general is that they are misinformed as to who are the offenders. As stated above, the media will report what they want you to know. Many people fear strangers of hurting their children, what they don't realize is crimes by strangers are very rare, rarer than the crime being committed by someone you know. With child pornography on the internet, there have been many strides in finding offenders to have them face the court system. The downside is child pornography still being produced at a rapid rate. Law enforcement has trouble keeping up with the producers. If law enforcement could educate the public as to who may be an offender, then maybe they would be able to make greater strides on the crackdown. If the general public is told that nine times out of ten, they are victimized by someone they know; there would be a decline in trust, increase on spying and false reporting. This would cause more issues for law enforcement in trying to decipher which claim is valid.
The reason for the focus on looking at one's friends, family and neighbors is because a pedophile needs to have easy access to children in order to create more material, films, and new scenarios for their fantasies. If law enforcement did have the help, a dramatic decrease in child pornography on the internet would occur. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has operated a hotline and website that allow both parents and children report complaints with sexual assault, pursuit, and pornographic images. After the complaint is reviewed, it is then sent to the FBI's Innocent Images National Initiative (IINI), a section of their cyber crimes division, for further investigation (FBI 2007). In some cases, like the Fiola case, tips are made to the authorities by employers after images were found, or the unreasonable activities listed on the employee's expense account.
The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) is another example, like the NCMEC, who has an internet hotline to report inappropriate images and acts being committed online. With the ASACP, they not only distribute "red flag" complaints to the FBI, but also the NCMEC and European hotlines that exist (ASACP.org). These organizations have been a great help to law enforcement in trying to eliminate child pornography violators.
Referring back to the FBI's Innocent Images National Initiative (IINI) division, they have gone to great lengths in making their cause a global effort. The Innocent Images International Task Force started on October 6, 2006 with officers in over 23 countries all over the world. There is a total of 47 task force officers around the world who come to the United States often to learn and work with the FBI (fbi.gov 2007). "The task force allows for the real-time transfer of information from and to the FBI and between task-force members and their countries" (fbi.gov 2007). With this effort, the chances of catching online child pornographers is greatly increased, but the major accomplishments are the lines of communication between countries are opened, and there is cooperation and understanding when it comes to obtaining an offender.
Recommendations
During the process of this research, some recommendations can be made to help improve law enforcement and the legal system with capturing and convicting child pornographers. My first recommendation is to create a global governing body for the internet. This governing body will set the laws for all situations when a child pornographer is caught soliciting, trading, posses or producing images that cross national lines. If these crimes are committed within a nation, then that nations governing body will handle the investigation, legislation, and prosecution. This brings me to my next recommendation of creating a universal definition of what is considered child pornography. For instance, in the United States, the age for sexual consent starts at the age of eighteen, but in the United Kingdom the age of consent starts at the age of sixteen. If there is no universal definition, a lot more offenders will slip through the system, therefore maintaining the onslaught of child pornography on the internet.
The third recommendation would be to appropriate more funding for experts during the judicial process. This recommendation will help in eliminating any wrongful convictions. It may be hard to convince anyone to give up more money but more money will be wasted with the appeals process that a person has after conviction, therefore reroute the estimated cost and apply it toward a forensic computer analyst.
The fourth recommendation is more of an encouragement. I would suggest keeping up with hotlines to help report any illegal activity, and the line of communication that has happened between organizations around the world.
Bibliography
Akdeniz, Yaman. Internet Child Pornography and the Law:
National and International Responses.
Burlington: Ashgate, 2008.
Association of Sites Advocating
Child Protection. Web. 5 Nov. 2009. <http://www.asacp.org/>.
Balkin, Jack M., et al. Cybercrime Digital Cops in a
Networked Environment. New York: New York, 2007.
Casanova, Manuel F., et al. "The History of Child
Pornography on the Internet." Journal of Sex Education & Therapy 25.4 (2000): 245-251. Academic
Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 Nov.
2009.
Esposito, Lesli C. "Regulating the Internet: The new
battle against child pornography." Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 30.2/3
(1998): 541. International Security &
Counter Terrorism Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 1 Nov. 2009.
Howitt, Dennis, and Kerry Sheldon "The role of cognitive
distortions in paedophilic offending: Internet
and contact offenders compared." Psychology, Crime & Law 13.5
(2007): 469- 486. International
Security & Counter Terrorism Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 4 Nov. 2009.
The People of the State of Illinois vs. Richard Scolaro. Appeal from the circuit court of Cook County. May 2009. Print.
"Innocent Images National
Initiative." FBI.gov. Federal Bureau of Investigations, 11 Dec.
2007. Web. 5 Nov. 2009. <http://www.fbi.gov/publications/innocent.htm>.
Jewkes, Yvonne. Media and Crime: Key Approaches to
Criminology. London: Sage, 2006.
Middleton, David, et al. "An investigation into the
applicability of the Ward and Siegert Pathways
Model of child sexual abuse with Internet offenders." Psychology, Crime
& Law 12.6 (2006): 589-603. International
Security & Counter Terrorism Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov. 2009.
Nunziato, Dawn C. "Technology and Pornography." Brigham
Young University Law Review 2007.6
(2007): 1535-1584. International Security & Counter Terrorism Reference
Center. EBSCO. Web. 6 Nov.
2009.
Quayle, Ethel, and Max Taylor "Child Pornography and the
Internet: Perpetuating a Cycle of Abuse."
Deviant Behavior 23.4 (2002): 331-361. International Security &
Counter Terrorism Reference Center.
EBSCO. Web. 8 Nov. 2009.
Robertson, Jordan. "Internet
Virus Frames Users for Child Porn." Web log post. The Huffington Post.
Nov. & dec. 2009. Web. Nov. 2009.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/internet- virus-frames-use_n_350426.html>.
Wells, Melissa, et al. "Defining Child Pornography: Law
Enforcement Dilemmas in Investigations of
Internet Child Pornography Possession." Police Practice & Research
8.3 (2007): 269- 282. International
Security & Counter Terrorism Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 8 Nov. 2009.
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Abstract
With the popularity of the internet and peer- to- peer (P2P) programs, the perception has become more acts are becoming criminal, in the efforts to keep up with the digital age. Because of the digital age, there are various websites, and chat rooms that have made it a lot easier for people to share information, and images. One of the debates in the digital world today is whether or not images of a certain kind are criminal. The crime of internet child pornography has been at the center of this debate. When digging deeper into child pornography and innocent images, the predominant question in court cases is, can the intent to possess internet child pornography be proven? This paper will begin with a look at policing child pornography before the internet, then evolve and compare it to the policing of such images when the internet is used. We will realize at the end of this research that policing child pornography on the internet has run into some obstacles, but also look at the advancements of law to protect us from the digital world.
Introduction
From the research that has been conducted, this paper will acknowledge the hardships of proving criminal intent of possessing child pornography. Child pornography is a topic that is hard to research and discuss because of the nature of the crime, despite this hardship there are numerous studies looking at offenders, why they offend, and whether or not the internet has enabled these pedophiles to hide from law enforcement. The part of the research that has given better perspective and vital information into possession has been the court dockets from various cases where this question has been scrutinized.
Literature Review
Prior to 1995 and the boom of the internet becoming readily available to the general public, child pornography was produced, obtained, and traded through who one knew, the availability of children to create such images, and even through the mail. From the course of my readings into the history of child pornography before the internet, I have read many variations as to how these offenders obtained these products. Offenders during this time had more anonymity because of the discreetness of obtaining the pornography without sending red flags to a government agency. With the age of the internet, law enforcement can track child pornographers more easily with websites that offer services for a fee, and even some defaults embedded into peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing programs that make it impossible to rid all evidence of images in the computer system. P2P programs have greatly increased the capabilities to narrow down possible suspects who are creating, distributing and downloading images. This is a far cry from the times of undercover operations into child pornography rings.
Sometimes P2P programs can create more of a nightmare for someone who is innocent rather than catching the true perpetrator. There is such a case in the book Cybercrime by Balkin, Grimmelmann, Katz, Kozlovski, Wagman, and Zarsky (2007) about a teenager who download a file sharing program named KaZaa. The teenager had downloaded pornographic material, some of which were child pornography, and saved it to his shared KaZaa folder. Because of saving this information to his folder and not knowing how to turn off the option, his computer became a supernode. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) was then capable of tracing those who downloaded images to one mainframe (the teenager) and seek him out for distribution of child pornography. This one case shows how it is hard to find those who maliciously and knowingly intend on downloading and sharing child pornography.
Child porn images that were not intentionally downloaded or saved, but popped up in an ad or by accident are saved into a temporary internet file on the internet, are still subject to persecution because it still remains on the computer (Balkin, Grimmelmann, etc... 94). The case of The People of the State of Illinois v. Richard Scolaro (hereafter Illinois vs. Scolaro) with the appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County, Scolaro was convicted of possessing child pornography with a sentence of twelve months probation, but the defendant believed the court "failed to find him guilty of possession of child pornography beyond a reasonable doubt" (Tucker 1). Scolaro had admitted to police officers that he viewed multiple images of child porn but he never saved the images to his hard drive (Illinois vs. Scolaro 2). Scolaro stated he frequented five different child pornography sites in which he would look at the initial image and then give up his credit card information, at a monthly rate, to view more images. He occasionally frequented chat rooms, instant messaging with individuals and traded images, most of what he sent were items he had previously received from other individuals. These images he usually traded were always of naked boys.
When a computer forensic examiner took a look at Scolaro's hard drive, he found a program that would help in erasing all evidence of possession. This product does not warrant guilt as it is a commonly bought product to get rid of spam and increase the speed your computer can run. When the examiner did a further investigation, he found one folder that could not be accessed. Once the investigator was capable of cracking into the folder, he found 689 images of child pornography. Some websites and P2P programs can automatically save to this cache folder without the user knowing (Illinois v. Scolaro 2009).
It was the court's decision that simply by viewing the pages initially, then submit credit card information in order to view more pictures, was enough evidence of possession despite not knowing of the imbedded programs that automatically saved pictures to the hard drive. In a case reviewed by the courts in the Illinois vs. Scolaro, the discussion of possession came up - this case is known as United States vs. Tucker, here after US vs. Tucker. The issue posed to the courts was "whether a defendant could be convicted of possessing child pornography when he had viewed the prohibited images on his computer, but did not save or download the images to the hard drive on his computer" (Illinois vs. Scolaro 7). The defendant, Tucker, admits that he had viewed pornographic images of children but did not possess them by deleting the images from his cache file and subsequently on his hard drive (Illinois vs. Scolaro 7). After the courts looked at the definitions of possession, and knowing possession, they found that Tucker still "had control over the files present in his web browser cache files" (Illinois vs. Scolaro 8). The other factor the courts took into account was Scolaro admitting to trading and emailing images with those he made contact with in chat rooms. If one is capable of emailing images, that means he or she is in control of the images.
Out of the Scolaro case, he briefly talks about using chat rooms and instant messaging to develop a report with someone who will eventually share their images, free of cost. In order to gain respect in these chat rooms, one have to share "quality" images, otherwise no one will be willing to exchange. This is one of the major downfalls in regulation for law enforcement. Within the chat rooms and messaging, the exchange happens so quickly, that it is hard for law enforcement to trace the owner of the images unless they themselves are in the chat rooms undercover, gaining friendships with the offenders and collecting the images they give the investigator.
Internet sex offenders have become very clever on how they obtain their "art collection" (Quayle et. al. 346). As recent as November 9, 2009, in an article on the huffingtonpost.com, author Jordan Robertson reports on a computer virus which steals one's credit card information, then takes that information and goes on to child pornography websites, purchases images and store them back to the infected computer. When the images are stored into the victim's system, the offender can remotely access, peruse, and enjoy them at anytime he or she may choose. This particular method helps the offender avoid any detection by putting the blame on an innocent person.
One man had experienced such harsh consequences when blame was placed upon him. Robertson (2009) mentioned a case in which a man by the name of Michael Fiola had spent his entire life savings, sold his car, and put a second mortgage on his home in order to pay the $250k lawyer bills he had accumulated in trying to prove his innocence. Not only was there monetary loss, but the Fiola and his family had been shunned from their circle of friends, harassed, and their lost their reputation. It took eleven months for the charges to finally be dropped when an investigator ran a different test that showed the extent of how infected the Fiola's work computer was. The other piece of evidence that proved the victim's innocence was they found his laptop "was programmed to visit as many as 40 child porn sites per minute - an inhuman feat. While Fiola and his wife were out to dinner one night, someone logged on to the computer and porn flowed in for an hour and a half" (Robertson 2009).
This virus has added to the law enforcements headaches in trying to persecute child pornography offenders. Law enforcement and the legal system, because of past experiences with true offenders, have trouble believing someone when they declare their innocence with giving the idea of a virus had infiltrated their computer. As Robertson (2009) stated in his article, when an offender gives this defense "it's an example of the old `dog ate my homework' excuse." The other hardship of prosecuting the virus scam is the cost of an expert forensic examiner to disprove any wrong doing. The cost to taxpayers in all cases dealing with investigating, as well as prosecuting internet child pornography probably would have been stopped if it weren't for children being the victims.
One thing to remember with pedophiles, they need to be able to revisit their victims even when they don't always have access to them (Quayle et. al. 346). Usually a pedophile will keep an article of clothing, or a lock of hair, but when the technology world improved, pedophiles became tech savvy and started to produce pictures and films. When the internet became accessible to everyone, not just universities and companies, pedophiles infiltrated the internet to gain more pictures to satiate their needs and desires. By being present on the internet, as mentioned earlier, pedophiles are capable of creating relationships that will give them more material, but it will also increase the demand for that person to produce new material as well.
In the United Kingdom, starting in 1996, children were seen as "tragic victims" when the start of pedophilia came to prominence. This prominence is believed to be the direct cause of the media's emphasis on rare cases where a stranger committed criminal sexual acts on children (Jewkes 95). The term "tragic victims," coined by Jewkes simply means "childhood innocence and vulnerability" (Jewkes 105). The perception of who is a pedophile is based on the media's coverage in what they report and what they want you to focus on. "Crimes involving young victims of older or adult offenders are therefore a primary vehicle for expressions of community 'togetherness,' ranging from vigilance to vigilantism, and from public sorrow to public vengeance" (Jewkes 105). Because of the media's focus on pedophilia and community togetherness, law enforcement, the legal system, and legislators are forced to crackdown on pedophiles and internet child pornography. The immediate response to meet with the demands of the general population's outcry was an adequate response.
The issue with the media "educating" the general population on crime in general is that they are misinformed as to who are the offenders. As stated above, the media will report what they want you to know. Many people fear strangers of hurting their children, what they don't realize is crimes by strangers are very rare, rarer than the crime being committed by someone you know. With child pornography on the internet, there have been many strides in finding offenders to have them face the court system. The downside is child pornography still being produced at a rapid rate. Law enforcement has trouble keeping up with the producers. If law enforcement could educate the public as to who may be an offender, then maybe they would be able to make greater strides on the crackdown. If the general public is told that nine times out of ten, they are victimized by someone they know; there would be a decline in trust, increase on spying and false reporting. This would cause more issues for law enforcement in trying to decipher which claim is valid.
The reason for the focus on looking at one's friends, family and neighbors is because a pedophile needs to have easy access to children in order to create more material, films, and new scenarios for their fantasies. If law enforcement did have the help, a dramatic decrease in child pornography on the internet would occur. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has operated a hotline and website that allow both parents and children report complaints with sexual assault, pursuit, and pornographic images. After the complaint is reviewed, it is then sent to the FBI's Innocent Images National Initiative (IINI), a section of their cyber crimes division, for further investigation (FBI 2007). In some cases, like the Fiola case, tips are made to the authorities by employers after images were found, or the unreasonable activities listed on the employee's expense account.
The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) is another example, like the NCMEC, who has an internet hotline to report inappropriate images and acts being committed online. With the ASACP, they not only distribute "red flag" complaints to the FBI, but also the NCMEC and European hotlines that exist (ASACP.org). These organizations have been a great help to law enforcement in trying to eliminate child pornography violators.
Referring back to the FBI's Innocent Images National Initiative (IINI) division, they have gone to great lengths in making their cause a global effort. The Innocent Images International Task Force started on October 6, 2006 with officers in over 23 countries all over the world. There is a total of 47 task force officers around the world who come to the United States often to learn and work with the FBI (fbi.gov 2007). "The task force allows for the real-time transfer of information from and to the FBI and between task-force members and their countries" (fbi.gov 2007).
With this effort, the chances of catching online child pornographers is greatly increased, but the major accomplishments are the lines of communication between countries are opened, and there is cooperation and understanding when it comes to obtaining an offender. This line of communication and understanding may very well be the beginning steps of a global governing body, as long as this task force continues to be successful and produce high numbers.
Recommendations
During the process of this research, some recommendations can be made to help improve law enforcement and the legal system with capturing and convicting child pornographers. My first recommendation is to create a global governing body for the internet. This governing body will set the laws for all situations when a child pornographer is caught soliciting, trading, posses or producing images that cross national lines. If these crimes are committed within a nation, then that nations governing body will handle the investigation, legislation, and prosecution. This brings me to my next recommendation of creating a universal definition of what is considered child pornography. For instance, in the United States, the age for sexual consent starts at the age of eighteen, but in the United Kingdom the age of consent starts at the age of sixteen. If there is no universal definition, a lot more offenders will slip through the system, therefore maintaining the onslaught of child pornography on the internet.
The third recommendation would be to appropriate more funding for experts during the judicial process. This recommendation will help in eliminating any wrongful convictions. It may be hard to convince anyone to give up more money but more money will be wasted with the appeals process that a person has after conviction, therefore reroute the estimated cost and apply it toward a forensic computer analyst.
The fourth recommendation requires the need to better define the law of possession and the intent of possessing child pornography by means of technology. This definition is crucial because of computers having backup systems to save and double save information, and files without the user knowing of such a system. Determine if a person who may look at the images, not knowing they are saved onto their computer system therefore they are not deleted, if that is still considered possession or mere computer illiteracy.
The fifth recommendation would be to continue with the FBI's task force but expanding to more countries. This also helps to ensure no offenders slip through or not even be seen by the system. With the increase load of areas to cover, the number of officers needs to be increased to more than just two officers per country. The task force should expand to at least, depending on the crime rate of child pornography per country, fifty officers to handle the load of information that comes in daily, and all the investigation that needs to be conducted.
Conclusion
Policing child pornography that is obtained from the internet has become a daunting task for law enforcement agencies. The intent on possessing sexually explicit images of children is one such task. Not only has law enforcement agencies have had trouble proving the intent, the courts have been bombarded with these cases and appeals. With too many definitions of possession being applied to different situations and crimes, we now know that this is an issue that needs to be fixed.
Bibliography
Akdeniz, Yaman. Internet Child Pornography and the Law:
National and International Responses.
Burlington: Ashgate, 2008.
Association of Sites Advocating
Child Protection. Web. 5 Nov. 2009. <http://www.asacp.org/>.
Balkin, Jack M., et al. Cybercrime Digital Cops in a
Networked Environment. New York: New York, 2007.
Casanova, Manuel F., et al. "The History of Child
Pornography on the Internet." Journal of Sex Education & Therapy 25.4 (2000): 245-251. Academic
Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 Nov.
2009.
Esposito, Lesli C. "Regulating the Internet: The new
battle against child pornography." Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 30.2/3
(1998): 541. International Security &
Counter Terrorism Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 1 Nov. 2009.
Howitt, Dennis, and Kerry Sheldon "The role of cognitive
distortions in paedophilic offending: Internet
and contact offenders compared." Psychology, Crime & Law 13.5
(2007): 469- 486. International
Security & Counter Terrorism Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 4 Nov. 2009.
The People of the State of Illinois vs. Richard Scolaro. Appeal from the circuit court of Cook County. May 2009. Print.
"Innocent Images National
Initiative." FBI.gov. Federal Bureau of Investigations, 11 Dec.
2007. Web. 5 Nov. 2009. <http://www.fbi.gov/publications/innocent.htm>.
Jewkes, Yvonne. Media and Crime: Key Approaches to
Criminology. London: Sage, 2006.
Middleton, David, et al. "An investigation into the
applicability of the Ward and Siegert Pathways
Model of child sexual abuse with Internet offenders." Psychology, Crime
& Law 12.6 (2006): 589-603. International
Security & Counter Terrorism Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov. 2009.
Nunziato, Dawn C. "Technology and Pornography." Brigham
Young University Law Review 2007.6
(2007): 1535-1584. International Security & Counter Terrorism Reference
Center. EBSCO. Web. 6 Nov.
2009.
Quayle, Ethel, and Max Taylor "Child Pornography and the
Internet: Perpetuating a Cycle of Abuse."
Deviant Behavior 23.4 (2002): 331-361. International Security &
Counter Terrorism Reference Center.
EBSCO. Web. 8 Nov. 2009.
Robertson, Jordan. "Internet Virus
Frames Users for Child Porn." Web log post. The Huffington Post. Nov. & dec. 2009. Web. Nov. 2009.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/internet- virus-frames-use_n_350426.html>.
Wells, Melissa, et al. "Defining Child Pornography: Law
Enforcement Dilemmas in Investigations of
Internet Child Pornography Possession." Police Practice & Research
8.3 (2007): 269- 282. International
Security & Counter Terrorism Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 8 Nov. 2009.
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Child Pornography and
the Internet: The Trials and Tribulations of Policing
A Research Proposal
Megan Osorio
English 202
Dr. Sherwood
Fall 2009
Abstract
With the
popularity of the internet and file sharing, more acts are becoming criminal,
in the efforts to keep up with the digital age. Social networking sites have
made it a lot easier for people to share information, and images - but sometimes;
these advancements are not innocently used. The debate as to whether or not
certain crimes occur via the internet is a too broad of a topic to touch base
on. The crime intended to be the focal point of this research is child
pornography. Do child pornography laws violate the first amendment rights? Does
the internet hinder or enable policing of child pornography laws? This paper
will begin with a description and history of child pornography before it gained
speed with the internet; then evolve into the issues that law enforcement is
facing when trying to police the internet and child pornography. We will
realize at the end of this research that policing child pornography has run
into some obstacles, a Supreme Court ruling stating the laws on child
pornography does not violate first amendment rights; but also look at the
advancements of law to protect us from the digital world.
Introduction
From the research that has been conducted,
this paper will reflect on the cheers and jeers of enforcing and applying child
pornography laws when dealing with internet offenders. As much as child
pornography is not a widely debated topic, there are numerous studies looking
at offenders, why they offend, and whether or not the internet has enabled
these pedophiles to hide from law enforcement.
In the most
recent years, a real crackdown on internet child pornography has increased and
heightened one's knowledge, and made aware of how many child predators are out
there in every kind of employment. The realization of the offenders being
everyday people, and not someone who looks like a Jeffrey Dahmer, has warranted
many people to be quick to judge a person a predator when some images may be
innocent. Such a case has happened recently with a couple who took pictures of
their two toddlers during bath time, went to get the film developed at a
Wal-mart but was turned in to police because of the images. From this
situation, could this happen with images on the internet?
By the
conclusion of this research, hopefully recommendations can be made, whether it
is to continue to progress with practices that have been effective, or to make
additional laws and/or methods of enforcement.
Fieldwork Statement
Child
pornography is not a widely spoken about, nor is it an issue in which a person
is willing to confess to, because of this, I would find it very hard to find an
offender who would be agree to an interview to help further my research.
Right now, I
am hoping to find a Criminology professor in my department who has done work
and research in the field of child pornography, knowledge of cybercrimes, and a
deep understanding of the laws applied. Just like the non-academic world, it
will be interesting to find a professor who has an extensive knowledge of
internet child pornography laws. It has been my experience from the many years
and many classes taken here at this university, this topic has never come up
for discussion.
Sample
questions for the interview will include: 1) Do you believe the internet has
created more criminals, 2) Do you believe internet child pornography is harder
to prosecute, 3) Are law enforcement agencies computer literate enough to be
able to catch these offenders, 4) Should there be more laws against internet
child pornography, 5) Would you have any recommendations to improve chances of
enforcing and prosecuting these laws, 6) What has law enforcement agencies
gotten right?
Source Review
For the
history section of my paper, I have one article that focuses on this topic alone.
A few of the other articles briefly touch base on the history of child
pornography in which I will incorporate into my research. With the overview of
child pornography's history, we will be able to see how the conversion into the
internet and digital age had occurred. There is a briefing as to how many
websites exist, how much of a following, and a write up of whom is typically a
victim.
The three
articles involved in the law section give two different perspectives. The first
article by Esposito, gives us a view of the current laws in placed for internet
child pornography, what is needed to improve the laws, how to keep up with the
ever evolving technology age, and the downfalls of policing. The second
article, by Nunziato, looks at the current child pornography laws and their
impact on decreasing the crimes. The third article by Wells, discusses the
trials and tribulations of policing internet child pornography, what has to
transpire in order to constitute it to be a crime.
Howitt and
Sheldon touch on as to who typically is the offender in child pornography
crimes. These offenders are broken down into internet and contact offenders. Though
it seems as if they are only talking about pedophilia, child pornography is
considered a form of pedophilia. With this article, and hopefully with more
articles for the final paper, I will be able to debate as to whether or not
child pornography voyeurism is a form of pedophilia.
The academic
portions of this research presently take a look at two articles, with hopes to
expand further. The first article by Middleton and others takes a look at a specific
model of research to see why an offender commits a crime, but what trait in
this person's life was the causation to do such crimes. The research done in
this article takes a look at the Ward and Siegert Pathways Model of sexual
offending, but applied it to internet offenders. The second academic article by
Quayle and Taylor is a case study of multiple men who were convicted of
downloading child pornography. Within this research, the authors looked at the
transcripts of their interviews to determine the psychological affect these
offenders have when they view such photographs. This article will help aid as
determining what actions or at what point a crime is committed.
Working Bibliography
History:
Casanova, Manuel F., et al. "The History of Child
Pornography on the Internet." Journal of Sex Education & Therapy
25.4 (2000): 245-251. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 Nov. 2009.
Law:
Esposito, Lesli C. "Regulating the Internet: The new
battle against child pornography." Case Western Reserve Journal of
International Law 30.2/3 (1998): 541. International Security & Counter
Terrorism Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 1 Nov. 2009.
Nunziato, Dawn C. "Technology and Pornography." Brigham
Young University Law Review 2007.6 (2007): 1535-1584. International
Security & Counter Terrorism Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 6 Nov. 2009.
Wells, Melissa, et al. "Defining Child Pornography: Law
Enforcement Dilemmas in Investigations of Internet Child Pornography
Possession." Police Practice & Research 8.3 (2007): 269-282. International
Security & Counter Terrorism Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 8 Nov. 2009.
Who Offends:
Howitt, Dennis, and Kerry Sheldon "The role of cognitive
distortions in paedophilic offending: Internet and contact offenders
compared." Psychology, Crime & Law 13.5 (2007): 469-486. International
Security & Counter Terrorism Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 4 Nov. 2009.
Academic:
Middleton, David, et al. "An investigation into the
applicability of the Ward and Siegert Pathways Model of child sexual abuse with
Internet offenders." Psychology, Crime & Law 12.6 (2006):
589-603. International Security & Counter Terrorism Reference Center.
EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov. 2009.
Quayle, Ethel, and Max Taylor "Child Pornography and the
Internet: Perpetuating a Cycle of Abuse." Deviant Behavior 23.4
(2002): 331-361. International Security & Counter Terrorism Reference
Center. EBSCO. Web. 8 Nov. 2009.
Psychological Effects of Virtual
Crime vs. Real Life Crime
This is a brief look at the world of
crime in the context of whether or not crime can occur on a person to person
basis or through a computer by looking at the psychological effects. The question
asked is: Do crimes committed in "virtual reality" have the same or
less psychological intrusiveness compared to "real life" crimes?
There are many definitions as to
what "virtual crimes" are, and in most cases they will point you
toward "in-game" crime with the only description of crimes committed
via a computer. We could say virtual crimes have all the aspects of real life
crimes without the personal interaction/altercation. There is a great debate as
to whether or not this is true. Does virtual crime meet the same criteria as
real life crimes?
What is the criterion of an act to
make it a crime? First of all, a crime is when an act is deemed unlawful and
against commonly shared social norms, set up by a governing body who
keep the community safe. These crimes can be physically, mentally, and
emotionally taxing on the victim or victims. Crimes can also directly or
indirectly occur against a person, place, animal or property.
There are only two pieces of
criteria we can rule out for virtual crime; crimes against animals and physical
crimes - although, we associate virtual crimes with the physical repercussions.
These crimes we associate with the physical, tangible harm are fraud and
identity theft - only because we see our credit score plummet, or we see our
bank accounts being depleted, and we start to receive calls from debt
collectors. The crimes we definitely know occur and are prosecuted in the
virtual world are fraud, identity theft, and child pornography.
Since the creations of Myspace and
Facebook along with a plethora of cyber cities cropping up everywhere, we start
to have "new" crimes being committed and new questions arise. With
the recent current events, such as the Megan Meier case, we wonder if a person
who deceptively entices or draws a person into a "relationship" that
only occurs online, does that person become an offender when comments they send
to their prey become hurtful enough to push the prey to cause harm against
themselves?
Megan Meier was 13 year old girl who
committed suicide after an ex-friend's parents started a Myspace account under
a fictitious name and identity of a 16 year old boy by the name of Josh Evans.
Later on in their correspondence, they ambushed Megan Meier with nasty words,
such as the last correspondence being, "You're a shitty person, and the world
would be a better place without you in it" (Collins 10), to set the teenager off into a very fast
downward spiral that resulted in her death. Tina Meier was quoted as saying, "I
know that they did not physically come up to our house and tie a belt around her
neck, but when adults are involved and continue to screw with a
thirteen-year-old--with or without mental problems--it is absolutely vile"
(Collins 3).
The parents who created Josh Evans
were never prosecuted in the death of Megan Meier. The author of Friend Game, Lauren Collins stated the
district attorney's reasoning for not prosecuting the parents "are conclusively
guilty of little except egregious judgment that set off a chain of horrible
events, and deep insensitivity in their aftermath" (Collins 13).
With this one case, we can see words
are just as powerful as actions, especially when it is an assault against our
self-esteem. But not all who are violated are going to be children. There have
been numerous cases where adults who participate in some virtual cities to live
out fantasies, have been victimized.
The cases of adults who have been
victimized has brought up the question of, can virtual rape occur? In each
instance, critics have come to the question of, how can it be rape if you are
not physically affected like those who experienced a non-virtual rape?
A virtual rape is by definition
sudden, explicit and often devastating. If you've never immersed yourself in online life, you might not
realize the emotional availability it takes to
be a regular member of an internet community. The psychological aspects of
relating are magnified because
the physical aspects are (mostly) removed (Lynn 2).
This one statement, by Lynn, alone
should be on everyone's mind when they hear about virtual crimes and believe
them to be impossible. Each person should put themselves in the position of
such vulnerability - no one is immune to such victimization when it comes to our psychological state.