DOJ Report Shows prosecutions for “online sexual exploitation” doubled in less than 10 years
Sex Offender News
A recent report from the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics shows a 91 percent increase in the number of people prosecuted for “commercial sexual exploitation of children” (CSEC). A statistic that should be shocking if you assume that “sexual exploitation” constitutes trafficking of children for a sexual purpose or producing child pornography. However, the report shows that most were charged with consuming child pornography, including images of cartoon obscenity.
In fact, 80% of defendants were charged with “possession, receipt, or distribution” of child pornography. An InJustice Today article points out that the phrase “possession, receipt, or distribution” is misleading because it lumps together very different conduct that can range from benign to heinous.
When further broken down, 73% of federal child porn “distribution” cases involve little more than a defendant using a peer-to-peer network to download child pornography. The remaining roughly 27% of distribution cases typically involve defendants swapping illicit images directly with one another, though without any money changing hands. Hardly “commercial sexual exploitation of children”! It is so misleading, the article points out, that ” in 2010, exactly zero of the distribution cases pressed at the federal level involved commercial distribution”.
The USDOJ claiming a 91% increase in commercial sexual exploitation of a minor is a very dangerously misleading claim.
Some other interesting statistics came out of the report, which are worthy of mention:
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24% of CSEC matters were declined by U.S. attorneys due to weak or inadmissible evidence. Indicating that the law enforcement agencies are taking action against people with very weak or little evidence.
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92.5% of defendants prosecuted in federal court for possession, receipt, or distribution of child pornography pled guilty. Indicating this is fast and easy work for enforcement and prosecutors and they may be favoring these “shooting fish in a barrel” cases than investigating and prosecuting more demanding ones.
- 79% of those convicted had no prior felony convictions! This indicates that it’s not repeat offenders and it’s not even people who have criminal tendencies. Sex Offender Registries would have done nothing to prevent these crimes as most of those convicted were not on any registry or had criminal histories.
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98% of defendants convicted were sentenced to prison, with the mean prison sentence imposed being 11.6 years. We are taking first-time, non-violent offenders who, in the overwhelming majority of cases, looked at illegal images online, and sending them to prison for over a decade!
@MJ, I’m guessing your conviction stems from a sting op? I don’t know about Georgia law but here in Florida the charge of Traveling, soliciting, use of a 3 way communication device do not fall under the category of mandatory sex offender probation. You CAN be sentenced to some of those restrictions if they are orally pronounced by the judge at your sentencing hearing. But again, in Florida, unless specified as part of your probation these charges don’t have internet restrictions.
Btw, those convicted of the charges mentioned should NOT have all of the conditions of the s.o. probation. See Jared Snow v. State of Florida.
Also of note to the author of this post. On the federal level 97 point 5 of all guilty verdicts are the direct result of accepting plea. On a state level it is 95 percent. See Missouri v Frye; Lafler v Cooper. Both of these cases are Supreme Court decisions from 2012 or 13. Crazy right? This isn’t a system of trials , its a system of pleas.
This is a very upsetting thing. The more we know the worse it gets. How does a person fight this and win in a system that has people tied to a chain? So if you have supervision for 10-20 years, you have to go to their mandated treatment for that time plus polygraphs etc.? What about having your own personal therapy or group therapy, does that carry any weight?
No. They only recognize “state approved therapy.” How convenient. I went VOLUNTARILY to a Christian counseling center while I was on bond. It was in Atlanta. I went for a year. None of that mattered or was recognized. Only got 6 months taken off my prison sentence and 1 year taken off my probation. And I still had to go to counseling once I got out. The counseling I went to on bond, was ten times better than that one I’m going to now. It’s all an industry Donna. It’s pretty obvious. And disgusting.
One last post, here is a piece of the grant requirements given to each state task force to carry out these bogus sting operations. As you can see, each state task force gets 1/2 of a percent of the total money (60 million) given to each state, which would be 3 million in this case. So basically, Florida gets 3 million dollars to carry out these stings every year. And if you look at Section B IV, it says that part of the formula to get this money is based on the number of successful prosecutions of child exploitation carried out by a task force. Isn’t this disgusting?? Where is the outrage over this?? The states and county sheriffs offices are selling out their citizens for federal grant money all to justify their jobs to the public. Knowledge is power. Man, I wish someone would take this information and run with it and do a documentary to expose all of this!!
(1) In general
The Attorney General is authorized to award grants to State and local ICAC task forces to assist in carrying out the duties and functions described under section 21114 of this title.
(2) Formula grants
(A) Development of formula
At least 75 percent of the total funds appropriated to carry out this section shall be available to award or otherwise distribute grants pursuant to a funding formula established by the Attorney General in accordance with the requirements in subparagraph (B).
(B) Formula requirementsAny formula established by the Attorney General under subparagraph (A) shall—
(i) ensure that each State or local ICAC task force shall, at a minimum, receive an amount equal to 0.5 percent of the funds available to award or otherwise distribute grants under subparagraph (A); and
(ii) take into consideration the following factors:
(I) The population of each State, as determined by the most recent decennial census performed by the Bureau of the Census.
(II) The number of investigative leads within the applicant’s jurisdiction generated by Operation Fairplay, the ICAC Data Network, the CyberTipline, and other sources.
(III) The number of criminal cases related to Internet crimes against children referred to a task force for Federal, State, or local prosecution.
(IV) The number of successful prosecutions of child exploitation cases by a task force.
(V) The amount of training, technical assistance, and public education or outreach by a task force related to the prevention, investigation, or prosecution of child exploitation offenses.
(VI) Such other criteria as the Attorney General determines demonstrate the level of need for additional resources by a task force.
Let me get this straight.The feds take our taxes to pay states to have a sor . The more offenders they can put on a list and act like there doing investigative work the more money the state can get.So in order for the state to get more and more money they must keep adding more names to there lists and not let any names be removed. That explains why they must use trumped up charges plus keep creating more and more laws So that they can keep getting more and more money.
Sounds to me like the main problem is the feds and unless something can be done on a federal level nothing will be accomplished
To go along with my other post. Look at Item #4. This is under the subsection of the “Purpose of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force” that each state has to create in order to get this grant money. #4 says the ICAC task force has to INCREASE THE NUMBER OF CRIMES BEING INVESTIGATED…. stop right there. How do you INCREASE the number of crimes being investigated in any given category?? Just think about that for a moment. The standard sting operation is exactly how you do that. Florida has 2 task forces, one of them is the North Florida ICAC task force. They get approximately 1.5 million dollars a year to run these stings. That was just the numbers from 2015.
(1) increasing the investigative capabilities of State and local law enforcement officers in the detection, investigation, and apprehension of Internet crimes against children offenses or offenders, including technology-facilitated child exploitation offenses;
(2) conducting proactive and reactive Internet crimes against children investigations;
(3) providing training and technical assistance to ICAC task forces and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies in the areas of investigations, forensics, prosecution, community outreach, and capacity-building, using recognized experts to assist in the development and delivery of training programs;
(4) increasing the number of Internet crimes against children offenses being investigated and prosecuted in both Federal and State courts;
(5) creating a multiagency task force response to Internet crimes against children offenses within each State;
(6) participating in the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative, the purpose of which is to combat technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children;
Yes, I feel your pain, the Ft. Lauderdale Sex Offender treatment program I had to attend was the worst, Dr. Butts. They lie, cheat and manipulate you into admitting to things you never did or even thought of. The PO and the government are in bed with these scammer’s! They should be shut down for illegal practice!