The tragic story of a 19 year old Miami man who committed suicide while others watched via Internet web cameras was not an isolated incident. A nearly identical situation occurred in Phoenix, Arizona several years ago.
Occasionally the police receive information that someone in cyberspace is threatening suicide. Often the information is provided anonymously and with no follow-up information other than the screen name or email address of the suicidal person. Fortunately, while many people on the Internet contemplate suicide as a cry for help, only a few actually complete the sad act.
Law enforcement is unable to investigate all of the many cyberspace suicide threats. Police are hampered not only by the shortage of investigators but also by the lack of a law that gives them jurisdiction. Some states laws require that a criminal act must be under investigation before a subpoena can be issued to trace through the Internet service provider to the computer connected to the Internet. Suicide is not a crime in many places and many people believe that suicide by an adult is a personal choice that should not be legislated. In the case of adults it is difficult for law enforcement officers to prevent a determined person from suicide. Many suicidal persons are convinced by authorities to voluntarily surrender themselves to mental health counseling for treatment.
The situation is different when the person threatening suicide is a minor. Because of immaturity a minor is legally incapable of making an informed decision to end his or her life. For minors, law enforcement has a legitimate interest in preventing the suicide but still sometimes lacks the legal ability to investigate.
Suicide-prevention cyberspace emergency law is needed
In threatened cyber-assisted suicide cases investigators are caught between the mandate to preserve human life and the lack of legislation allowing them to effectively investigate. I recommend the creation of a law that would help the police locate and assist suicidal minors by mandating cooperation from Internet service providers.
Here is some draft language for legislators to consider:
If, while using electronic communications a person identifying himself as a minor threatens suicide, law enforcement may request subscriber information about the person from electronic communications service providers (also known as Internet service providers). The electronic communications service providers will provide subscriber information about the person threatening suicide when law enforcement states that there is reasonable suspicion to believe that the suicidal person is a minor. Internet service providers and electronics communications providers doing business in (name your jurisdiction) are required to comply.
Although the law probably would not have helped in the Miami nor Phoenix cases it may help law enforcement officers in the future when they are confronted with calls from citizens informing them of minors threatening suicide on the Internet.
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Kin outraged, distraught over teen’s cyber suicide
By Rasha Madkour, Associated Press, 11/2/09
Miami, Florida – The family of a college student who killed himself live on the Internet say they’re horrified his life ended before a virtual audience, and infuriated that viewers of the live webcam or operators of the Web site that hosted it didn’t act sooner to save him.
Only after police arrived to find Abraham Biggs dead in his father’s bed did the Web feed stop Wednesday — 12 hours after the 19-year-old Broward College student first declared on a Web site that he hated himself and planned to die.
“It didn’t have to be,” said the victim’s sister, Rosalind Bigg. “They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours.” Biggs announced his plans to kill himself over a Web site for bodybuilders, authorities said. He posted a link from there to Justin.tv, a site that allows users to broadcast live videos from their webcams.
A computer user who claimed to have watched said that after swallowing some pills, Biggs went to sleep and appeared to be breathing for a few hours while others cracked jokes.
Some members of his virtual audience encouraged him to do it, others tried to talk him out of it, and some discussed whether he was taking a dose big enough to kill himself, said Wendy Crane, an investigator with the Broward County medical examiner’s office.
Some users told investigators they did not take him seriously because he had threatened suicide on the site before. Eventually, someone notified the moderator of the bodybuilding site, who traced Biggs’ location and called police, Crane said. The drama unfolded live on Justin.tv, which allows viewers to post comments alongside the video images.
As police entered the room, the audience’s reaction was filled with Internet shorthand: “OMFG,” one wrote, meaning “Oh, my God.” Others, either not knowing what they were seeing, or not caring, wrote “lol,” which means “laughing out loud,” and “hahahah.”
His father, Abraham Biggs Sr., told The Miami Herald he didn’t want to watch the video. “We were very good friends,” he said. “It’s wrong that it was allowed to happen.”
An autopsy concluded Biggs died from a combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, which his family said was prescribed for his bipolar disorder.
“Abe, i still wish this was all a joke,” a friend wrote on the teenager’s MySpace page, which he described himself as a goodhearted guy who would always be available for his pals, no matter what time of day.
In a statement, Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said: “We regret that this has occurred and want to respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time.”
It is unclear how many people watched it happen. The Web site would not say how many people were watching the broadcast. The site as a whole had 672,000 unique visitors in October, according to Nielsen.
Biggs was not the first person to commit suicide with a webcam rolling. But the drawn-out drama — and the reaction of those watching — was seen as an extreme example of young people’s penchant for sharing intimate details about themselves over the Internet.
Montana Miller, an assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, said Biggs’ very public suicide was not shocking, given the way teenagers chronicle every facet of their lives on sites like Facebook and MySpace.
“If it’s not recorded or documented then it doesn’t even seem worthwhile,” she said. “For today’s generation it might seem, `What’s the point of doing it if everyone isn’t going to see it?’”
She likened Biggs’ death to other public ways of committing suicide, like jumping off a bridge. Crane said she knows of a case in which a Florida man shot himself in the head in front of an online audience, though she didn’t know how much viewers saw.
In Britain last year, a man hanged himself while chatting online.
Miami lawyer William Hill said there is probably nothing that could be done legally to those who watched and did not act. As for whether the Web site could be held liable, Hill said there doesn’t seem to be much of a case for negligence.
“There could conceivably be some liability if they knew this was happening and they had some ability to intervene and didn’t take action,” said Hill, who does business litigation and has represented a number of Internet-based clients. But “I think it would be a stretch.”
Condolences poured into Biggs’ MySpace page, where the mostly unsmiling teen is seen posing in a series of pictures with various young women. On the bodybuilding Web site, Biggs used the screen name CandyJunkie. His Justin.tv alias was “feels_like_ecstacy.”
Bigg described her brother as an outgoing person who struck up conversations with Starbucks baristas and enjoyed taking his young nieces to Chuck E. Cheese. He was health-conscious and exercised but was not a bodybuilder, she said.
“This is very, very sudden and unexpected for us,” the sister said. “It boggles the mind. We don’t understand.”
Associated Press Writers Jessica Gresko and Lisa Orkin Emmanuel and the AP News Research Center in New York contributed to this report.
Retrieved November 22, 2008 from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081122/ap_on_re_us/webcam_suicide
Dr. Frank Kardasz, November 5, 2008, updated January 16, 2009
Modern cell phones often come equipped with cameras that can be used to capture images. Young people use their cell phone cameras to snap pictures of friends, families and special occasions. Images taken with cell phone cameras can be easily shared between users who can quickly send images to one another or to wider groups of friends.
Unfortunately, cameras are also sometimes used to snap images of nudism or sexual exploitation. Often the images are part of the “sexting” process. Sexting is the act of sending sexual text or sexual images from one electronic device to another for the purpose of grooming another person towards a sex act. Sexual predators often groom intended victims by sexting.
An increasing number of complaints are being received by law enforcement involving improper or illegal images taken and trafficked via cell phone. What can be done?
Parents, please monitor your child’s use of a cell phone camera.
Young people, please think about the consequences of taking and sharing pictures taken with a cell phone camera.
Remember that once an image is released to others or into cyberspace, it is irretrievable. Pictures can be shared and duplicated across cyberspace and the image might not ever be erased.
Please think before you snap-a-pic.
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The following story by Mike Brunker describes an incident in Pennsylvania.
‘Sexting’ surprise: Teens face child porn charges
6 Pa. high school students busted after sharing nude photos via cell phones
By Mike Brunker, msnbc.com, 01/15/09
In an unusual case arising from the popular practice known as “sexting,” six Pennsylvania high school students are facing child pornography charges after three teenage girls allegedly took nude or semi-nude photos of themselves and shared them with male classmates via their cell phones.
The female students at Greensburg Salem High School in Greensburg, Pa., all 14- or 15-years-old, face charges of manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography while the boys, who are 16 and 17, face charges of possession, according to WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh, which published the story on its Web site on Tuesday.
Police told the station that the photos were discovered in October, after school officials seized a cell phone from a male student who was using it in violation of school rules and found a nude photo of a classmate on it. Police were called in and their investigation led them to other phones containing more photos, it said.
Police Capt. George Seranko was quoted as saying that the first photograph was “a self portrait taken of a juvenile female taking pictures of her body, nude.”
The school district issued a statement Tuesday saying that the investigation turned up “no evidence of inappropriate activity on school grounds … other than the violation of the electronic devices policy.” The statement also said that school officials didn’t learn of the charges against the students until Monday.
In the WPXI story, which included contributions from the Associated Press, Saranko indicated that authorities decided to file the child pornography charges to send a strong message to other minors who might consider sending such photos to friends.
“It’s very dangerous,” he said. “Once it’s on a cell phone, that cell phone can be put on the Internet where everyone in the world can get access to that juvenile picture. You don’t realize what you are doing until it’s already done.” (Seranko could not be reached for comment on Thursday, and a woman who answered the phone at the Greensburg Police Department said, “Our department is not doing any more interviews on the case.”)
But Patrick Artur, a Philadelphia defense attorney who by his reckoning has handled at least 80 child pornography cases, said the prosecution of minors for photos they took themselves runs counter to the purpose of both state and federal child pornography laws: Preventing the sexual abuse of children by “dirty old men in raincoats.”
“It’s clearly overkill,” he said. “… The letter of the law seems to have been violated, but this is not the type of defendant that the legislature envisioned” in passing the statute. Artur said that because there is no mandatory minimum sentence under Pennsylvania’s child pornography law, unlike the federal statute, the students would not necessarily be incarcerated if they are found guilty. But he noted that convictions would have “serious, serious implications,” including forcing them having to register as sexual offenders for at least 10 years. While Artur said the prosecution of a juvenile for allegedly creating and distributing child porn was new to him, a quick review of federal and state statistics showed there have been a handful of similar cases, and several convictions.
While few minors have found themselves in court for e-mailing or posting sexy photos of themselves, there is little doubt that ubiquitous cell phones and easy access to computers have tempted many to push the erotic envelope.
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reported last month that a survey of 1,280 teens and young adults found that 20 percent of the teens said they had sent or posted nude or semi nude photos or videos of themselves. That number was slightly higher for teenage girls — 22 percent — vs. boys — 18 percent.
Retrieved January 16, 2009 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28679588/from/ET/
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The following story by Laura Legre also discusses the situation nationwide.
Students trading nude photos not isolated incident
By Laura Legere. The Times-Tribune.com. 11/12/08
Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania area students caught trading sexually explicit pictures of classmates are part of a growing trend. But unlike many teenage fads, what may have seemed like a harmless act could leave them facing life-altering legal consequences.
Incidents of similar trading of nude images by high school students — either by cell phone, e-mail or social networking Web sites — have been reported in at least 12 other states, including New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Utah and Georgia.
John Shehan, director of the exploited children division of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said this year alone his organization has received more than 100 reports of child exploitation involving a cell phone. That number includes cases of exploitation by both adults and minors.
In Tunkhannock, police confiscated five cell phones from students between the ages of 11 and 17. One of the phones contained about 100 pictures, according to Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick Jr. He said “some of the girls” in the pictures were also taking the photos, which likely showed females between the ages of 14 and 16.
The punishment for teens taking, sending or receiving such photos can often be very adult. In Texas in October, a 13-year-old boy was arrested on child pornography charges after he received a nude picture of an eighth-grade student on his cell phone.
In Utah, a 16-year-old boy was charged with a felony for sending nude photos of himself over a cell phone to female classmates.
In May, a Wisconsin teen who posted nude pictures of a 16-year-old girl on his MySpace page was charged with possession of child pornography, sexual exploitation of a child and defamation.
Pennsylvania students who trade nude images could be charged with sexual abuse of children, unlawful contact with a minor, or criminal use of a communication facility, all of which are felonies punishable by up to seven years in jail.
That point was made repeatedly to the ninth- and 10th-graders gathered in the Abington Heights High School gym Wednesday to hear about the dangers of such behavior. Although there have not been any reported incidents of students trading nude photos in the district, assistant superintendent Thomas Quinn, Ph.D. said, “It certainly would be naive to think it couldn’t happen here.”
Lackawanna County Deputy District Attorney Frank Castellano told the teens that taking, possessing or distributing pictures of people under the age of 18 constitutes child pornography in Pennsylvania, whether or not the person taking the photos or sharing them is a minor. “Please don’t think that you are immune from this type of prosecution or this type of arrest simply because of your age,” he said. “It makes no difference.”
Assistant District Attorney Robert Klein said students who receive nude images should immediately delete them. He emphasized images conveyed by cell phone often end up on the Internet and are spread widely. The legal and social ramifications of such an act can limit a person’s ability to get into college, join the military or get a job for the rest of his or her life, he said.
High School Assistant Principal Michael Beamish put the possible repercussions in even more personal terms, referring to the “tarnish” a pornography charge would have “on your family name.” “Everybody, take a minute and think about what your grandparents would feel if you were in court being prosecuted as a sex offender,” he said.
Nils Frederiksen, spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office said law enforcement and prosecutors determine the charges to file when teens trade nude photos based on the individual circumstances of each case. But, he cautioned, “If you are sending sexually explicit material to someone under the age of 18, you are facing a potential felony charge.”
Mr. Shehan, of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said prosecutors’ dilemma whether to “prosecute or try and educate or seek counseling” is very difficult, and will become more prevalent as the issue continues to spread. “A lot of damage is done when an image like that is taken and shared and essentially becomes available to the world,” he said. “Teenagers have a different mentality than adults do. A momentary lapse of judgment can have a lifetime of repercussions.”
But Daniel Macallair, executive director of the California-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, a nonprofit that advocates alternatives to juvenile incarceration, said the focus on the strictest criminal punishments is not the best way to address the issue. “Labeling some teenager who does something stupid as a lifetime sex offender solves no problems,” he said. “It will create more problems than it will solve.” He encouraged a community-wide response to the incident that involves parents and schools, but not the criminal justice system. “Are you trying to push someone to the margins of society for the rest of their life, is that the goal here?” he said. “And have we really thought this through?”
The information below pertains to an incident from the state of Washington concerning liability for failure to investigate a report of unlawful images.
Background
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) sends cybertips to the 59 nationwide ICAC Task Forces on a daily basis. Cases are also sent to the FBI, ICE, or US Postal Service depending on the perceived original jurisdiction of the case. The sad case described below was the result of tips sent to the Seattle, Washington ICAC Task Force in 2003.
Seattle Washington ICAC
In 2003, the Seattle, Washington ICAC Task Force received a NCMEC cybertip accompanied by two unidentified images of a boy being abused. The initial report indicated that the possessor of the images used the screen name, “fosterdad”. The source of the images was determined to be a computer in Tacoma, Washington.
The case was first received and documented by the Seattle ICAC and then sent to their Tacoma affiliate for investigation. Seattle is the statewide recipient and clearinghouse for incoming NCMEC cybertips and has a computer virtual private network connection with NCMEC for the purpose of receiving incoming complaints.
In this case, Seattle preserved their case assignment log indicating that they sent the investigation to Tacoma. Washington state law requires that cases of child abuse must be reported to the Washington Child Protective Services agency. The NCMEC Cybertip in this case was not reported to the Washington CPS.
A conscientious and dedicated NCMEC analyst was alarmed by the images and contacted Tacoma PD to follow-up on the first report. The analyst was advised by a Tacoma detective that the images were not prosecutable. It was later leaned that the detective may have been less than truthful in this statement.
Then, a few months later, in a second cybertip, additional images from the same offender were reported to NCMEC. The second cybertip report was more thoroughly investigated by the Tacoma detective and in March, 2004 the offender, Ronald Young, a state-certified foster-parent, was arrested. It was discovered that he had molested several of his foster children over a long period of time and had photographed them and shared the images via the Internet. The same Tacoma detective who handled the original investigation also handled the subsequent arrest. He was initially lauded as a hero for his work on the case and later vilified after the initial delays were uncovered.
Washington Lawsuit
In 2006, a victim’s rights attorney filed suit on behalf of the foster children against Tacoma PD, Seattle PD, and Washington Child Protective Services. The suit alleged in part, that there was deliberate indifference in failing to investigate the original cybertip. CPS was sued for failing to investigate the background of foster-parent Young.
Washington Damages
Recognizing their difficult positions, Tacoma PD and the State of Washington CPS quickly settled with the plaintiffs. Although the Seattle ICAC had documented the fact that they sent the case to Tacoma – Seattle also paid. City of Seattle attorneys recognized that if they did not settle they would be the only defendant left in front of a jury that would likely be looking for someone to blame.
Total payout was reported as 10.5 million. The City of Seattle / Washington ICAC Task Force paid 1.9 million of the total. The Seattle ICAC Task Force now has the policy of notifying CPS on all of their investigations and an improved policy for following up on the cases they receive.
Key Points
The Washington situation is a tragic reminder to those investigative agencies who dismiss child pornography investigations as trivial that there are true victims behind the images, and that those victims may have lawyers. Child pornography is not just one picture of a baby in a bathtub that was created overseas and circulates the Internet among a few pedophiles who do not live in your city. It is a big problem, it cannot be ignored, and improved law enforcement efforts are needed.
Due to the high workloads and limited resources available for Internet crimes against children throughout the United States it is possible that a case similar to the one in Washington will occur, or has already occurred in other jurisdictions.
Recommendation
Law enforcement agencies must recognize that unlawful images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors are serious crimes worthy of significant investigative efforts and the devotion of increased resources.
Selected News Reports from the Washington Case
The following reports from various news sources begin with a story that describes the fine work of the Tacoma, Washington ICAC investigators.
Detectives Add High-Tech Tools to Law Enforcement Arsenal
05/07/04. By Jeffrey M. Barker. Seattle Post-Intelligence Reporter
Tacoma – In a Police Department office here lighted largely by computer-screen glow, two detectives chase technology. They’re helping law enforcement catch up with the gadgets that now pervade our daily lives: the Internet, digital cameras, computer chips that are found in everything from cell phones to a car’s engine. Just a few years ago, police ignored or fumbled with those things. In many places, they still do.
But they are the pieces of evidence detectives now need to convict criminals. Take, for an example, Ronald Harold Young, the Key Peninsula foster father charged in March with 44 counts of child rape, molestation and exploitation. He was found at the end of a cybertrail that included anonymous Internet bulletin boards, search warrants of Internet service providers and seizure of hard drives and cameras. It was a trail blazed by Detectives Richard Voce, 46, of the Tacoma Police Department and Greg Dawson, 45, of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. The two make up the county’s computer crimes unit.
“I don’t have a computer science degree,” said Dawson, a former Army aviator who bought his first computer – a Commodore 64 – in 1982. “I just wanted to play games — flight simulators and things like that.” Computers crowd his office. Connecting cables hang from walls. A child-pornography case brought Dawson to computer detective work. The case involved a man who took his hard drive filled with illegal pictures to a computer store for maintenance.
Same story for Voce. “I did a couple cases that just pushed me in this direction,” he said, sitting in his dark office, hunting and pecking on his keyboard. Hanging on the wall behind him, a fake street sign reads “Pervert Parking Only.” “He’s what we call a natural,” Dawson said of Voce.
Voce said that before 1999, he didn’t know much more about computers than the average person who has one at home. Now, he teaches a three-hour class on computer crime at the local police academy. The class covers the rise of identity theft, fraud cases, proper seizure of a computer – all stuff that had never been discussed before during basic police training.
In most police departments across the country, the trail would have gone dead long before reaching Young, said Frank Clark, a former detective who works with the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office and started the computer crimes unit here. He also founded Computer Technology Investigators Northwest, a cooperative that helps train detectives and puts them together with private-sector computer experts.
When Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg — then the county’s prosecutor — hired Clark away from a pioneering computer crime unit in Fresno, Calif., computer evidence here wasn’t being properly investigated. “They (Pierce County detectives) were seizing a number of computers,” Clark said. “They just didn’t know what to do with them.”
He said most departments simply don’t have officers trained in computer forensics. And because of that, fraud and child pornography – the bulk of what Voce and Dawson deal with – are going unaddressed. The Seattle Police Department does not staff any full-time computer detectives.
The only full-time computer forensics lab in this state, other than Pierce County’s, is run by the Washington State Patrol. Clark said departments should have at least one computer detective for every 200,000 residents. “If you gave me five people tomorrow, I could keep them busy, and more,” Dawson said, adding that once detectives are trained to look for computer crimes, they find more and more.
On the flip side, just because many cities are not looking for the crimes, and therefore not prosecuting them, it doesn’t mean they don’t have a high-tech crime problem. “If I don’t have a drug unit, I don’t have a drug problem in my town. The same can be said of high-tech,” Dawson said. Clark agreed, saying Pierce County doesn’t have more fraud and illegal pornography cases than other region — “we just work ‘em.”
The Pierce County/Tacoma lab gets about 40 tips annually like the one that led to Ronald Young, the detectives say.
And Dawson and Voce said there are more people out there who are able to commit crimes from the mostly anonymous comfort of their homes, rather than having to seek out child pornography in dark alleys and through regular mail. “The Internet is a wonderful, wonderful tool,” Dawson said. “But it’s got a dark side — it’s a delivery system that wasn’t there just a few years ago.”
Detectives investigate bomb threats, which often are made through e-mail; improper use of private companies’ computers; check fraud; and identity thefts. Dawson and Voce also help other detectives on more traditional cases. In a homicide, for example, a death threat or other evidence might be found on a computer.
That’s the kind of slip-up that might not be found in the course of non-computer police work. “But you can afford to be stupid right now,” Dawson said, “if there are no cops out there to catch you.”
Reporter Jeffrey M. Barker can be reached at 206-870-7852 or jeffreybarker@seattlepi.com
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/172341_vprofile07.html
Online Postings Describe Struggle with Sexual Urges
03/31/04. Mike Carter, Michael Ko and Jonathan Martin. Seattle Times staff reporters.
Police say a Pierce County foster dad charged with molesting and photographing young boys in his care posted messages in an Internet newsgroup catering to Christian pedophiles, saying he struggled “minute by minute” with his urges and describing himself as a “boylover that has devoted my life to boys and introducing the love of Christ to them.”
Tacoma Police Detective Richard Voce yesterday confirmed that 41-year-old Ronald Harold Young used the Internet identity “Homeanon” to write of his battle with his sexual urges for children, and counseled other struggling pedophiles in a “Christian” forum on religion and their pedophilia.
Young also used that identity to post dozens of pornographic photographs in another pedophile-oriented newsgroup, police said. Many of the pictures were of his foster children, and some were so graphic that they offended others in the group. Young, a licensed foster parent, was arrested last week at his house in Home, on the Key Peninsula, and has been charged with 30 counts of first-degree child rape, eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and six counts of first-degree child molestation. Voce said detectives believe the pseudonym Homeanon refers to Young’s residence in Home, as well as his desire to remain anonymous.
According to some members of his family, Young became “super-religious” in recent years, right around the time he applied for and received a foster-parent license from the Department of Social and Health Services.
On Dec. 1, 2003, Homeanon joined a debate in a “Christian” pedophile newsgroup over whether there is biblical justification for pedophilia or homosexuality. “Married for over 20 years, I still find boys attractive in a lustful way and can only remove those thoughts with praises to our loving God,” he wrote. He concluded, after a lengthy analysis, that “homosexual desire is unnatural because it causes a man to abandon the natural sexual compliment God has ordained for him — a woman.”
In another posting Jan. 16, Homeanon responded to a pedophile who opined that a man who has sexual urges for children should confront his temptations. “I do not think an alcoholic should hang out in a bar, a boylover probably should not take on a Boy Scout troop without examining his true motives,” Homeanon wrote.
Charging papers state that the first pornographic photos of some of the six foster children in Young’s care — clearly showing a sex act — were posted to the Internet by Young under another identity, “fosterdad,” on Sept. 10, 2003, more than two months before he posted his missive on the Christian forum.
On Sept. 16, 2003, Homeanon appeared in another newsgroup that caters to pedophiles. A few days later, he wondered in that newsgroup “how safe is this. to post or not to post. That is my dilema. Much to lose.”
About every six weeks, Homeanon posted a series of photographs, some with a theme and many of sex acts between men and boys, or other degrading acts involving children.
In several of the postings, Homeanon wrote that he hadn’t taken the pictures. “Please note that I have only posted these Beautiful pictures and that I DO NOT know these boys,” he wrote Dec. 2, 2003.
The charges against Young state that police have recovered the camera that took the photographs and have identified Young and some of the foster children in the photographs. Homeanon’s appearance in one group created quite a stir. While many of its members urged him to keep posting new photographs, a few took offense at some of the more graphic photographs.
In a posting in February, one group member complained about a photograph that appeared sadistic. “I posted that pic,” responded Homeanon, who added that the “photographer would NEVER hurt this boy.”
Voce, the Tacoma detective, said Young “may be telling the truth” about a longtime battle with sexual urges. Homeanon and the photographs appeared late last summer, Voce said. Young, he said, found solace in the pedophile newsgroups. “It’s common that people like this will seek validation. And what better place to find it than among those with similar likes and dislikes?” he said.
Richard Packard, the president of the Washington state chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, reviewed some of Homeanon’s writings. He said the use of religious language shows an attempt to create a moral justification for behavior Young knew to be wrong. “To me, it’s indicative that there is a struggle and an awareness of the wrongfulness. His use of the term ‘boylover’ is a frequently used term among homosexual pedophiles to pasteurize their behavior, to turn it into something that’s kinda nice,” he said.
Efforts to treat offenders rise or fall on their willingness to abandon the religious moralization, Packard said.
DSHS spokeswoman Kathy Spears said the agency would not comment on Young’s case or release records until the conclusion of police and DSHS investigations, which could take several weeks. Spears said DSHS does not have the manpower to monitor Internet activity in its 6,300 licensed foster homes.
Meanwhile, records show that Ronald Young’s stepfather was involved in a child-molestation case in 1989. Harold Young pleaded guilty to two counts of child rape in Skagit County Superior Court and was sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison.
Police and prosecutors said Harold Young raped his two step-granddaughters (the children of Ronald Young’s older sister) between January 1988 and January 1989, when the girls were 11 and 7 years old. At the time, Harold Young and his wife were managing the Skagit Valley Mobile Manor, a mobile-home park.
“He used his status as a grandfather and then scared my daughters with his threats if they told me or anyone else,” the girls’ mother wrote in a statement filed with the Skagit County prosecuting attorney in December 1989. “It has left a lasting effect on me and both my daughters. They will have to grow up with this haunting them, and I feel it will keep them from leading a normal adult life when it comes to marriage and children.”
Roy Jamison, who has lived at the Mount Vernon mobile-home park for 17 years, said that he knew the Youngs and that Ronald took over as manager at the park for a couple of years after Harold was arrested.
Ronald Young’s mother, who lives in Alabama, said her husband’s case has “nothing to do with Ronald.”
Seattle Times staff reporter Christine Willmsen contributed to this report. Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20040331&slug=foster31m
Child-Sex Case Jolts Family, Small Community
3/27/04. The Seattle Times
Tacoma – Ronald Harold Young, the Pierce County foster parent charged yesterday with 44 crimes of child pornography and rape involving six boys in his care, gave his family the impression that taking in broken children was his personal “ministry.”
Young, 41, became “super-religious” about two years ago, said his 25-year-old niece, who only gave her first name as Bev. She said Young presented himself as “a good, God-fearing Christian of all things, super foster dad.”
For most of his adult life, he told family members he was an atheist, said a woman who identified herself only as Young’s sister and Bev’s mother. One day, she said, “he started wearing a cross and preaching.” Neither Young’s sister nor his niece knew what caused the transformation. About that time, in July 2002, Young and his wife received a license to become foster parents.
Young said little yesterday before pleading not guilty in Pierce County Superior Court to child rape, molestation and sexual exploitation of a minor. He is being held on $2 million bail in the Pierce County Jail.
In charging papers, Pierce County prosecutors said that by September 2003, Young was engaging in sexual acts with the six boys, ages 5 to 7, taking hundreds of digital pictures and sending them all over the world via the Internet.
In fact, tips that sparked the investigation came from Europe and the United States. Investigators overseas found child pornography originating from the Tacoma area under the e-mail address fosterdad@hotmail.com. The e-mail address was connected to Young, who was arrested about 7:15 a.m. Thursday.
Young has had at least five other foster children who no longer lived at his home, and detectives are talking to them about whether they were victimized. Prosecutors said Young has contacted foster children after they’ve left his care.
The attorneys believe the boys, who lived with Young from December 2002 until three weeks ago, were molested. Young has no known criminal history. Pierce County sheriff’s Detective Ed Troyer said investigators last night were trying to determine if Young previously went by a different name and had been charged or convicted of a sex crime under that name.
Young spent at least the past five years in Home, a sleepy community in northwest Pierce County in the middle of the Key Peninsula. Neighbors said Young raised two of his own boys. One is in the Air Force, and the other still lives in the area. Jane Coby, a cashier at the Home Country Store, recalled that Young came by about once a day to buy cereal and milk.
Young used to be a contractor, but recently, he was a full-time foster parent who did odd jobs. State officials say foster families are paid $366.31 to $514.95 per month for a child whose needs are average.
Linell Warnes, another cashier at the Home Country Store, said Young was “very nice, very quiet, very well-mannered. He was always correcting (his boys) firmly: ‘No, you can only get one thing.’ ‘No, you don’t behave like that.’ “
Unrest in Home, court
But few people in Home had sympathy for Young yesterday. Many wished him harm or said he should die. Young’s sister said his family “is not standing by him.” “I don’t want none of it, he’s a sick bastard,” she said. “What we have to say is he’s very sick and we don’t condone it.” Young’s niece, Bev, was so upset after the court hearing yesterday that she charged at Young’s wife in the crowded hallway. Bev, who was restrained by her mother, accused Young’s wife of wrongly supporting him.
retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Young_Ronald_483770550.aspx
The Stranger
03/31/04. David Schmader. Index Newspapers, The Stranger (weekly column).
Speaking of sex crimes and cyberspace: Today brought some fascinating background to the case of Ronald Young, the 41-year-old Key Peninsula foster father charged last week with 30 counts of first-degree child rape, eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, and six counts of first-degree child molestation.
Today the Seattle Times reported on the spooky postings left by Ronald Young over the years on the Internet. Tacoma police have confirmed that Young used the name “Homeanon” to write of his battle with his sexual urges for children and to post photographs of sex acts between men and boys. According to the Times, Young’s anguished testimonials took place primarily in newsgroups catering to Christian pedophiles, with “Homeanon” (detectives believe the pseudonym refers to Young’s residence in Home, WA, and his desire to remain anonymous) detailing his “minute by minute” struggle with his urges, and characterizing himself as a “boylover that has devoted my life to boys and introducing the love of Christ to them.” More disturbingly, “Homeanon” also posted dozens of pornographic photographs, many featuring Young’s foster children, sometimes in settings so graphic they reportedly offended other pedophiles in the newsgroup.
Ronald Young remains in a Tacoma jail pending $2 million bail.
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=17762
Child Abuse Tips Gain Priority for Tacoma and Seattle Police
07/10/08. Stacey Mulick. TheNewsTribune.com
Tacoma and Seattle police have started making changes in how they handle Internet child abuse tips after issues with their policies surfaced in a lawsuit involving eight boys whose foster father sexually abused and photographed them.
Allegations about how the departments handled the abuse tip were part of the lawsuit, whose $11 million settlement was announced Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Tacoma City Council approved payment of its portion of the settlement – $7.6 million.
Basically, the departments are strengthening their processes for tracking the tips they receive so they’re quickly reviewed and passed on to the appropriate agencies. Among the changes:
• Tacoma police now have a written policy on how tips on Internet child sex crimes are received, logged and assigned to a detective.
• Seattle police have a more efficient way to track when they send tips to other police agencies.
“We are very saddened for the victims and disappointed about our performance in this case and have taken every measure to avoid this from happening again,” Tacoma Police Chief Don Ramsdell said Wednesday. Tacoma police also are conducting an internal investigation of how detective Richard Voce handled the case, which was not begun for at least two months or as many as five after the department received the abuse tip.
Voce, a member of the computer crimes unit, remains on duty. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but in 2004 he told The News Tribune that his heavy caseload prevented him from investigating the tip sooner.It’s a “systemwide issue, and there are a lot of moving parts to it,” Ramsdell said. “It’s very complicated, and these cases are very complex.”
Photos Posted on the Internet
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of eight boys sexually abused and photographed in 2003 and 2004 by their foster father, Ronald Young, in his Key Peninsula home. Hundreds of photos were posted on the Internet. Young later was convicted and sentenced in the case.
In the lawsuit, attorneys for the boys, who were between 5 and 12 at the time, alleged Seattle and Tacoma police officers failed to follow state law by not reporting the suspected abuse to the state Department of Social and Health Services.
The suit also claimed that Tacoma police failed to act quickly on the tip. As the case sat untouched, the boys continued to be abused. Tacoma police “did act on it but did it very, very slowly,” said Jack Connelly, an attorney for the boys. “The problem with this case is everyone sat on it and nobody was acting very quickly.”
In addition to the $7.6 million Tacoma has agreed to pay to settle the suit, the City of Seattle will pay $1.9 million and the state $1.5 million. The state has paid $500,000 on behalf of Young’s wife, Wendy, who was accused of negligence for failing to be a proper foster parent.
A judge still must approve the settlement; no hearing has been scheduled.
Police Notified in 2003
The case began in September 2003 after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found sexually explicit photos that had been uploaded on the Internet by someone with a computer in the Tacoma area. The center told the Seattle Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that the person who posted the photos used the names “fosterdad” and “homeanon.”
At the time, the Seattle task force was the clearinghouse for such tips in Alaska and Washington. The nine-member task force, created in 2001, passed tips to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for further investigation. In the Young case, Seattle police contended they sent the tip to Tacoma police in September 2003. Tacoma police said they received it in December 2003. No records confirm when it was sent and received.
Voce, who is assigned to a joint computer crimes unit with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, didn’t start investigating the tip until February 2004, after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children contacted Tacoma police directly.
Investigators obtained search warrants and arrested Young, a state-licensed foster parent, in late March. The boys were removed from his home. Young later pleaded guilty to eight crimes related to the case. He was sentenced in April 2005 to 26 years in prison.
A lawsuit against the state on behalf of the victims was filed in 2005. Seattle and Tacoma were added in December 2006.
Policies Reviewed
After Tacoma was added to the lawsuit, the Police Department hired outside consultants to review its policies for handling the Internet crime tips and to make recommendations. “We didn’t have a clean process” for handling the tips, Ramsdell said Wednesday.
In March, Tacoma police commanders met with the consultants and, based on their input, put a new written policy in place. Under it:
• Internet tips are routed through a supervisor, who logs them, reviews them and assigns them to a detective.
• The supervisor also monitors the progress of the investigation.
• Both the detective and supervisor are responsible for alerting state social workers to possible child abuse allegations.
“We do that to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks and to ensure that these are the done way they should be,” Ramsdell said.
The Seattle Police Department and its Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force also has made changes. The task force now is a six-member team of Seattle police officers responsible for taking the tips and doling them out to agencies in Washington only. It now forwards tips using certified mail. “Our record keeping wasn’t what it should have been,” Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has developed software that tracks tips as they are forwarded to law enforcement agencies for investigation. Seattle police also plan to talk with the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about whether any other steps need to be taken. They also will be meeting with state Department of Social and Health Services officials to “see if there are better ways for the agencies to communicate,” Whitcomb said.
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://www.thenewstribune.com/331/v-lite/story/409021.html
Tacoma, Seattle Settle Foster Father Abuse Lawsuit
Tacoma -The cities of Tacoma and Seattle have agreed to settle a lawsuit over the sexual abuse of eight children in foster care for a total of $10.5 million. The cities were added as defendants to a lawsuit filed in 2005 in Pierce County Superior Court against the state Department of Social and Health Services.
The state agency was accused of failing to adequately screen Ronald Young before licensing him as a foster father and then of failing to properly monitor children in his custody. Young pleaded guilty in 2004 to multiple counts of child rape and sexual exploitation of a minor and was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison.
The Tacoma City Council on Tuesday approved a $7.6 million payment to settle the lawsuit. The remaining $2.9 million would come from Seattle. The settlement is subject to approval by a judge. Tacoma is paying the larger share because it had the greater exposure, City Attorney Elizabeth Pauli told The News Tribune newspaper.
Young’s wife, Wendy Young, was added as a defendant at the same time as Tacoma and Seattle, and a $500,000 settlement in her case was reached in February, court records show. Wendy Young was accused of negligence for failing to provide proper foster parenting but not of participating in sexual abuse.
The state licensed the Youngs as foster caregivers in July 2002. They cared for 11 children until Ronald Young’s arrest, and sheriff’s officials said Young abused at least eight of the boys. At the time of his arrest, Young was staying home with the children while his wife worked as a baker in a grocery store.
Prosecutors said Young posted pornographic pictures of his foster children, ages 5 to 12, on the Internet. The photos were traced to Washington state in September 2003 by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which notified Seattle police, Tacoma lawyer Jack Connelly said.
Investigators in Seattle were legally obligated to notify state Child Protective Services within 24 hours, Connelly said in 2006, but instead sent the information to police in Tacoma after determining that Young was from Pierce County .
Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson said a police officer on duty at the time the information was received “failed to recognize the serious nature” of it, so the case was not immediately investigated. More than five months later, in early March 2004, Tacoma started a criminal investigation and Young was arrested on March 25, 2004. Anderson said Tacoma has improved its process for handling reports of sexual abuse, but a detailed investigation is continuing. “The lesson we have to learn is that we always have to be vigilant about children, and this underscores it,” he said.
Information from: The News Tribune, http://www.thenewstribune.com
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008041776_apwafostercareabuse1stldwritethru.html
Seattle Settles Foster Care Abuse Lawsuit
07/10/08. Associated Press
Tacoma – The cities of Tacoma and Seattle have agreed to settle a lawsuit over the sexual abuse of eight children in foster care for a total of $10.5 million.
The cities were added as defendants to a lawsuit filed in 2005 in Pierce County Superior Court against the state Department of Social and Health Services. The state agency was accused of failing to adequately screen Ronald Young before licensing him as a foster father and then of failing to properly monitor children in his custody.
Young pleaded guilty in 2004 to multiple counts of child rape and sexual exploitation of a minor and was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison.
The Tacoma City Council on Tuesday approved a $7.6 million payment to settle the lawsuit. Another $1.9 million would come from the city of Seattle and the remaining $1 million would come from the state of Washington. The settlement is subject to approval by a judge. Tacoma is paying the larger share because it had the greater exposure, City Attorney Elizabeth Pauli told the News Tribune newspaper.
Young’s wife, Wendy Young, was added as a defendant at the same time as Tacoma and Seattle, and a $500,000 settlement in her case was reached in February, court records show. Wendy Young was accused of negligence for failing to provide proper foster parenting but not of participating in sexual abuse.
The state licensed the Youngs as foster caregivers in July 2002. They cared for 11 children until Ronald Young’s arrest, and sheriff’s officials said Young abused at least eight of the boys. At the time of his arrest, Young was staying home with the children while his wife worked as a baker in a grocery store.
Prosecutors said Young posted pornographic pictures of his foster children, ages 5 to 12, on the Internet. The photos were traced to Washington state in September 2003 by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which notified Seattle police, Tacoma lawyer Jack Connelly said.
Investigators in Seattle were legally obligated to notify state Child Protective Services within 24 hours, Connelly said in 2006, but instead sent the information to police in Tacoma after determining that Young was from Pierce County.
Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson said a police officer on duty at the time the information was received “failed to recognize the serious nature” of it, so the case was not immediately investigated.
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://www.spokesmanreview.com/local/story.asp?ID=252307
Father of Sex-Abuse Suspect was Abuser: State had no Sure Way to Know That About Accused Child Rapist
03/30/04. Jennifer Langston and Rugh Teichroeb. Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporters.
Mount Vernon – The father of a man who now faces more than 30 counts of child rape involving foster sons in his care was himself a child rapist, according to court records.
Fifteen years ago, Harold Edgar Young pleaded guilty to second-degree child rape after two of his granddaughters accused him of sexual molestation, prompting residents of the mobile-home park he managed to draft a petition to keep him away. Court documents in the case also say Harold Young may have molested his own stepdaughters.
State child-welfare officials said yesterday that they could not discuss Harold Young’s son, Ronald Harold Young, who was charged last week in Pierce County with raping his foster children. The case, they said, is under investigation. Nor would they say whether they knew about his father’s conviction.
But it is clear that if child-welfare officials knew about the conviction before licensing Ronald Young as a foster parent, he, his wife or someone else close to the family would have had to tell them. The state does check the criminal background of prospective foster parents, but depends on those people to tell them about other parts of their lives that court checks wouldn’t reveal. The state has no authority to delve into the criminal background of the families of prospective foster parents.
“If someone is going to be devious and deceitful, we don’t have perfect safeguards,” said Nancy Zahn, who oversees the licensing of foster homes and other children’s facilities for the state Department of Social and Health Services.
DSHS officials said that such information as his father’s conviction would not necessarily have ruled out Ronald Young as a foster parent, although it would have prompted more questions. “You can’t make the assumption that the child of a sex offender will be a sex offender,” Zahn said. What occurred was hardly a secret in the Young family.
The mother of the girls who Harold Young abused had little sympathy for her brother Ronald Young at his arraignment last week. He is accused of posting hundreds of pornographic images on the Internet of himself and six foster boys engaged in a range of sexual acts.
Ronald Young, a seemingly devout born-again Christian who was studying to be a minister, and his wife began caring for abused and neglected children in their rural Key Peninsula home in the summer of 2002.
The state expanded the family’s license from three to six children last year. Prospective foster parents not only undergo criminal background checks but are also asked specific questions about their family histories, including whether they were abused as children and whether any relatives are sex offenders, Zahn said. “Certainly that isn’t information that we’d just ignore,” Zahn said.
An applicant who is related to a convicted sex offender might still be granted a foster care license on the condition that the relative not have any access to children placed in the home, Zahn said. During the screening process, prospective foster parents also provide three personal references. One of those three references can be a relative. Those references are asked about whether the applicant has any history of domestic violence or abuse. “People are usually very forthcoming if they have any concerns,” said Paula Bentz, who also works in the licensing division.
DSHS can ask applicants to undergo a psychological evaluation, parenting evaluation or even a sexual-deviancy evaluation, Bentz said. An applicant who refuses can be denied a license. But there are also limits on what DSHS can uncover during the screening process. Applicants must give their permission for criminal background checks to be done, and such checks can’t legally be run on relatives who don’t live in the home, Zahn said. And the screening process depends to a large part on the honesty of the applicant, she said.
Identifying pedophiles is difficult, said Lucy Berliner, director of the Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress. “We’re really lousy at it. We don’t have a way to do it yet,” Berliner said. But she hopes DSHS re-examines its screening process in light of this incident, including looking at whether relatives should routinely be interviewed.
In Harold Young’s child rape case, court documents from 1989 do not mention any relationship with a son. But two of his grandchildren, ages 7 and 11, told police their grandfather would take off his clothes and molest them. The eldest grandchild said he warned her that if she ever told anyone, she wouldn’t live to see her next birthday, according to court documents. The girls’ mother and two aunts described similar abuse from their stepfather after he moved into their home, according to statements in the court record from the late 1980s.
In December 1989, Harold Young entered a guilty plea in Skagit County Superior Court, despite his insistence that he did nothing wrong and that he was the target of a vendetta against him. He was sentenced to 34 months in prison and was ordered to register as a sex offender.
Roy and Carolyn Jamison, who lived in the Skagit Valley Mobile Manor in Mount Vernon, were among those who signed a petition to keep Harold Young from coming back to the manufactured home park that he and his wife managed. Residents circulated the petition after Young was charged. They said Harold Young had a low tolerance for children, constantly yelling at them for riding bicycles in the street or for setting up badminton nets in their own yards.
“There were a lot of kids at the time,” said Carolyn Jamison. “We didn’t want him back — after hearing that you didn’t want anyone else’s kids getting molested.” Harold’s wife and Ronald’s mother said this weekend that she and her husband started a new life in Alabama seven years ago and wouldn’t comment on any prior sexual abuse accusations in the family. “We’re leading a new life here,” she said. “It would crush (Ronald) if the whole family was dragged into the mess.”
P-I reporters Jake Ellison and Jeffrey M. Barker contributed to this report. P-I reporter Jennifer Langston can be reached at 425-252-5235 or jenniferlangston@seattlepi.com
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/166922_fosterfolo30.html
The following story of alleged police misconduct by Rochelle Olson of the Star Tribune describes “integrity checks” used to test the honesty of officers suspected of theft. During “integrity checks” investigators leave money in situations where an unethical officer can make the wrong decision and steal the money.
Assuming that the allegations below are true, the accused have jeopardized their freedom, their good names and the future of themselves and their families. Misconduct, ethics violations and crimes by public officials often lead us to ask; What was he (or she) thinking? If the violators had used some logical decision-making processes beforehand, perhaps the alleged ethics violations would not have occurred.
Minnesota – The federal case against two top aides and friends of Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher will enter its second week today with more testimony about how the investigation unfolded.
Inside details of the investigation emerged Friday when a witness, FBI Special Agent Timothy Bisswurm, revealed that it began in spring of 2004 when he first spoke with Shawn Arvin of St. Paul, a former drug dealer who was working with the DEA to reduce a potential 17-year prison sentence.
In early November, Bisswurm used Arvin to set up the first “integrity check” designed to see whether St. Paul police officer Timothy Rehak would act lawfully when presented with money or valuables.
A federal indictment alleges Rehak, in concert with Mark Naylon, the spokesman for the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, broke the law. Both men were working for Fletcher’s Special Investigations Unit, although Naylon was not a peace officer. He was, however, the best man at Fletcher’s second wedding.
Bisswurm last week introduced into evidence numerous recorded profanity-laden phone conversations between Arvin and Rehak, including the one in which Arvin set up the first “integrity check.”
The FBI had left $13,500 cash at the Kelly Inn. Naylon and Rehak are seen on an FBI videotape pocketing $6,000 during a search warrant executed in the room rented at the Kelly Inn by the fictional Vincent Pellagatti, a supposed drug dealer. The defendants do not dispute they took the money. But their lawyers say the action was a practical joke on a third officer involved in the search.
The officers left a search warrant receipt in the room saying they recovered $7,500 from the search.
Later that night after being unable to locate the alleged drug dealer in state or national criminal databases, Naylon and Rehak called the third officer and told him they had found an additional $6,000 in the room.
That officer, Ramsey County Sgt. Rollie Martinez, testified he didn’t press for details because he didn’t believe they would give him the truth about where they found the money. He also said Naylon “made it perfectly clear he doesn’t respond to anyone but his boss.”
Agents went ahead with a second integrity check in the summer because of frequent contact between Rehak and Arvin.
On Thursday, the jury saw a 70-minute recording with video and profanity-filled audio of the two defendants searching a vehicle in July 2005, finding a stash of cash and making reference to another “set up.”
Throughout the first week, prosecutors tried to show how the men breached law enforcement protocol in taking the $6,000 of alleged drug money. The defense tried to paint Rehak as a tough street cop who wasn’t savvy about paperwork and was working for a sheriff’s department with a reputation for playing “loose” with the rules.
Several officers took the stand to talk about the importance of proper procedure and accuracy, including Christopher Hoskin, a longtime St. Paul police officer who retired a couple of years ago as senior commander to Chief John Harrington. He was questioned about how officers handle seized property.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Marti asked whether it was appropriate for seized property to be handed over to a non-peace officer until it is logged into evidence. Hoskin said no.
The point may be significant because Naylon was not a peace officer. Rehak is shown in the November video handing the cash to him and Naylon is seen stuffing it deep into his jacket pocket.
On cross examination, Rehak’s lawyer Paul Engh asked about his client’s reputation as a cop with history and connections on the rugged East Side. He elicited that Rehak went to work for the Ramsey County unit at the behest of Fletcher but continued to be employed by the St. Paul Police Department.
“You knew Ramsey County was loose in procedures?” Engh asked, referring to a comment Hoskin made to the FBI in May 2008.
Hoskin said, “That is an opinion I had.”
Asked about the claim of loose procedures, Fletcher’s spokeswoman Holli Drinkwine said: “It would be inappropriate to comment in the midst of a trial.”
Retrieved August 26 2008 from http://www.startribune.com/local/27338239.html
An Arizona newspaper recently printed a controversial article about a photographer who publicizes pictures of her own children posing nude. The article included a chronology of dozens of nude images of the photographers’ pre-pubescent children ranging in age from less than one year to ten years. The children were not posed in sexually suggestive positions and were not engaged in sex acts. Although genitals were visible in the pictures, the specific focuses of the images were not zoomed on the child’s genitals.
The published images were probably not unlawful according to present United States Supreme Court standards. The Court might consider the images to be lawful pictures of nudity or art. The images probably did not violate the difficult-to-measure-and-enforce community obscenity standard. The pictures might fall outside the legal definitions of images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors. The photographer appears to be attempting to straddle the sometimes-confusing borderline between art and illegality, at the expense of her children.
While barely lawful, some would consider the nude pictures of children to be erotica. Erotica includes lawful and non-pornographic items that may stimulate a sexual reaction from the viewer.
Those who would consider nude images of children to be sexually stimulating might include the ranks of pedophiles and others who are sexually attracted to pre-pubescent minors. Anyone who considers sharing nude images of a child should consider that others may find their benign images sexually stimulating.
Those who consider photographing children nude and sharing the images should also know that doing so may make the children the targets of those who will enjoy the images for sexual masturbatory purposes.
The same persons who sexually enjoy the images may also try to befriend the children depicted and ingratiate themselves with the family for the predatory purpose of grooming the targeted children towards actual molestation.
Predators may pose as admiring “fans” of the young model. They may pose as professional photographers interested in advancing the modeling career of a young person: A young person who’s only protection from harm are the same star-hungry parents who send them to the photographer-predator. This does not mean that all photographers are bad, only that parents must be vigilant.
Distributing and publishing erotic images of children also means that the pictures will likely be duplicated and distributed throughout cyberspace. That means that once the children depicted are old enough to knowingly object to the pictures the images will already be irretrievable. Once the child reaches middle school and is confronted with the pictures by crass adolescent peers who found the pictures on the Internet, the subsequent embarrassment will be irreversible.
Benign and innocent images may also be used for alteration or blending with other images for the purpose of creating pornography. For example, innocent images of the famous child twin actresses Kate and Ashley Olsen have been duplicated, cropped, pasted and altered into sexual images for many years by deviants who enjoy the altered pictures for sexual self-gratification and who then trade them via the Internet. Deviants often use software programs to cut the young faces from the Olsen twins and superimpose the images onto the nude or sexually active bodies of others so that the deviants can imagine having sex with the young girls.
It is also likely that the images will become part of someone’s larger collection that includes unlawful images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors. For example, those who collect and enjoy unlawful images also sometimes collect lawful images of erotica and nudism. Some go so far as to collect newspaper advertisements from retailers who sell children’s underwear or pajamas. While there is nothing unlawful about images of children in pajamas, those who derive sexual gratification from such images might be considered by the psychology community as having pedophilic tendencies.
Unlawful images that depict the sexual exploitation of minors are often called child pornography. Unlawful images of child pornography are different from lawful adult pornography. Unlawful images should not be confused with lawful art, nudism, medical images or erotica. The exact legal lines and definitions are often blurry and confusing to the average person.
The photographer who took nude pictures of her children under the legal umbrella protections of “art” should consider the wider ramifications of sharing the images. Ramifications include the way in which others will perceive the images and the future possible uses of the images by persons with sexually deviant motives. The barely-legal exploitation of children displayed in the newspaper article is disturbing.
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More information about unlawful images
Unlawful images and videos that depict the sexual exploitation of minors are commonly called child pornography. In most jurisdictions child pornography is a serious crime. Why is child pornography a serious crime? Beyond sexual self-gratification, possessors and traffickers of unlawful images use the images for one or more reasons including (Child pornography, 1996):
To blackmail children into keeping silent about the abuse.
To preserve a child’s youthful image at the age preferred by the pedophile.
To establish trust and camaraderie with other pedophiles.
To gain access to other markets and children by exchanging material with other pedophiles.
To duplicate, produce and sell for profit.
To reassure themselves that their deviant behavior is shared by others and therefore not abnormal.
To seduce children and lower the child’s inhibitions as part of the grooming process intended to model deviant sexual behavior.
Danger
Are the possessors of unlawful images dangerous? Is someone who looks at pictures a threat to offend against a child? Recent research (Hernandez, 2006) suggests that there may be a correlation between those who possess child pornography and those who are also “hands-on” contact offenders. One surprising study of federal prisoners indicated that 85% of those in custody for possession of child pornography were also”hands-on” molesters whose contact offenses had never been discovered.
Other professionals agree that there is a danger that possessors of unlawful images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors could escalate and eventually offend against real children. Dr. Chris Hatcher, (1997) Professor of Psychology at the University of California said, “It begins with fantasy, moves to gratification through pornography, then voyeurism, and finally, to contact.”
Former FBI profiler John Douglas (Mindhunter, 1995, p. 108) described the relationship between pornographic images and sex offenders. He said, “With most sexually based killers, it is a several-step escalation from the fantasy to the reality, often fueled by pornography, morbid experimentation on animals, and cruelty to peers.”
Some possessors of unlawful images use the contraband as a “unique solution” to their pedophilic preferences. They rationalize that sexually gratifying themselves after viewing images is a justifiable alternative to committing “hands on” contact offenses against actual children.
Victims
What about the effect of child pornography on the victims? Are there any lingering problems for children who are the subject of abuse? Researchers found that the effects of unlawful images on child victims are often devastating. According to Klain, Davies and Hicks (Child pornography, March 2001, p.10) child sex abuse victims suffer a multitude of physical and psychological problems.
The innocent victims of child pornography sometimes suffer a lifetime of psychological anguish and torment wondering when where and how their tortured images will re-surface. Those who traffic in, possess and derive gratification from child pornography perpetuate the anguish. Some argue that each image tacitly re-victimizes the child whenever the image is viewed. Many victims of child pornography will never disclose their victimization to anyone. They suffer in silent, haunted purgatory. As adults, many do not wish to relive past abuse.
What is child pornography?
Child pornography depicts the sexual exploitation of minors. It does not include child erotica.
It does not include nudism and it does not include “baby in the bathtub” images. Unlawful images are contraband. They are the only form of contraband that is introduced into the human psyche through the sense of sight. Because unlawful images are now often produced in video form, the images are often accompanied by the sounds of children suffering.
What are some of the differences between lawful and unlawful images?
A California court offered some insight into the differences between lawful nudism and unlawful images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors. An instructive set of guidelines for determining the differences was provided in the case of United States v. Dost, 636 F. Supp. 828, 830-32 (S.D. Cal. 1986).
The Dost factors give a more defined test for determining whether a visual depiction of a minor is a “lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area”.
The Dost factors include the following guidelines:
whether the focal point of the visual depiction is on the child’s genitalia or pubic area;
whether the setting of the visual depiction is sexually suggestive, i.e., in a place or pose generally associated with sexual activity;
whether the child is depicted in an unnatural pose, or in inappropriate attire, considering the age of the child;
whether the child is fully or partially clothed, or nude;
whether the visual depiction suggests sexual coyness or a willingness to engage in sexual activity;
whether the visual depiction is intended or designed to elicit a sexual response in the viewer.
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A case study
In 2003, former Arizona high school teacher Morton Berger was convicted on 20 counts of possession of child pornography and sentenced to 200 years prison. He appealed the sentence based on arguments of equal protection under the law and cruel and unusual punishment. In December 2004, the conviction was affirmed by two of the three judges of the Arizona Court of Appeals (State of Arizona, 2004, December 14).
Judges Susan Ehrlich and Philip Hall dismissed Berger’s appeal with arguments including (citations omitted):
* It is evident beyond the need for elaboration that a State’s interest in safeguarding the physical and psychological well-being of a minor is compelling.
*…the victimization of a child continues when that act is memorialized in an image. The materials produced are a permanent record of the children’s participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation. Unfortunately, the victimization of the children involved does not end when the pornographer’s camera is put away.
* The legislative judgment…is that the use of children as subjects of pornographic materials is harmful to the physiological, emotional, and mental health of the child.
* …the possession of child pornography drives that industry and…the production of child pornography will decrease if those who possess the product are punished equally with those who produce it.
* …it (the law) will decrease the production of child pornography if it penalizes those who possess and view the product, thereby decreasing demand.
* …the possession of child pornography inflames the desires of child molesters, pedophiles and child pornographers. The State has more than a passing interest in forestalling the damage caused by child pornography: preventing harm to children is, without cavil, one of its most important interests.
* …we cannot fault the State for attempting to stamp out this vice at all levels in the distribution chain.
* Berger downloaded images from the Internet, and every time he visited a website, he demonstrated to the producers and sellers of child pornography that there was a demand for their product. Berger’s demand served to drive the industry; there need not have been a direct monetary exchange. Berger maintains also that, because his possession of the pornographic images was passive and because he did not use threats or violence in the commission of his crimes, his sentence is grossly disproportionate. This logic is abstruse. As was described by this court in Hazlett, 205 Ariz. at 527 p. 11, 73 P. 3d at 1262, and as is evident from the violent pornographic images in this case, child pornography is a form of child abuse. The materials produced are a permanent record of the children’s participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Bergers next request for an appeal. His 200 year prison sentence was upheld. Berger is scheduled for release from the Arizona Department of Corrections in 2157.
Law enforcement
Disturbing unlawful videos of the sexual abuse of minors are often accompanied by the horrible audio sounds of suffering young victims. The typical offender arrested by the Arizona ICAC Task Force possesses dozens and often hundreds of unlawful images and videos. As law enforcement officers, once we overcome the sickening shock of witnessing the brutal recorded acts of terrible sexual violence we are left with a tenacious resolve to bring offenders to justice.
Conclusion
Contraband images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of minors are serious crimes. Offenders use the images for many disturbing reasons. The victims of child pornography deserve to be protected from their torturers and from those who enjoy witnessing the torture. Law enforcement efforts to stop unlawful images must continue.
References
Child pornography and pedophilia: Report made by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate. (1986). 99th Congress, Second session. Washington : U.S. G.P.O.1986. iii. 54: 24 cm.
Douglas , J. and Olshaker, M. (1995). Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s elite serial crime unit, New York : Pocket Books.
Hatcher, C. (1997, October). Cited in: Armagh , D. A. Safety net for the Internet: Protecting our children. Juvenile Justice Journal (on-line) Volume V, Number 1, May 1998. Retrieved March 15, 2003. From http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/jjjournal/jjjournal598/net.html
Hernandez, A. E. (2006, September 26). Statement of Andres E. Hernandez before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Committee on Energy and Commerce. U.S. House of Representatives.
Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov/HernandezTestimonyCongress.pdf
Klain, E.J., Davies, H.J., & Hicks, M.A., (2001, March). Child Pornography: The criminal justice system response, American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law for the NationalCenter for Missing and Exploited Children. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.missingkids. com/en_US/publications/NC81.pdf
State of Arizona Division One Court of Appeals. (2004, December 14). Appeal from the Superior Court in MaricopaCounty. 1 CA-CR 03-0243. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.cofad1.state.az.us/opinionfiles/CR/CR030243.pdf/CR/CR030243.pdf
Law enforcement personnel whose duties obligate them to view unlawful images have a sad duty. Seeing images and videos that depict the exploitation of minors is a disturbing task. Observing minors being brutally assaulted and hearing their cries creates psychological victimization for those who must review the images and gather or present evidence towards the arrest and prosecution of offenders.
As caring humans, investigators and prosecutors have a natural affinity and empathy for young victims. The empathy and affinity for minors is so profound that many in law enforcement are psychologically unable to accept assignments that routinely deal with the victimization of children.
Unlike other forms of contraband, unlawful images are the only type of banned substance introduced to the human psyche through the perceptions of sight and sound. Although the victims who suffer most are the children who endure the “hands-on” contact offenses, proximate victims of unlawful images also include those who view the images and hear the sounds of suffering. Investigators and prosecutors become psychological victims. Particularly disturbing are the video images that are accompanied by the audio pleas of child victims.
Federal law and many state laws now have victims’ rights provisions. The laws permit victims to describe the effect of crime to the court using a victim impact statement. Depending upon the rules in the jurisdiction, the statement may be provided during pre-sentence oral testimony or in written text.
Below is a draft victim impact statement that I wrote in my capacity as a law enforcement supervisor assigned to review unlawful images during the course of ICAC investigations. My situation is not unique. My investigative experiences are shared by many others in the law enforcement community. The following information may be useful to others who can employ the information as a basis for similar victim impact statements. The information may also be useful in educating the judiciary about the impact of unlawful images. ————————————————————————–
Victim impact statement of Frank Kardasz
Your Honor,
Pursuant to the Federal Law (18 U.S.C. § 3771), a victim is described as any person directly or proximately harmed as a result of the commission of a federal offense. Arizona law (A.R.S. 13-4401.19) describes a victim as a person against whom the criminal offense has been committed. I am writing this statement to you for the purpose of sharing my story of proximate victimization. I do not wish to invoke any other legal rights enumerated in the victims rights act. I only wish to submit this statement to the court for consideration.
My name is Frank Kardasz. In the course of my employment as a law enforcement officer and during this investigation it was my sad duty to view the images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors that are the subjects of the present case. Seeing the disturbing images of children being sexually abused caused me despair. Knowing that the defendant received sexual gratification from viewing the images is particularly abhorrent to me.
Thinking about the images is emotionally troubling. When I consider the abuse that the victims in the images suffered I am deeply affected. I am simultaneously aware that my level of victimization is minimal compared to that of the child who was depicted in the images. Although I am troubled, my worst day in law enforcement is still exponentially better than the day that the child victims in this case were abused, photographed and recorded for the deviant sexual enjoyment of the defendant.
Because I am a law enforcement officer, most people would not consider me a victim in the classic sense. I am a dutiful and humble member of the State in the case of the State versus the defendant. I hope that you will not consider me less of a victim because of my job. I was not physically assaulted and I did not suffer property loss. I was not personally sexually abused. But as you are aware, you Honor, exposure to unlawful images is different. Images are the only kind of contraband that enter the human body through the sense of sight. Unlike other kinds of crimes, psychological victimization from viewing images happens to anyone who sees the images. My victimization was emotional. My memory now retains recollections of horrors that no ones mind should possess.
I am disturbed too because I am aware of troubling research about possessors of unlawful images. According to a Congressional report (Child pornography, 1986) possessors and traffickers of unlawful images use them for one or more reasons including:
To blackmail children into keeping silent about the abuse.
To preserve a child’s youthful image at the age preferred by the pedophile.
To establish trust and camaraderie with other pedophiles.
To gain access to other markets and children by exchanging material with other pedophiles.
To duplicate, produce and sell for profit.
To reassure themselves that their deviant behavior is shared by others and therefore, not abnormal.
To seduce children and lower the child’s inhibitions as part of the grooming process intended to model deviant sexual behavior.
I am also troubled because my training and experience suggests that possessors of unlawful images are sometimes also dangerous on a physical level. Recent research (Hernandez, 2006) suggests that there may be a correlation between those who possess child pornography and those who are also “hands-on” contact offenders. Surprising studies of federal prisoners indicated that 85% of those in custody for possession of unlawful images were also “hands-on” molesters whose contact offenses had never been discovered.
It disturbs me to know that other professionals agree that there exists a danger that possessors of unlawful images could escalate and that possessors could eventually offend against real children. Dr. Chris Hatcher, (1997) Professor of Psychology at the University of California said, “It begins with fantasy, moves to gratification through pornography, then voyeurism, and finally, to contact.” Former FBI profiler John Douglas (Mindhunter, 1995, p. 108) described a relationship between pornographic images and sex offenders. He said, “With most sexually based killers, it is a several-step escalation from the fantasy to the reality, often fueled by pornography, morbid experimentation on animals, and cruelty to peers.”
The ramifications of unlawful images was succinctly described in the case of Arizona v. Berger. In 2003, former Arizona high school teacher Morton Berger was convicted on 20 counts of possession of child pornography and sentenced to 200 years prison. He appealed the sentence based on arguments of equal protection under the law and cruel and unusual punishment. In December 2004, the conviction was affirmed by the Arizona Court of Appeals (State of Arizona, 2004, December 14).
Arizona Judges Susan Ehrlich and Philip Hall dismissed Berger’s appeal with opinions that have also been similarly reflected in previous US Supreme Court rulings. The AZ Appellate Court opinions included the following excerpts (citations omitted):
It is evident beyond the need for elaboration that a State’s interest in safeguarding the physical and psychological well-being of a minor is compelling.
…the victimization of a child continues when that act is memorialized in an image. The materials produced are a permanent record of the children’s participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation. Unfortunately, the victimization of the children involved does not end when the pornographer’s camera is put away.
The legislative judgment…is that the use of children as subjects of pornographic materials is harmful to the physiological, emotional, and mental health of the child.
…the possession of child pornography drives that industry and…the production of child pornography will decrease if those who possess the product are punished equally with those who produce it.
…it (the law) will decrease the production of child pornography if it penalizes those who possess and view the product, thereby decreasing demand.
…the possession of child pornography inflames the desires of child molesters, pedophiles and child pornographers. The State has more than a passing interest in forestalling the damage caused by child pornography: preventing harm to children is, without cavil, one of its most important interests.
…we cannot fault the State for attempting to stamp out this vice at all levels in the distribution chain.
Berger downloaded images from the Internet, and every time he visited a website, he demonstrated to the producers and sellers of child pornography that there was a demand for their product. Berger’s demand served to drive the industry; there need not have been a direct monetary exchange. Berger maintains also that because his possession of the pornographic images was passive and because he did not use threats or violence in the commission of his crimes, his sentence is grossly disproportionate. This logic is abstruse. As was described by this court in Hazlett, 205 Ariz. at 527 p. 11, 73 P. 3d at 1262, and as is evident from the violent pornographic images in this case, child pornography is a form of child abuse. The materials produced are a permanent record of the children’s participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation.
Please consider that the imaged victims who were the subject of the defendants’ sexual fantasies are unable to provide you with a victim impact statement. Try to imagine what they would say if they could appear before you in court. I know from my training and experience that some victims of child pornography suffer a lifetime of misery wondering when and where their images will reappear on the Internet. Researchers found that the effects of unlawful images on child victims are often devastating. According to Klain, Davies and Hicks (Child pornography, March 2001, p. 10) child sex abuse victims suffer a multitude of physical and psychological problems.
I am disquieted to know from my training and experience that some offenders are adept at creating public personas’ as trustworthy and demure persons while they are privately sexually deviant predators. Offenders sometimes practice techniques enabling them to thwart polygraph and penile plesmograph tests. They often feign religious transformations and plead for mercy from the court while privately mocking the justice system and re-offending.
Your Honor, if you viewed the images in this case you may share my feelings and you may also have empathy for the victims. While I am anguished, I am also fortunate because unlike the victims depicted in the images, I am able to obtain counseling for my woes and I can use stress management techniques for my problems. I can turn my sadness into a strengthened resolve to continue to bring offenders to you for justice.
In the interest of protecting the public, I request that you impose the longest possible period of incarceration in this case along with lifetime probation and lifetime sex offender registration status for the defendant. In my humble opinion, a long period of incarceration is the best way to prevent the offender from victimizing others.
Thank you for considering my statement.
Kindest regards,
Frank Kardasz
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
References
Child pornography and pedophilia: Report made by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate. (1986). 99th Congress, Second session. Washington: U.S. G.P.O.1986. iii. 54: 24 cm.
Douglas, J. and Olshaker, M. (1995). Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s elite serial crime unit, New York: Pocket Books.
Hatcher, C. (1997, October). Cited in: Armagh, D. A. Safety net for the Internet: Protecting our children. Juvenile Justice Journal (on-line) Volume V, Number 1, May 1998. Retrieved March 15, 2003. From http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/jjjournal/jjjournal598/net.html
Hernandez, A. E. (2006, September 26). Statement of Andres E. Hernandez before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Committee on Energy and Commerce. U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov/HernandezTestimonyCongress.pdf
Klain, E.J., Davies, H.J., & Hicks, M.A., (2001, March). Child Pornography: The criminal justice system response, American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/publications/NC81.pdf
State of Arizona Division One Court of Appeals. (2004, December 14). Appeal from the Superior Court in Maricopa County. 1 CA-CR 03-0243. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.cofad1.state.az. us/opinionfiles/CR/CR030243.pdf
Dr. Frank Kardasz: Misconduct, ethics violations and crimes by public officials often lead us to ask; What was he (or she) thinking? If the violators in the story below had used some logical decision-making processes beforehand, perhaps the violations would not have occurred.
Here is a link to a handy list of decision making process gathered from some knowledgeable sources: http://www.kardasz.org/Decision_Making_Tools.html
—————————————-
Laredo, Texas – Ex-cops now reside in fed prisons
05/12/2008 By Julian Aguilar, Laredo Morning Times (LMT online)
As Laredo waits to see who is chosen as police chief to bring integrity and unity back to the Laredo Police Department, three men responsible for LPD’s recent woes find themselves hundreds of miles from the place they used to call home.Former police chief Agustin Dovalina, Sgt. Alfonso Santos and Lt. Eloy Rodriguez were each sentenced to about three years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge George P. Kazen last February.
The trio all pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiring to commit in a scam that saw more than $95,000 in cash wrenched from owners and operators of popular maquinita gambling establishments that were paying out more than state law permits.
The policemen took the cash in exchange for protecting the businesses from law enforcement interference.
Dovalina Chris Adams, the public information officer for the federal detention center El Reno-FCI in Oklahoma confirmed Dovalina, 52, is currently serving his time at the medium-security facility. The prison has an adjacent satellite camp on its premises that houses minimum-security inmates. The unit the former chief is serving his time in is not public information, however, according to Adams.
The facility is in Central Oklahoma, about 950 miles away from Laredo. According to the Bureau of Prisons Web site, Dovalina’s projected date of release is November 2010. Adams said the date is contingent upon Dovalina steering clear of any trouble while serving his time.
Adams said that according to U.S. Bureau of Prisons policy, information concerning whether an inmate is assigned any work detail or other related information is not made available to the public unless written permission is granted by the inmate.
Santos Santos, 52, is scheduled to be released from the FPC Duluth detention facility in Minnesota in September 2010, according to T.K. Rhodes, a prison spokeswoman. The federal prison camp houses minimum-security offenders and is located on what used to be the Duluth Air Force Base near Lake Superior.
The detention center is halfway between Minneapolis and the Canadian border with the U.S. and is about 1,560 miles from Laredo.
Rodriguez According to the Bureau of Prisons Web site, Rodriguez, 45, is serving his time in the USP Leavenworth detention facility in Leavenworth, Kan. The facility is a medium-security prison but also has an adjacent satellite camp where minimum-security offenders are housed. Rodriguez’s projected release date, according to the Web site, is December 2010. The facility is about 25 miles north of Kansas City, Kan. and 960 miles from Laredo.
Like Dovalina’s release date, Santos’ and Rodriguez’s release dates may also be changed should the inmates run afoul of the rules of their respective facilities.
The bribery deal Santos and Rodriguez were the first officers arrested in July 2007. The two were charged with accepting the bribes on an almost weekly basis in 2006 until November of that year when the transactions abruptly ended. Linh “Larry” Tuan Do, the former owner of the popular Entertainment World who initially did business with Rodriguez and later Santos, began cooperating with federal authorities and provided the evidence that led to the cops’ arrests. Rodriguez was also charged with multiple counts of cocaine possession but he and Santos agreed to cooperate with authorities and all charges, with the exception of conspiracy to commit extortion, were dropped.
The indictment also mentioned an unnamed co-conspirator that many assumed to be Dovalina because of his close relationship with Santos.
In October, Dovalina abruptly resigned as the chief of the Laredo Police Department. Four days later, the 30-year veteran of the force walked into Judge Kazen’s courtroom and pleaded guilty to the same charge.
Restoring integrity Since the scandal, city leaders have worked in earnest not only to find a new chief, but also to help restore integrity to the force and the city. During sentencing, Kazen openly admonished all three former cops for smearing the reputation of the entire police force, which he said, was predominantly comprised of legitimate and honest cops.
Months after the scandal broke; the popular game rooms were still operating openly throughout the city.
Crackdown In January, however, the police department began cracking down on the gambling parlors, seizing machines and cash and making arrests of operators and owners. Once popular establishments that used to have overflowing parking lots even before nightfall now sit empty and abandoned. Some have fading “For Lease” signs while others have been transformed into restaurants or other businesses.
While Laredoans forget that the buildings were once hotbeds for illegal gambling, city officials undoubtedly hope the memories of the scandal that made headlines statewide will also begin to fade with time.
(Julian Aguilar may be reached at 728-2557 or by e-mail at jaguilar@lmtonline.com) Retrieved May 12, 2008 from http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19681280&BRD=2290&PAG=461&dept_id=569392&rfi=6
Unlawful images and videos that depict the sexual exploitation of minors are commonly called child pornography. In most jurisdictions child pornography is considered to be a serious crime. Why is child pornography a serious crime? Beyond sexual self-gratification, possessors and traffickers of unlawful images use the images for one or more reasons including (Child pornography, 1986):
To blackmail children into keeping silent about the abuse.
To preserve a child’s youthful image at the age preferred by the pedophile.
To establish trust and camaraderie with other pedophiles.
To gain access to other markets and children by exchanging material with other pedophiles.
To duplicate, produce and sell for profit.
To reassure themselves that their deviant behavior is shared by others and therefore not abnormal.
To seduce children and lower the child’s inhibitions as part of the grooming process intended to model deviant sexual behavior.
Danger
Are the possessors of unlawful images dangerous? Is someone who looks at pictures a threat to offend against a child? Recent research (Hernandez, 2006) suggests that there may be a correlation between those who possess child pornography and those who are also “hands-on” contact offenders. One surprising study of federal prisoners indicated that 85% of those in custody for possession of child pornography were also“hands-on” molesters whose contact offenses had never been discovered.
Other professionals agree that there is a danger that possessors of unlawful images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors could escalate and eventually offend against real children. Dr. Chris Hatcher, (1997) Professor of Psychology at the University of California said, “It begins with fantasy, moves to gratification through pornography, then voyeurism, and finally, to contact.” Former FBI profiler John Douglas (Mindhunter, 1995, p. 108) described the relationship between pornographic images and sex offenders. He said, “With most sexually based killers, it is a several-step escalation from the fantasy to the reality, often fueled by pornography, morbid experimentation on animals, and cruelty to peers.”
Some possessors of unlawful images use the contraband as a “unique solution” to their pedophilic preferences. They rationalize that sexually gratifying themselves after viewing images is a justifiable alternative to committing “hands on” contact offenses against actual children.
Victims
What about the effect of child pornography on the victims? Are there any lingering problems for children who are the subject of abuse? Researchers found that the effects of unlawful images on child victims are often devastating. According to Klain, Davies and Hicks (Child pornography, March 2001, p.10) child sex abuse victims suffer a multitude of physical and psychological problems.
The innocent victims of child pornography sometimes suffer a lifetime of psychological anguish and torment wondering when where and how their tortured images will re-surface. Those who traffic in, possess and derive gratification from child pornography perpetuate the anguish. Some argue that each image tacitly re-victimizes the child whenever the image is viewed. Many victims of child pornography will never disclose their victimization to anyone. They suffer in silent, haunted purgatory. As adults, many do not wish to relive past abuse.
What is child pornography?
Child pornography depicts the graphic sexual exploitation of minors. It does not include child erotica. It does not include nudism and it does not include “baby in the bathtub” images. Unlawful images are contraband. They are the only form of contraband that is introduced into the human psyche through the sense of sight.
A case study
In 2003, former Arizona high school teacher Morton Berger was convicted on 20 counts of possession of child pornography and sentenced to 200 years prison. He appealed the sentence based on arguments of equal protection under the law and cruel and unusual punishment. In December 2004, the conviction was affirmed by two of the three judges of the Arizona Court of Appeals (State of Arizona, 2004, December 14).
Judges Susan Ehrlich and Philip Hall dismissed Berger’s appeal with arguments including (citations omitted):
It is evident beyond the need for elaboration that a State’s interest in safeguarding the physical and psychological well-being of a minor is compelling.
…the victimization of a child continues when that act is memorialized in an image. The materials produced are a permanent record of the children’s participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation. Unfortunately, the victimization of the children involved does not end when the pornographer’s camera is put away.
The legislative judgment…is that the use of children as subjects of pornographic materials is harmful to the physiological, emotional, and mental health of the child.
…the possession of child pornography drives that industry and…the production of child pornography will decrease if those who possess the product are punished equally with those who produce it.
…it (the law) will decrease the production of child pornography if it penalizes those who possess and view the product, thereby decreasing demand.
…the possession of child pornography inflames the desires of child molesters, pedophiles and child pornographers. The State has more than a passing interest in forestalling the damage caused by child pornography: preventing harm to children is, without cavil, one of its most important interests.
…we cannot fault the State for attempting to stamp out this vice at all levels in the distribution chain.
Berger downloaded images from the Internet, and every time he visited a website, he demonstrated to the producers and sellers of child pornography that there was a demand for their product. Berger’s demand served to drive the industry; there need not have been a direct monetary exchange. Berger maintains also that, because his possession of the pornographic images was passive and because he did not use threats or violence in the commission of his crimes, his sentence is grossly disproportionate. This logic is abstruse. As was described by this court in Hazlett, 205 Ariz. at 527 p. 11, 73 P. 3d at 1262, and as is evident from the violent pornographic images in this case, child pornography is a form of child abuse. The materials produced are a permanent record of the children’s participation and the harm to the child is exacerbated by their circulation.
The U.S. Supreme court denied Morton Bergers next request for an appeal. His 200 year prison sentence was upheld. Berger is scheduled for release from the Arizona Department of Corrections in 2157.
Law enforcement
Disturbing unlawful videos of the sexual abuse of minors are often accompanied by the horrible audio sounds of suffering young victims. The typical offender arrested by the Arizona ICAC Task Force possesses dozens and often hundreds of unlawful images and videos. As law enforcement officers, once we overcome the sickening shock of witnessing the brutal recorded acts of terrible sexual violence we are left with a tenacious resolve to bring offenders to justice. Efforts to eradicate the contraband images and videos depicting the sexual suffering of minors must continue and offenders must be brought to justice.
Conclusion
Contraband images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of minors are serious crimes. Offenders use the images for many disturbing reasons. The victims of child pornography deserve to be protected from their torturers and from those who enjoy witnessing the torture. Law enforcement efforts to stop unlawful images must continue.
References
Child pornography and pedophilia: Report made by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate. (1986). 99th Congress, Second session. Washington: U.S. G.P.O.1986. iii. 54: 24 cm.
Douglas, J. and Olshaker, M. (1995). Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s elite serial crime unit, New York: Pocket Books.
Hatcher, C. (1997, October). Cited in: Armagh, D. A. Safety net for the Internet: Protecting our children. Juvenile Justice Journal (on-line) Volume V, Number 1, May 1998. Retrieved March 15, 2003. From http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/jjjournal/jjjournal598/net.html
Hernandez, A. E. (2006, September 26). Statement of Andres E. Hernandez before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Committee on Energy and Commerce. U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov/HernandezTestimonyCongress.pdf
Klain, E.J., Davies, H.J., & Hicks, M.A., (2001, March). Child Pornography: The criminal justice system response, American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.missingkids. com/en_US/publications/NC81.pdf
State of Arizona Division One Court of Appeals. (2004, December 14). Appeal from the Superior Court inMaricopa County. 1 CA-CR 03-0243. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.cofad1.state.az.us/opinionfiles/CR/CR030243.pdf/CR/CR030243.pdf
Originally written: April 14, 2008, Revised: August 22, 2008
Abstract
For the first time in history, law enforcement officers in the 21st century possess proactive methods to identify and bring to justice those who sexually abuse minors. In years past, law enforcement had to wait for reports of child abuse before investigations could begin. But today, using innovative undercover techniques and the Internet, investigators can proactively seek out and apprehend offenders. Although this is one of the greatest advancements in the history of the enforcement of crimes against children, investigators still cannot take full advantage of the innovations. This work explores some of the stakeholders in the cyber-struggle and the troubling reasons that more resources are not devoted to the growing problem. The paper explores legal, systemic, societal and psychological hurdles related to Internet crimes against children and suggests a new law enforcement paradigm that better recognizes such crimes.
Introduction
The Internet opened an uninhibited world of wild digital wonder to our generation. Cyberspace offers terrific opportunities for education, commerce, entertainment and information exchange. Sadly, a troubling dark side to the World Wide Web exists where improved law enforcement efforts are needed. The quiet collision of young people and sex offenders on the Internet has resulted in a desperate but sometimes purposefully ignored cyber-struggle for the protection of children. Those who abuse minors make extensive use of computers and the Internet. Better law enforcement is urgently needed. Law enforcement officers in the 21st century possess proactive undercover methods to identify and bring to justice those who sexually abuse minors. In the past, police had wait for reports of child abuse before investigations could begin. But today, using undercover techniques and the Internet, investigators can seek out and identify abusers. Although these are the greatest advancements in the history of crimes against children, law enforcement still cannot take full advantage of the innovations.
Proactive undercover methods can identify those who lure and entice minors towards sexual abuse. Undercover officers posing as minors have been very successful in identifying hundreds of offenders who have also committed contact “hands-on” offenses against real victims (Kardasz, April 25, 2008). Investigative operations can also identify those who traffic images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of minors. Possessors of unlawful images are also often found to also be “hands-on” contact abusers. Surprising studies of incarcerated federal prisoners by Hernandez and Bourke (November 2000) indicated that a significant number of possessors of unlawful images were also contact offenders. Sophisticated investigative methods exist that can identify possessors of unlawful images (Koch, April 15, 2008, Software tracks child porn traffickers online). Increased investigative efforts into unlawful images will also result in an increase in the identification of molesters.
This work explores some of the stakeholders in the cyber-struggle and the troubling reasons that more resources are not devoted to the problem. The paper explores legal, systemic, societal and psychological hurdles related to Internet crimes against children and suggests a new law enforcement paradigm that better recognizes such crimes.
Constitutional Conflicts
The Commerce Clause of the US Constitution (Article I, Section 8, and Clause 3) has been interpreted as giving some authority over the Internet to Congress. Legislators are understandably reticent to tread on the First Amendment freedoms provided by the Internet. Efforts to safeguard cyberspace are sometimes perceived as costly by the business community and draconian “snooping” by free-speech advocates (McCullagh, April 14, 2006). At risk are the under-represented Fourteenth Amendment due process rights of children who have no socioeconomic power.
Those who assert Constitutional protections should review the words of Thomas Jefferson. Perhaps in anticipation of the Internet, he wrote (July 10, 1810),
I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.
Jefferson refers to the discovery of “new truths.” One of the new truths discovered in the exploration of cyberspace is that the Internet is a conduit of both good and evil. Jefferson may have opined that constitutionally protected rights to free expression are in question when they permit the rights of children to be horribly violated. Perhaps the free expression rights that protect offenders require review and controls. Progressive human minds invented computers and the Internet. Deviant human minds invented ways to misuse cyberspace. A middle ground favoring public safety must be found.
It is unlikely that the legal quagmire of conflicting rights will be resolved anytime soon. Until effective safeguards are in place, minors who become victims of Internet sex offenders are not receiving the equal protection and due processes guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. More work is needed to resolve these constitutional conflicts.
Unlawful Images
Internet crimes involving unlawful images of the sexual abuse of children are now widespread and the number of images and videos available via cyberspace is probably incalculable. A Congressional study in 2006 identified several key factors that contributed to the proliferation of child pornography on the Internet. First, and perhaps most problematic according to the study, is the sheer number of child abuse images on the Internet. United States law enforcement sources estimated approximately 3.5 million known child pornography images online (U.S. House of Representatives, January 2007).
The exact number of child pornography web sites is also difficult to determine. In the year 2001, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline received more than 24,400 reports of child pornography. Five years later, at the beginning of 2006, that number had climbed to more than 340,000. (National Center, March 15, 2006).
In 2008, during a 30 day period in February and March, offenders in Arizona were observed using one small avenue of the Internet to traffic 15,220 unlawful images (Kardasz, March 25, 2008). The Internet has fueled a tremendous and immeasurable increase in the amount of child pornography being produced, trafficked and possessed worldwide.
Luring and Enticement
Curious and unsuspecting adolescents visit the Internet each day seeking friendship and information but sometimes instead encounter sexual deviance and menacing predators. One study showed that one in seven youngsters received unwanted sexual solicitations and that 4% received aggressive solicitations involving a stranger who wanted to meet in person (Wolak, Mitchell & Finkelhor, 2006. p. 1).
In luring/enticement cases involving actual teens, few of the minors who are victimized ever report the crimes. Victimized teens are often too embarrassed to notify law enforcement and fearful of their parents’ wrath for disobeying rules against communicating with strangers online. Sometimes a teen returns home after secretly meeting an Internet stranger without his or her parents ever discovering the illicit tryst.
In 2002, an Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force undercover officer posing online as a young girl was contacted by a man who requested a meeting for sex. When the man went to the location where he believed that he would meet the minor he was arrested. Investigators learned that the offender had previously met two girls whom he had victimized and to whom he had given sexually transmitted diseases. In their shame, the girls had never notified their parents of the crimes. The girls’ distraught parents only learned of the offenses when detectives informed them of the suspects’ confessions (Phoenix Police Department, Report No. 2002-2233604).
In some cases, a child’s natural curiosity leads them to Internet places where they do not belong, and with sad results.Beginning at the age of 13, a California boy was repeatedly victimized by offenders who met him via the Internet after first seeing his image on a web cam. The boy suffered sexual abuses at the hands of the men who had first contacted him online. Some of the boys Internet acquaintances had assisted him in operating commercial pornography websites featuring sexual images and videos of himself (Eichenwald, December 19, 2005).
In many cases, the teens who are lured by sexual predators will never come forward due to fear or a misplaced sense of guilt. A few of them, like 13 year old Kasie Woody of Arkansas (Family Life, October 12, 2004), and 13 year old Christina Long of Connecticut (CBS News, May 21, 2002), were forever silenced by Internet sexual predators who lured them via the Internet, sexually victimized them and killed them.
Child prostitution is also being facilitated via the Internet. Pimps use message boards and social networking sites to find customers seeking to engage in paid sex acts with minors. In January 2007, Cook County Illinois police arrested three adults who used Craigslist, a free Internet advertising site, to offer the sexual services of girls as young as 14 years old. The illegal prostitution business resulted in profits of tens of thousands of dollars for the pimps. Undercover officers investigated and solved the case by responding to postings on Craigslist (Gutierrez, January 11, 2007).
In the past, child molesters were characterized as often lurking near school yards. Folklore held that child molesters frequented school yards because that is where the children were. The Internet is the new proverbial schoolyard. Cyberspace provides a ready hunting-ground for those who seek children.
The Internet is an extraordinarily important part of the daily lives of millions of young people. For some youngsters cyberspace is more influential than school, family or religion. In March 2008, an Internet-obsessed Arizona teenager became so attached to a popular social networking site that when his father revoked his computer privileges he shot and killed him (Walsh, March 05, 2008).
Internet social networking sites are places in cyberspace where subscribers may post personal information about themselves and share the information with others. Children and adults use social networking sites to communicate and to make friends. A study in 2006 estimated that 55% of young people have established online profiles in one or more of the dozens of social networking sites (PEW, January 1, 2007).
Most social networking sites are free and permit users to register without providing information about the users’ true identities or whereabouts. The sites are well suited for molesters who can pose as harmless mentors while disguising their true intent. There have been many incidents of registered sex offenders who have created online profiles portraying themselves as inoffensive individuals seeking romance without reference to their malevolent pasts (Kardasz, Internet social networking sites. 2007).
Proactive undercover “sting” investigations often lead to the apprehension of Internet sexual predators. Undercover officers posing as teens are often solicited by cyberspace acquaintances who offer to participate in sex acts. Unfortunately, a very few law enforcement agencies have personnel devoted to proactive investigations of offenders who lure and entice minors.
Disenfranchised Youth are Perfect Victims
Children and teens are disenfranchised from social and political power. They are unable or unwilling to express their needs for Internet safety. Some children who become the victims of child pornography offenses are too young to phone 911 for police assistance. They cannot call their elected official and they are often too intimidated by the offender to ever tell anyone.
Helpless child victims of some sex offenders cannot summon the assistance of law enforcement. Some victims of child pornographers are too young to formulate words or use a telephone. The evidence of a child’s victimization is invisible to the general public and the crimes are often unreported. Because crimes against children are not publicly apparent, law enforcement agencies may marginalize the problems and give the crimes lower priority than other offenses. Consequently, relatively few law enforcement resources are devoted to the problems of children.
Funding for Internet crime investigations is relatively small. Most police departments have many more traffic cops than crimes against children investigators. Abominations against children are mostly committed in private locations. The offenses do not create the conspicuous noise of gunfire or a car crash. The crimes do not have the noticeable smell of smoke from a fire and cannot be seen from the street like graffiti or broken windows so there is little public attention drawn to the crimes. Offenders know that children are easily intimidated into silence and often cannot communicate well enough to be understood by authorities. For offenders, disenfranchised children are perfect victims partly because the crimes are invisible to law enforcement and children are powerless.
Internet Service Providers
Internet service providers (ISP) are the unwitting facilitators of Internet crimes against children. ISP’s provide offenders with the connections to the web that allows crimes to occur. Without a cyberspace connection provided by an ISP, Internet crime would impossible. Some conscientious ISP’s are taking helpful steps to provide crime prevention education information to users but more assistance to law enforcement is needed.
Other unwitting persons who benefit from Internet services include businesses who advertise on web sites for the purpose of drawing buyers to their products. Some businesses have been surprised to learn that their advertising banners have appeared on web pages featuring child pornography. Some of the responsibility for cyberspace safety and enforcement also lies with those who benefit from advertising on the Internet.
Most ISP’s charge a fee for service and individual subscribers often pay with credit cards. The subscription and payment process provides a path for law enforcement to use subpoenas or search warrants to trace back to a subscriber by following the money trail. The subpoena and search warrant response process can be time-consuming for both law enforcement and the ISP’s. Delays in the response process can stall law enforcement investigative efforts. When an ISP does not retain subscriber data, the investigation sometimes ends.
In 1998, a federal law was passed (Cornell Law School, 2007) requiring ISP’s to report child pornography to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). By 2002, thousands of reports were flooding into NCMEC from those ISP’s that chose to comply with the law. Those reports were subsequently sent to federal, state and local agencies for investigation. The large number of reports quickly overwhelmed the small staffs of those few agencies that employed investigators who had the technical expertise needed to investigate Internet crimes. Investigators began to complain that ISP’s were sometimes failing to respond in a timely manner to subpoenas or search warrants requesting subscriber information. Investigators noted that in some cases, ISP’s retained no information whatsoever, leaving investigations to a dead end.
A small survey of law enforcement investigators in 2006 showed that the number one need of those who investigate Internet crimes against children was for improved responses from Internet service providers. At Congressional hearings in 2006, law enforcement officers requested improved data retention by ISP’s (Kardasz, April 6, 2006). Representative Ed Whitfield from Kentucky responded to the request by saying, “I absolutely think that is an idea worth pursuing. If those files were retained for longer periods of time, it would help in the uncovering and prosecution of these crimes.” When news of the request for improved data retention reached the Internet industry, some in the field denied that there was a problem and expressed reluctance about the idea to preserve data. The idea was subsequently mis-characterized as unnecessary government intervention in attempts to “snoop” and pry into private citizens’ lives (McCullagh, April 14, 2006).
The need for ISP’s to retain data and to respond quickly to legal process from law enforcement is a critical need for investigators of Internet crimes. Lack of response to law enforcement subpoenas and search warrants can have dire consequences for victims and stall or end law enforcement investigations before an offender can be identified (Kardasz, February 12, 2008).
Special Agent Flint Waters of the Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force testified before a Congressional Subcommittee that in one case, an ICAC investigator intercepted the Internet transmission of a video showing the rape of a two-year-old child and traced the video to a computer somewhere in Colorado. When the investigator approached the Internet Service Provider, Comcast, to request the customer information for the Internet protocol address, Comcast replied that it had not retained the customer records for that address. As of the date of the hearing (April, 2006), to Mr. Waters’ knowledge, the child in the video had not been identified (U.S. House of Representatives, January, 2007).
Internet service providers, credit card companies, social networking sites, gaming sites, providers of chat rooms, e-mail services and those who advertise in Cyberspace are all among the facilitators who are caught in the middle of the Internet crime problem. The providers tacitly assent to Internet crime while profiting from subscribers and advertisers. Providers should logically bear some of the responsibility for correcting the problems. In the same way that automobile manufacturers begrudgingly gave way, after thousands of roadway deaths, to regulations mandating vehicle safety, ISP’s must provide improved Internet safety before the annual number of Internet crimes matches the annual number of vehicular accidents.
For Internet service providers, preserving information and providing it to law enforcement in response to legal process is an unwanted and unprofitable chore. As the tragedies associated with some ISP’s reluctance to preserve and provide information gain increased attention, public pressure and legislative action may dictate that ISP’s work harder to help law enforcement officers identify the suspects associated with Internet crimes. Eventually, reluctant ISP’s will be unable to turn a blind eye to the crimes and might be forced to become partners in justice instead of facilitators of injustice.
Politics and Mute Constituents
Children can easily become a political afterthought because they do not make financial contributions to political campaigns and they do not vote. Teens cannot organize and hire influential lobbyists to represent them before legislators. Minors are the mute and powerless constituents of well-intentioned elected officials who are unknowingly blind to their victimization.
Media and Unlawful Images
In cases involving unlawful images and videos, the crimes against children facilitated by the Internet are sometimes so horrible that the news media is unable or unwilling to fully describe the incidents. Adding to the dilemma is the fact that unlawful images are themselves contraband and cannot be released for public viewing. When written in text the dispassionate descriptions of unlawful images use statutory legalese to explain the criminal sex acts involved. The pedantic written descriptions of the images and videos can never fully convey the abominations suffered by the victims.
Media and Luring/Enticement
Well intentioned media organizations in partnership with cybervigilante groups and sometimes with the cooperation of law enforcement have conducted undercover sting operations targeting Internet sexual predators (MSNBC, 2008). Such operations present unique and unusual challenges to law enforcement (Kardasz, March 17, 2008). The sting operations do little to quell the onslaught of Internet predators and in some cases make the work of undercover officers more difficult. The cybervigilantes often make the offenders more wary as the predators later demand more proofs from UC officers, asking the officers to show that they are not with law enforcement or the media before completing the criminal act.
Law Enforcement Uniformed crime reporting.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) service collects data describing the saturation of law enforcement officers within various regions of the US. In 2004 there were 675,734 sworn officers who provided law enforcement services to more than 278 million people nationwide (Dept. of Justice, FBI, 2004). The UCR also reports the number of officers per 1000 population in various regions of the US. Depending on the location, different areas of the US had between 1.8 and 5.5 officers per 1000 population. The DOJ does not gather statistics about the number of citizens who use the Internet and no information is reported in the UCR about the number of law enforcement officers engaged in battling offenders who use the Internet to victimize minors.
The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is ineffective in capturing statistics specifically related to Internet crimes against children. NIBRS does not have specific categories that capture Internet crimes against children (Finkelhor D., and Ormrod, R. December 2004). This tragic failure to collect data permits statistics-driven administrators to deny and ignore the existence of the problem.
Spending for enforcement.
The Internet crime problem craves increased resources for law enforcement services, training and equipment. Unfortunately, resources for law enforcement functions of any kind are sometimes scarce. The competition for the limited available funds occurs in environments where agencies contend with one another for each slice of the budget. Knowledgeable advocates for children continually hope that more government dollars will be devoted to the enforcement of Internet crimes against children. In his 2006 testimony to Congress (April 6) Grier Weeks, Executive Director of the National Association to Protect Children said:
The federal government must get serious. We are losing this war, (against child pornography) and we are not supporting our troops on the front lines. Recent estimates of the size of the exploding global criminal market in child pornography are in the multi-billion dollar range. Yet by no objective measure can we claim to be serious or prepared as a nation about stopping what is being done to these children. The FBI’s Innocent Images National Initiative is funded at $10 million annually. By comparison, the Department of Housing and Urban Development just announced it was awarding more money than the entire Innocent Images budget to build 86 elderly apartment units in Connecticut and almost 7 times their budget on the homeless in Ohio. The administration has proposed 20 times the entire Innocent Images budget for abstinence-only education programs through the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department of Justice’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force program received about $14.5 in fiscal year 2006. That is less than one-fifth the amount proposed for a new initiative to help former prisoners reintegrate into society. Last year’s budget included $211 million for the Department of the Interior for “high-priority brush removal” and related projects. $14.5 million doesn’t clear much brush.
Offenders, the public and law enforcement.
Crimes against children are particularly repugnant. Most people wish to mentally disassociate themselves from thoughts of dreadful abuse involving helpless children.
Law-enforcement investigators must deal with the fact that the identification, investigation, and prosecution of child molesters may not be welcomed by their communities—especially if the molester is a prominent person. Individuals may protest, and community organizations may rally to the support of the offender and even attack the victims. City officials may apply pressure to halt or cover up the investigation. Many law-enforcement supervisors, prosecutors, judges, and juries cannot or do not want to deal with the details of deviant sexual behavior. They will do almost anything to avoid these cases (Lanning, 2001, p. 142).
Crimes against children are the most reviled types of investigations for law enforcement officers. While respectful of the need to bring offenders to justice many officers say, “I could never work those kinds of crimes.” The true facts about the sexual victimization of minors is so psychologically distressing that few can emotionally tolerate being deeply involved in the investigations. Community based policing for invisible victims.
Traditional law enforcement approaches based on community oriented policing theories are not applicable in the area of Internet crimes against children. In a community oriented policing services publication intended to guide police administrators in evaluating their local child pornography problem, writers Wortley and Smallbone (May 2006, p. 29) recommend a curious statistics-based method for analyzing the problem. The publication clumsily counsels administrators to understand their local problem by determining how many complaints related to child pornography have been investigated in their jurisdictions. Unfortunately, because the victims of crimes against children cannot complain, using the suggested methods to evaluate child pornography crimes based on local crime statistics is an invalid over-simplification.
Unlike spectacular crimes and incidents involving crashes, explosions, shootings and widespread newsworthy bloodletting, the evil offenses against children are committed in dark and private places by offenders who often psychologically control or humiliate their victims into silence. The crimes are mostly unreported. Statistics will not reveal the true story.
Federal and local law enforcement.
Because of competing priorities, Internet crimes against children have received relatively little attention from federal law enforcement agencies. Since 2001, Federal efforts have focused appropriately on terrorism and border protection. The continuing war on illegal drugs is also a proper federal priority. Several enforcement efforts against Internet film piracy, copyright violations and file-shared music were mounted after demands by influential and well-heeled victims in the movie and music industry (Dept. of Justice, November 17, 2006). The slow response to cybercrime is partly due to the fact that Internet crimes are a relatively new phenomena. Crimes against children were only added to Federal law enforcement duties in the mid 1980s, and Internet crimes against children only began to rise in the late 1990s. Law enforcement is far behind the criminals in the war against illegal images. In April, 2008, when asked about the war on child pornography, FBI Director Mueller admitted to Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, “We’re losing” (Ryan, April 23, 2008).
Local law enforcement resources at the state, county and city levels are drawn to homicides, sex assaults, gangs, drugs, burglaries, property crimes and other offenses of legitimate local importance. Consequently, those who fight Internet crimes against children are often overlooked under funded and understaffed. Advocates for children agree that more funding for the enforcement of cybercrime is needed (Koch, April 15, 2008, Limited funds hinder child porn fight). As the issues become more apparent to the public and to lawmakers, perhaps funding will increase.
Advanced training and investigative skills are required in order to conduct proactive investigations of Internet sexual offenders. Law enforcement investigators who are generalists and who must also carry caseloads involving other types of crimes are unable to conduct extensive undercover investigations involving Internet crimes against children. Consequently, few law enforcement agencies have staff who are devoted full time to proactive enforcement of Internet crimes against children.
Law enforcement educators.
Internet crimes against children are a troubling afterthought for many law enforcement agencies. Some agencies find it easier to mount Internet safety education efforts than to mount law enforcement effort aimed at arresting criminals. Internet safety education should not be confused with law enforcement. One large metropolitan police department in the US boasts 99 school resource officers trained to conduct Internet safety education in schools but has only two investigators to conduct proactive Internet enforcement efforts.
Police are trained and paid to keep the peace and make arrests. Unfortunately, their true enforcement efforts are sometimes detoured into the unfamiliar world of education where they must be re-trained as teachers. Internet public safety education efforts are important but administrators should consider whether they want sworn employees to be educators or law enforcers.
Recommendations
What can be done to improve law enforcement efforts towards apprehending Internet sexual predators and traffickers of unlawful images? How can funding be identified for more investigators to fight Internet crimes against children? Here are several suggestions.
Voluntary contributions from ISP’s customers
Citizen Internet users may be willing to designate a dollar from their monthly Internet service bill to be dedicated specifically towards the investigations of crimes against children. Those funds could then be used to hire and train more investigators dedicated specifically to the job of identifying and apprehending offenders who use the Internet to commit crimes against children.
Better statistics-gathering methods
Failure to capture the number of Internet crimes against children in the NIBRS system permits administrators to deny the existence of the problem. The system must be corrected to properly reflect the problem of Internet crimes.
More proactive investigators
Proactive investigations can lead to the apprehension of offenders before they commit “contact” crimes. More investigators are needed.
Basic law enforcement training
Law enforcement basic training academies need to recognize Internet threats by providing a block of instruction regarding Internet crimes against children for entry-level employees.
Permanent funding
Permanent funding sources specifically designated for the purpose of supporting proactive investigative (not citizen education) efforts should be designated. As of 2008, the successful Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program remained an optional Congressional earmark program with no guarantees of continuation. Federal agencies including the FBI, ICE, US Postal Service, US Marshalls Service and even the Secret Service are making increased efforts to assist in the efforts but more personnel and funding is needed.
Legislation
Internet Service Providers should be mandated to retain subscriber data and required to respond promptly to legal process from law enforcement.
Tax on Internet Service Providers
A luxury tax on Internet service providers. A small tax on Internet service providers with the proceeds dedicated towards supporting investigative (not citizen education) efforts towards apprehending Internet sex offenders.
Conclusion
Child victims of Internet sex crimes cannot summon assistance the way other victims can. They cannot adjust agency manpower, set policy or change regulations for their benefit. They cannot notify their local elected official. They cannot form a citizen-action group and they cannot vote. All they can do is suffer and hope. Hope that someone will pick up the cause and summon the sustained resolve to overcome legal, systemic, societal and psychological hurdles to help them.
No single entity can claim to be in command of the Internet. Cyberspace has no single location on which to plant a flag. The Internet is like a new planet and we are still the early inhabitants. Because the Internet is not made of brick and mortar, it is easy to abdicate or ignore responsibility for authority over cyberspace. It is easy to succumb to those who might argue against any restraint whatsoever over electronic communications. While the Web remains unmanageable, offenders have quickly planted their flags and taken full advantage of the global communities’ inability to control cyberspace.
Law enforcement institutions must advance to keep pace with developments in cyberspace. Administrators should consider the number of Internet users and subscribers in various regions and consider deploying proactive Internet crime investigators based on Internet saturation ratios. Such considerations would represent a step towards a new paradigm in policing. The paradigm begins by recognizing the rights of children to be safe from offenders who use cyberspace to gratify their sexual desires. Undercover proactive investigative techniques must be improved. Instead of avoiding technology, we must embrace it for the purposes of protecting minors.
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U. S. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce. (January 2007). Sexual exploitation of children on the Internet: Bipartisan staff report for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. 109th. Congress. Retrieved January 15, 2007 from http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:Lm4QGZZG5TEJ:burgess.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Subcommittee%2520on
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Sgt. Frank Kardasz spoke on behalf of the Arizona ICAC Task Force. “I am pleased to accept on behalf of my colleagues at the local state and federal levels who work hard each day to bring Internet sex offenders to justice.” Kardasz said.
At the awards ceremony NCMEC and QWest also announced a new service – Netsmartz 411. Netsmartz 411 is an online resource where children and parents may find answers to questions about Internet safety. Learn more about Netsmartz 411 at: http://www.netsmartz411.org/
