About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

61 Fed. Probation 14 (1997)
Misuse of the Internet by Pedophiles: Implications for Law Enforcement and Probation Practice

handle is hein.journals/fedpro61 and id is 228 raw text is: Misuse of the Internet by Pedophiles: Implications for Law Enforcement and Probation Practice* By KEITH F. DuRKIN Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences, McNeese State University Introduction HILD SEXUAL abuse is widely recognized as an especially serious problem in the United States. A voluminous body of scientific literature indi- cates that children who are sexually molested suffer a variety of physical, psychological, and social damage because of their victimization (see Browne & Finkelhor, 1986; Burgess & Lottes, 1988; Conte & Berliner, 1988; Lurigio, Jones, & Smith, 1995). Adults who sexually abuse children are considered to be among the most serious deviants in our society. Consequently, they often come to the attention of criminal justice agencies. Because of prison overcrowding, probation is a common punishment for child sex abusers. However, the super- vision. of individuals who have been convicted of sexu- ally abusing children poses serious challenges to proba- tion departments since these individuals are difficult to manage and frequently recidivate (Lurigio et al., 1995). Recent developments involving the misuse of the Inter- net by pedophiles-adult males whose sexual prefer- ence is for children'-further complicate this already problematic situation. Advances in telecommunication technology have made possible the existence of vast computer networks collectively referred to as the Internet or the informa- tion superhighway. An estimated 30 to 40 million peo- ple in more than 160 nations have access to the Internet (Elmer-Dewitt, 1995). This global network consists of tens of thousands of interconnected computer networks, including those at academic, government, and business facilities, as well as commercial on-line services (e.g., America On-Line, Prodigy, and Compuserve) and pri- vate bulletin board systems. There appear to be four ways in which pedophiles are misusing the Internet: to traffic child pornography, to locate children to molest, to engage in inappropriate sexual communication with children, and to communicate with other pedophiles. *This article is based on a paper presented at the 1996 an- nual meeting of the Mid-South Sociological Association. The author would like to thank the following people for their as- sistance, comments, and criticisms: Clifton Bryant, Donald Shoemaker, Carol Bailey, Peggy de Wolf, John Edwards, Den- nis Peck, and the late George Hillery. The abuse of the Internet by pedophiles has received a modest amount of attention lately. Recent criminal in- vestigations have led to the arrest of numerous ped- ophiles for trafficking child pornography and soliciting sex from children on-line. For example, in September 1995, as part of a law enforcement operation dubbed Innocent Images, FBI agents arrested more than a dozen people for transmitting child pornography and soliciting children for sexual purposes via America On- Line, the nation's largest commercial service provider. The impetus for this investigation was the case of a missing 10-year-old Maryland boy who was lured from his home by on-line pedophiles (Marshall, 1995). In a statement about this investigation, Attorney General Janet Reno said, We are not going to let exciting new technology be misused to exploit and injure children (Swisher, 1995, p. Al). The purpose of this article is to document the ways in which the Internet is being misused by pedophiles. Spe- cial consideration is afforded to the implications that these deviant activities have for law enforcement and probation practice. In a recent article, Davis, McShane, and Williams (1995) called attention to the need to con- trol the computer access of child sexual abusers who are on probation. Although these authors briefly men- tioned a few of the ways in which pedophiles are mis- using computer technology, their primary focus was on the development of valid conditions of probation to limit or prohibit computer access for these offenders. The information presented here reinforces the need to restrict the computer access of convicted child sexual abusers who are on probation. An adequate under- standing of the ways in which pedophiles can misuse the Internet certainly will be useful to probation offi- cers in supervising pedophiles and to law enforcement personnel in developing investigative strategies to com- bat the problem. Pedophiles on the Internet One of the primary ways in which pedophiles are misusing the Internet is to exchange child porn- ography. Traditionally, pedophiles would traffic this material via clandestine newsletters or other tightly controlled exchange networks (Carter, 1995). Now Vol. 61, No. 3

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most