Child pornography, the Internet and juvenile suspects

Abstract

An example of a recurrent issue in communities is the legal system's struggle to process problems of young offenders. The main focus of this article is juvenile suspects of crimes considering child pornography. Two topics are discussed: the nature of these crimes and the characteristics of suspects. An analysis of 159 Dutch police files on child pornography shows that almost a quarter of the suspects are under 24 years of age. Of that group, 35% is younger than 18 years. Often, these are youngsters who take sexualised pictures and/or make videos of themselves and/or each other. If this material is distributed via the Internet it becomes a matter for law enforcement agencies. This conclusion forms the base of the Discussion section of this article. Should law enforcement agencies settle these cases in an informal manner? Or should suspects be prosecuted in order to prevent certain types of child pornography from ceasing to be punishable?