Possession of Child Pornography: A Case Study

Abstract

In recent years clinicians treating sexual off enders have seen an increasing number of cases involving child pornography and the Internet. Estimates of the scope of online child pornography and online sexual off ense behavior vary signifi cantly from study to study. Th is is often due to the diffi culty in measuring the online world and specifi cally individuals’ sexual behavior in the online world. For example, it is estimated that the number of known sex off enders connected to the Internet at any given time is 750,000 (Maalla, 2009), but it is unclear how this number is derived. An estimate from Wellard (2001) suggested there are more than 1 million pornographic images of children on the Internet and 200 new images posted daily, with little description of how the author arrived at these numbers. Regardless of these diffi culties in estimating online statistics, it is clear there are a signifi cant number of child pornography images available online with a large number of consumers of such pornography. As expected, with the increased availability of child pornography and ease of access, the number of arrests related to such images has also increased. In the federal criminal system, an estimated 1,713 off enders were arrested for crimes related to child pornography possession or distribution in 2000 (Wolak, Finkelhor, Mitchell, 2005), and by 2006 there were an estimated 3,672 arrests for similar crimes (Wolak, Finkelhor, & Mitchell, 2011). Since 2006, federal and state courts continue to see a rise in the number of cases related to online child pornography. In addition, while sex off ender specifi c clinicians report an increase in clinical cases associated with online child pornography off enses, general practitioners are also reporting an increased number of child pornography related cases in their practices.