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?

Keywords::

• Internet
• child pornography
• online offending
• sex offenders
• juvenile suspects

Notes

^1. Nu.nl (2006). Jonge makers pornofilmpje krijgen taakstraf [Young producers of porn movie get community service]. Retrieved 17 November 2010, from: http://www.nu.nl/Internet/826,428/jonge-makers-pornofilmpje-krijgen-taakstraf.html

^2. In these cases, the Dutch police received an international assistance request to question suspects in The Netherlands who had downloaded child pornography on a website from abroad.

^3.http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/verklaring-omtrent-het-gedrag/vraag-en-antwoord/wanneer-krijg-ik-een-verklaring-omtrent-het-gedrag-vog.html, retrieved 20 June 2012.

^4. For more discussion on this topic (in the US context) see Sacco (2010) study.