Technical profiles of child sexual exploitation material offenders.

The idiographic technical profiles of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) offenders provide insight into their behaviours and context for their interactions with technology, but minimal quantitative work has been done to evaluate their sociability, technical ability and technophilia compared to non-offenders. This work used an online survey to compare an offender group consisting of English-speaking adults previously convicted of CSEM offenses (N = 78) with a reference population of non-offenders (N = 254). The survey assessed sociability, technical ability and technophilia through self-rating and information on occupation, level of education and device ownership. The study found that CSEM offenders had slightly lower sociability than non-offenders, though not at a level of clinical interest. Additionally, CSEM offenders had no statistically significant difference in technical ability and lower overall technophilia when compared to non-offenders. This study fails to support popular perceptions of CSEM offenders being technically savvy loners who are early adopters of new technologies.

Self Perceptions and Cognitions of Child Sexual Exploitation Material Offenders.

Identifying the self-perceptions of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) consumers compared to a reference population of non-consumers is critical in establishing distorted cognitions that may not be elucidated when comparison is made with groups who have committed other offenses. This exploratory work utilizes a quantitative approach toward identifying how individuals previously convicted of child pornography offenses view CSEM and CSEM offending, using a group of non-offenders as a baseline. The target group was selected based on their inclusion in two sex offender registries for child pornography offenses (n = 78). A reference group of non-offenders (n = 254) was gender-matched from a subset of a prior study evaluating the public perceptions of CSEM. Both groups were adults located within the United States and were asked questions using an online survey about their general perceptions of CSEM, their endorsement of CSEM beliefs, and their opinions related to the legality of various forms of CSEM and associated laws and sentencing guidelines. The study found that CSEM consumers more accurately assessed risks associated with CSEM offending, but that they exhibited potential minimization-based cognitive distortions related to severity and victimization and more strongly endorsed child erotica and virtual child pornography being legal. Additionally, they endorsed treatment over prison, and were strongly opposed to sex offender registration for child pornography offenses. The results provide potential treatment targets, including behavioral areas that may be pathways to CSEM offending.

Suicidal ideation in offenders convicted of child sexual exploitation material offences.

Understanding the prevalence of suicidal ideation in Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) offenders and their psychological concerns provides the basis for early treatment and intervention. This research solicited responses (n = 78) via an anonymous, web-based survey from adults in the United States previously convicted of CSEM offences. Significant suicidal ideation was present in 73% of respondents (n = 57), and 19% (n = 15) reported attempting suicide after they were made aware of an investigation, with 41% (n = 32) stating they would have been likely to seek counselling if provided a contact. Most of the respondents felt they were not treated with fairness, understanding, and compassion by investigators, and that their primary psychological strains were going to jail and their families finding out. This research highlights the need for more empathetic investigative approaches, as well as the need for more rapid assessment and treatment of proximal suicide risk in this population.

Public Perceptions of Child Pornography and Child Pornography Consumers.

Understanding the public's perceptions of child pornography helps identify gaps in awareness and knowledge, impacts legislative decision making, quantifies stigmatization, and provides a baseline for identifying differences between lay and offender populations for clinical purposes. This research provides a comprehensive public survey assessing these issues. An Internet-based sample of 524 adults (mean age = 47 years, 51% female) within the USA were asked about their understanding and beliefs related to child pornography and individuals who view child pornography. The questions covered three topic areas-general perceptions of child pornography, endorsement of child pornography beliefs, and opinions related to the legality of various forms of child pornography as well as the decision making related to sentencing and sex offender registration for child pornography consumers. The research found that the public viewed these offenses as more severe than most other crimes and that there was an overestimation by the public of risks related to recidivism and contact offending. Additionally, the research found that there was support for most of the current sentencing guidelines in the USA, including sex offender registration, and that there was limited support for treatment over incarceration.

Collecting and viewing behaviors of child sexual exploitation material offenders.

BACKGROUND: The collecting behaviors of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) offenders provide insight into their cognitions and motivations that have clinical applications. OBJECTIVE: This study analyzed the CSEM collecting and viewing behaviors of previously convicted offenders. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTINGS: A postal letter soliciting participation in an online survey was sent to adults previously convicted of CSEM offenses in the United States. Comparison information from a non-offending population of adults within the United States (N = 524) was collected and compared to the CSEM respondents (N = 78). METHOD: A mixed-methods approach was utilized. The CSEM group was compared to a gender-matched sample from the non-offending group for general adult sexual exploitation material (SEM) viewing. Exploratory analyses of CSEM offender behaviors related to collecting, collection diversity, and recidivism were conducted. RESULTS: The majority (78%) of the offenders did not organize their content and 74% deleted their entire collection on at least one occasion. Offenders viewed more diverse categories of adult SEM than non-offenders, including more bestiality, hentai, teen, and nudist/naturist material. None of the offenders viewed CSEM exclusively, and 74% viewed more adult SEM than CSEM. The age range of CSEM content viewed did not support highly preferential viewing but did support general novelty seeking. The self-reported recidivism rate was 10%, with infrequent post-conviction CSEM activity. CONCLUSION: Treatment professionals should not assume that pedophilic interests are the sole or even primary motivator for CSEM behavior. Problematic Internet usage, general pornography consumption, coping issues, or novelty seeking may be more appropriate targets for some offenders.

Web-based child pornography: The global impact of deterrence efforts and its consumption on mobile platforms.

Our study is the first to look at mobile device use for child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) consumption, and at the global impact of deterrence efforts by search providers. We used data from Google, Bing, and Yandex to assess how web searches for CSEM are being conducted, both at present and historically. Our findings show that the blocking efforts by Google and Microsoft have resulted in a 67% drop in the past year in web-based searches for CSEM. Additionally, our findings show that mobile devices are a substantial platform for web-based consumption of CSEM, with tablets and smartphones representing 32% of all queries associated with CSEM conducted on Bing. Further, our findings show that a major search engine not located in the United States, Yandex, did not undertake blocking efforts similar to those implemented by Google and Microsoft and has seen no commensurate drop in CSEM searches and continues to profit from ad revenue on these queries. While the efforts by Google and Microsoft have had a deterrence effect in the United States, searchers from Russia and other locations where child pornography possession is not criminalized have continued to use these services. Additionally, the same lax enforcement environment has allowed searchers from the United States to utilize Yandex with little fear of detection or referral to United States law enforcement from the Russian authorities.

Child pornography in peer-to-peer networks.

OBJECTIVE: The presence of child pornography in peer-to-peer networks is not disputed, but there has been little effort done to quantify and analyze the distribution and nature of that content to-date. By performing an analysis of queries and query hits on the largest peer-to-peer network, we are able to both quantify and describe the nature of querying by child pornographers as well as the content they are sharing. METHOD: Child pornography related content was identified and analyzed in 235,513 user queries and 194,444 query hits. RESULTS: The research confirmed a large amount of peer-to-peer traffic is dedicated to child pornography, but supply and demand must be separated for a better understanding. The most prevalent query and the top two most prevalent filenames returned as query hits were child pornography related. However, it would be inaccurate to state child pornography dominates peer-to-peer as 1% of all queries were related to child pornography and 1.45% of all query hits (unique filenames) were related to child pornography, consistent with a smaller study (Hughes et al., 2008). In addition to the above, research indicates that the median age searched for was 13 years old, and the majority of queries were gender-neutral, but of those with gender-related terms, 79% were female-oriented. Distribution-wise, the vast majority of content-specific searches are for movies at 99%, though images are still the most prevalent in availability. CONCLUSIONS: There is no shortage of child pornography supply and demand on peer-to-peer networks and by analyzing how consumers seek and distributors advertise content we can better understand their motivations. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Understanding the behavior of child pornographers and how they search for content when contrasted with those sharing content provides a basis for finding and combating that behavior. For law enforcement, knowing the specific terms used allows more timely and accurate forensics and better identification of those seeking and distributing child pornography. For Internet researchers, better filtering and monitoring is possible. For mental health professionals, understanding the preferences and behaviors of those searching supports more effective treatment.