Criminal History and Future Offending of Juveniles Convicted of the Possession of Child Pornography

Abstract

Most child pornography is distributed online. It is estimated that 3% to 15% of child pornography consumers are juveniles. The present study analyzed a consecutive sample of 54 male juveniles convicted of the possession of child pornography. Demographic characteristics, criminal history, and subsequent offending were assessed from criminal files and official reports. Juvenile possessors of child pornography were compared to three different groups of juveniles: Juvenile possessors of other illegal pornography (n = 42), juveniles who committed a sexual contact offense against a child (n = 64), and juveniles who committed a sexual contact offense against a peer or adult (n = 104). Juvenile possessors of child pornography were found to have downloaded the illegal material more frequently and over a longer time period than juvenile possessors of other illegal pornography. Furthermore, juvenile possessors of child pornography differed from juveniles who had committed a sexual contact offense in terms of demographics and showed fewer previous and subsequent offending than juveniles who sexually offended against a peer or adult. We conclude that juvenile possessors of child pornography need a specific target intervention focusing on dysfunctional Internet use and sexually deviant arousal.

Criminal recidivism and psychosocial adversity in offense-related subtypes of sexually abusive adolescents

“…Boonmann et al, 2014). Aebi et al (2014) found that JSOs convicted of possession of child pornography were less likely to engage in sexual or nonsexual criminal recidivism than JSOs with contact offenses. Similarly, Seto (2015) concluded that adult online offenders had lower rates of future contact sexual offenses than did contact offenders.…”

“…These findings may be attributable to enhanced self-control and reduced impulsivity in online offenders which prevent them from acting out potential sexual deviance through contact offenses (Babchishin et al, 2011). It cannot be ruled out, however, that ongoing online sexual harassment is present but difficult to detect, owing to the anonymity of the Internet (Aebi et al, 2014).…”

Understanding Online Child Sexual Exploitation Offenses

“…The literature on offense history indicated that online offenders were more likely to be first-time offenders than mixed or in-person offender subgroups [21,23,25]. In some studies, offenders arrested for CP (online offender) were later found to be mixed offenders.…”

“…Juvenile online offenders were more likely to be from a higher socioeconomic status than other juvenile offenders [21]. As a group, online offenders tend to be more formally educated and more likely to have a post-secondary education than the other offender groups [18••, 20, 22].…”

Legislation Response to Use of Minors' Self-generated Sexual Content for their ICT-facilitated Sexual Coercion

“…There is world-wide evidence (Aebi et al, 2014;Ashurst and Mcalinden, 2015;Lee and Crofts, 2015) that young people use social media in grooming and bullying to abuse and exploit others sexually with enough frequency. Such behaviour requires actions from society and legislation.…”