A large number of victims of crime tend to be individuals from vulnerable groups. According to the United States Justice Department, children constitute a large proportion of victims of crime. In 2012, 9.3% of the cases that were reported involving children concerned sexual abuse (DOJ, n.d). In collaboration with the authorities in other countries, the US government has instituted measures to insulate children against the sexual and other forms of abuse. Prohibiting child pornography is among these measures. Despite this prohibition, cases of child pornography continue to be reported. To effectively secure the rights and safety of children, tougher measures are needed.
In the introduction above, it has been stated that the US government has taken action to protect children. The Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act (1998) is among the measures that the government has taken to secure children. Essentially, as the title suggests, this law seeks to safeguard minors against various forms of sexual abuse and violence. Some of the provisions of the Act include the stipulation of harsh penalties for sexual offenses against minors (ILO, n.d). The Act identifies child pornography as among the crimes which shall attract harsh punishment. In the event that one discovers child pornography, they have an obligation to take action. Filing a report with law enforcement authorities is the first step that one should take. Federal law imposes a mandate on such individuals as employers to report any and all incidents involving child pornography. For example, statute 8 U.S.C. § 2258A stipulates that upon discovering child pornography, an individual should immediately make a report (Mitchell, 2012). There are states such as Massachusetts which have enacted laws that also require individuals to file reports. In compliance with these laws, the employee at the ISP should contact the police as soon as practicable. As they file the report, the employee should provide details which the police can use to identify the individual viewing the child pornography.
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The actions of law enforcement agents have led to the arrest of dozens of child pornography suspects. As one would expect, most of these suspects deny the charges levelled against them. For example, a psychiatrist who worked at the University of California vehemently denied charges of possessing child pornography (“UCSF Psychiatrist”, 2017). This suspect denied the charges despite the overwhelming evidence that implicated him. When handling cases of suspects who deny knowledge of or direct interaction with child pornography, law enforcement officials should turn to established forensic procedures. One of the steps in the procedures involves confiscating and searching for evidence in such storage media as hard drives (Liberatore, Levine & Shields, 2010). Next, the investigators need to establish that the suspect is indeed responsible for any child pornography found on the storage devices. To achieve this, they examine the suspect’s history of computer and internet use. For example, the investigators could examine the suspect’s internet and cache history to determine if they searched for child pornography. While this procedure has flaws that could make it difficult to positively identify the suspect, it is fairly reliable.
In conclusion, child pornography is emerging as a serious challenge for law enforcement agencies. The fact that suspects are able to mask their identity and erase all evidence is one of the factors that hamper the efforts of the agencies to nab and charge suspects. There are various laws that are in place to help police officers in their quest to stamp out child pornography and other forms of child sexual abuse. The Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act of 1998 is one of these laws. The harsh penalties that this and other laws stipulate should help in the fight against sexual abuse of children. Law enforcement agencies need to revamp their efforts to ensure the safety of minors.
References
International Labor Organization (ILO). United States (2,480). Retrieved May 12, 2018
From http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=52825&p_country=USA&p_count=2480
Liberatore, M., Levine, B. N., & Shields, C. (2010). Strengthening Forensic Investigations into Of Child Pornography on P2P Networks. Retrieved May 12, 2018 from https://conferences.sigcomm.org/co-next/2010/CoNEXT_papers/19-Liberatore.pdf
Mitchell, M. L. (2012). What to do when your Client Discovers Child Pornography on Workplace Computers. Retrieved May 12, 2018 from https://bostonbarjournal.com/2012/06/13/what-to-do-when-your-client-discovers-child-pornography-on-workplace-computers/
UCSF Psychiatrist Pleads not Guilty to Child Porn Charges. (2017). Retrieved May 12, 2018 from http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/05/15/ucsf-psychiatrist-pleads-not-guilty-to-child-porn-charges/
United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Raising Awareness about Sexual Abuse. Retrieved May 12, 2018 from https://www.nsopw.gov/en/Education/FactsStatistics?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
