A new Crimes Against Children Research Center study finds dramatic growth nationwide in arrests of online predators who solicited law enforcement investigators posing online as juveniles, the numbers nearly quintupling from 644 in 2000 to 3,100 in 2006.
During the same period, arrests of individuals for soliciting juveniles themselves grew a modest 21 percent, from an estimated 508 arrests in 2000 to an estimated 615 in 2006, at a time when use of the Internet by youth was growing from 73 percent to 93 percent.
The study's introduction and key conclusions are excerpted below.
Publicity about "online predators"—sex offenders who use the Internet to meet juvenile victims—has raised considerable alarm about the extent to which Internet use may be putting children and adolescents at risk for sexual abuse and exploitation. Media stories and Internet safety messages have raised fears by describing violent offenders who use the Internet to prey on naïve children by tricking them into face-to-face meetings or tracking them down through information posted online. Law enforcement has mobilized on a number of fronts, setting up task forces to identify and prosecute online predators, developing undercover operations, and urging social networking sites to protect young users.
Unfortunately, however, reliable information on the scope and nature of the online predator problem remains scarce. Established criminal justice data collection systems do not gather detailed data on such crimes that could help inform public policy and education. To remedy this information vacuum, the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire conducted systematic research that examines the number of arrests of these offenders, the characteristics of their crimes, and the scope of related law enforcement activity.
Key findings point to several conclusions: First, law enforcement appears to be having success in investigating, arresting and prosecuting online predators, particularly by using undercover techniques. Second, based on the scope of and trend in arrests for online predation, it is premature to conclude that the Internet is an unusually dangerous environment. Nonetheless, continuing research is needed to assess and monitor the relative risk of Internet use in general and of specific contexts, such as
social networking sites. Third, current prevention strategies and messages need to be revised to accurately reflect the nature of crimes committed by online predators.
Get the full report here.
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