A new study from the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center (available here) reports a tremendous increase in online child predator arrests from sting operations, despite an overall decline in sex crimes against minors. From Ars Technica:
Even as sex crimes against minors decline, a new report from the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center released this week found an massive increase in the number of online child predators arrested in undercover sting operations. Despite this, the survey rejects the idea that the Internet is an especially perilous place for minors, and finds that while the nature of online sex crimes against minors changed little between 2000 and 2006, the profile of the offenders has been shifting—and both differ markedly from the popular conception.
Extrapolating from a nationwide survey of law enforcement agencies, the authors estimate that 2006 saw 615 arrests of online child predators in cases involving actual minors as victims (up 21 percent from 2000), and 3,100 arrests in cases where the "child" was actually an undercover law enforcement officer (a whopping 381 percent increase over 2000). During the same time period, the proportion of minors aged 12-17 on the Internet rose from 73 to 93 percent. Those numbers, the authors believe, don't represent an actual increase in the national pervert population, but rather reflect the broader trend over the same period of interactions moving online, combined with more vigorous police sting efforts.
In the vast majority of cases, it's worth noting, the child victims were teens who knowingly went to meet their older interlocutors intending to have sex, which may explain why stings so vastly outnumber actual-victim arrests. Though the victims are too young to legally consent to sex with an adult, relatively few cases involve physical coercion, which makes it likely that many—indeed, quite possibly a majority—don't come to the attention of law enforcement.
Social networking sites, the subject of much angst over online predators, were more or less unknown in 2000, but by 2006 accounted for 33 percent of the initial contacts between (actual) minors and adults in search of illicit sex. While online chat was still the most common medium for indecent proposals, it saw a corresponding drop in popularity—from 80 percent to 40 percent of initial contacts.
Extrapolating from a nationwide survey of law enforcement agencies, the authors estimate that 2006 saw 615 arrests of online child predators in cases involving actual minors as victims (up 21 percent from 2000), and 3,100 arrests in cases where the "child" was actually an undercover law enforcement officer (a whopping 381 percent increase over 2000). During the same time period, the proportion of minors aged 12-17 on the Internet rose from 73 to 93 percent. Those numbers, the authors believe, don't represent an actual increase in the national pervert population, but rather reflect the broader trend over the same period of interactions moving online, combined with more vigorous police sting efforts.
In the vast majority of cases, it's worth noting, the child victims were teens who knowingly went to meet their older interlocutors intending to have sex, which may explain why stings so vastly outnumber actual-victim arrests. Though the victims are too young to legally consent to sex with an adult, relatively few cases involve physical coercion, which makes it likely that many—indeed, quite possibly a majority—don't come to the attention of law enforcement.
Social networking sites, the subject of much angst over online predators, were more or less unknown in 2000, but by 2006 accounted for 33 percent of the initial contacts between (actual) minors and adults in search of illicit sex. While online chat was still the most common medium for indecent proposals, it saw a corresponding drop in popularity—from 80 percent to 40 percent of initial contacts.
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