Unit 7 Seminar

1. Unit 7 Seminar CJ 316 CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

2. Admin….. • Please cite sources on discussions and assignments • Please make sure you reply to the required number of students • Make sure you have all the unit coursework turned in by Tuesday night CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

3. Outline • 7.1 Introduction • 7.2 Profiling a Predatory Pedophile • 7.3 Activity Classifications for Pedophiles • 7.4 Modus Operandi of the Predatory Pedohile • 7.5 Online Predation and Child Enticement • 7.6 Law Enforcement Response to Online Child Enticement • 7.7 Child Pornography Overview • 7.8 Law Enforcement Response to Child Pornography CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

4. Introduction • Pedophiles have been around for all or most of recorded time; mention of grown men having sexual relations with boys appears in ancient Greek writings and Egyptian heiroglyphics. • The older term, paederast (a man who has intercourse with a boy), comes from two ancient Greek words, pais/paid, the word for child, and erastes, the word for lover. • A paedophile is an adult who is sexually attracted to children. In modern spelling the “a” is dropped, yielding the word pedophile. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

5. The Problem has Gotten Worse • The Internet certainly exacerbates this problem. • According to Highlights of the Youth Internet Safety Survey, conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice, “1 in 5 children (10 to 17 years old) receives unwanted sexual solicitations online.” • The study from June 2000 also finds that 1 in 33 received an “aggressive sexual solicitation,” which means the subject asks for a physical meeting, calls the youth on the telephone, or sends gifts, money, or mail. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

6. Profiling a Predatory Pedophile • The July 2000 report from the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics entitled “Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law Enforcement: Victim, Incident, and Offender Characteristics,” revealed sex offender profile information. • “Nearly all of the offenders in sexual assaults reported to law enforcement were male (96%).” • “Overall, 23% of sexual assault offenders were under age 18 and 77% were adults.” CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

7. Female Pedophile Characteristics • It is important to note that the vast majority of pedophiles are men, but that does not mean that pedophilia is limited to men. • Figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics appear to indicate, however, that women are more likely to sexually assault younger victims and are very unlikely to assault adults. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

8. Pedophilia Is a Psychological Disorder • Pedophilia is a documented Psychological Disorder and is described and defined in the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, - 4th Edition, commonly known in psychology circles as the DSM-IV. According to the DSM-IV, there are three criteria needed for a diagnosis of pedophilia. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

9. Criteria for Pedophilia Diagnosis 1. At least a half year of sexual fixation, fantasizing, or sexual activities with a preadolescent child. 2.The fixations, fantasizing, or activities will have caused problems for the pedophile in his or her public life, his or her job, or some other important area of life. Examples could include arrest, termination from employment, and divorce. 3. The pedophile must be 16 years old or older, and the victim (or fantasized victim) has to be a minimum of 5 years younger than the pedophile. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

10. Pedophile Characteristics • Most psychologists agree that there is no known cure for pedophilia. • Some believe that some of the symptoms can be controlled or limited. • Some advocate the use of hormone therapy to try and limit the manifestation of sexual desire in the pedophile. Others believe that pedophilia can only be dealt with “one day at a time,” with the pedophile learning how to limit his or her desire much the same way as an alcoholic struggles each day not to take a drink. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

11. Pedophile Characteristics, con’t. • One thing is certain — there are many people who are pedophiles, and many of them commit sexual crimes against children. • Many of them are arrested for it, serve time, and are later arrested for it again. • The rate of recidivism for pedophiles is extraordinarily high. Sex offenders are 4 times more likely to be rearrested for another sex crime when compared to non-sex offenders (Langan, Schmitt, and Durose, 2003). CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

12. Activity Classifications for Pedophiles • Pedophiles can be further broken down into 3 categories, each more dangerous than the last. • The first category is the secretive pedophile. This person may appear normal, may be married, may have children, and may never sexually assault a child. • They still share the trait of becoming sexually aroused by children, but may never act on it. Or if they do, they may limit their action to acquiring child pornography for the purposes of sexual gratification. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

13. Second Classification: Child Porn Collector • The second type is the child pornography collector. • This person will be an avid collector of child pornography for sexual gratification and for trading these illicit images or video to other pedophiles. • This person may also never physically victimize a child, although possessing a photograph or video or sharing it with others also re-victimizes that child, albeit at a somewhat lower level. • This type creates the demand for these images, which in turn causes children to be victimized. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

14. Third Classification: Active Pedophile • The third and most dangerous type of pedophile is the active pedophile. • This is the person who performs some physical act against a child or several children. • The active pedophile is one of the people who actually creates or manufactures child pornography by photographing or taking video of sexual acts against a child. The active pedophile is also likely to keep souvenirs from victims, such as the victim’s underwear or other articles of clothing. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

15. Modus Operandi of the Predatory Pedophile • In the days before the Internet, pedophiles had no choice but to try and approach potential victims in person. They could, for example, park their vehicles near a school, playground, or other area that children frequent and try to get a victim’s attention by asking directions, needing help, passing out candy, or doing something else likely to draw attention from a child without arousing general alarm. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

16. Traditional Methods of the Pedophile • Pedophiles have also traditionally tended to look for vocations that allow them the advantages of working with children and having a position of trust and responsibility. • There have been many examples of this activity in recent years, with numerous stories on predatory teachers, clergy, athletics coaches, and even police officers. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

17. Traditional Methods of the Pedophile, con’t. • In addition to having occupations that imply trust, these occupations also have another advantage for a would-be pedophile — a perception of power or control. • In the case of clergy, the belief that the clergy member is doing God’s work can be a very powerful force in motivating a naïve youngster to do as the offender says. • Likewise, with a teacher or police officer, there is a certain aura of power or authority, and the victim may fear repercussions in the form of bad grades, being kicked out of school, or even being arrested. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

18. Traditional Methods of the Pedophile, con’t. • Further, the offender may take advantage of victims’ perception of inferiority by making threats or telling them that no one would believe them over a “respected” police officer, teacher, etc. • Add to all of that the constant lessons that kids should listen to and respect adults, and the child victim is in a very vulnerable position. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

19. Grooming Victims • In addition to exercising their positional superiority, pedophiles make use of another technique of preparing their victims. • This process of breaking down a victim’s barriers or objections is called grooming the victim. This is not grooming in the traditional sense, e.g., combing hair or brushing teeth. • Grooming, in this sense, is the process of preparing a victim and overcoming a victim’s sense of right and wrong and lowering his or her inhibitions against a sexual act. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

20. Grooming Victims, con’t. • For example, if a sex offender is looking to have sexual intercourse with a young child, he or she may show that child numerous images of child pornography in order to desensitize the child. • The offender will then appeal to the child’s naïve logic and say something like, “It can’t be wrong if they are all doing it.” CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

21. Grooming Victims, con’t. • In the case of an older victim, the offender may show images or videos of other teens engaged in sexual conduct. • It is widely believed that pornography desensitizes the pedophile as well, and this can actually cause a cycle of pedophilia, similar to a narcotics addiction. • Offenders will eventually believe that there is nothing wrong with their pedophilia if desensitized enough. • Some offenders even believe that they are just more enlightened than the rest of society in regards to sexual relations with children. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

22. Online Predation and Child Enticement • Pedophiles operate online in a wide variety of ways, and the online mechanism of anonymous communications can be a very powerful ally. • Online child enticement statistics are truly frightening and demonstrate that this type of activity has tremendously increased. • Studies have estimated that approximately 1 out of every 5 children 10 to 17 years old received an unwanted sexual solicitation within the past year (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2001). CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

23. Online Predation and Child Enticement, Con’t. • In the past, a pedophile would have to go to a park or school and try to talk to a child in person. Think of fishing with one fishing pole in a local stream. Now, compare that to talking to hundreds of different kids every day in an online chat room, relatively anonymously. This would be similar to casting a wide commercial fishing net into a large inland lake. Sex offenders may get so many potential victims to respond that they may have to actually work to filter their choices to a more manageable number before determining which victims they will try to meet in the real world. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

24. Online Predation and Child Enticement, Con’t. • The larger pool of potential victims and the feeling of anonymity will likely embolden pedophiles and exacerbate the problem of child enticement and sexual assault. • Emboldened pedophiles online also have one other advantage — they can gradually introduce themselves to younger children. In person, it is obvious right away that they are much older than their victim, or “scary looking,” or perhaps even physically unattractive. • Online, they can portray whatever persona they devise using names and photos they choose. A male pedophile who likes teenage boys could even pose as an attractive female online. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

25. Online Predation and Child Enticement, Con’t. • By the time the victim first sees the true form of the pedophile, it will be too late. • The wider net, the feeling of anonymity, the ability to transfer photos and videos almost instantly, and the emboldened pedophile playing whatever role he or she designs are an explosive combination that law enforcement must address in a proactive manner. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

26. Online Slang and Victim Filtering • There are too many abbreviations and variants to describe here; however, there are many common ones used by sex offenders. • One such example is the shorthand text A/S/L or asl?. If someone sends a message that says A/S/L, he or she is asking for the recipient’s age, sex, and location. • This is very common online as people seek out someone to chat with in their age group, of their gender, and somewhere in their area, and it is very often the first line of communication that someone sends. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

27. Online Slang and Victim Filtering, con’t. • In addition to its legitimate use, this is a perfect tool for sex predators because it allows them to filter out potential victims from the thousands of potential victims online by quickly determining if the other party is close by and is a member of their preferred victim age and gender. • Other examples of online shorthand include LOL (laughing out loud) and 1..2..3..4..5, which is a shorthand warning to other people in the chat room. The warning means “keep the language clean, my parents are watching.” CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

28. After Filtering for a Potential Victim, Grooming Begins • Once a person of the right age and gender is located, the pedophile may quickly turn to the topic of sex or pornography. • Often the sex predator will ask victims if they have a photograph of themselves and ask to see it. They may provide victims with an email address to send the photograph to. • This online exchange is a two-way street, naturally, and the offender may then send back a picture too. • Often the offender will also begin the process of grooming potential victims by emailing images of pornography or child pornography to them. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

29. After Filtering and Grooming, a Meeting Is Set Up. • The last step after some days, weeks, or even months of communications is to try and set up a real-world meeting between themselves and the victim. • In some cases offenders will invite the victim to some event like a rock concert or sporting event. In other cases they will explicitly ask to meet the victim for sex. • In most cases offenders will meet their victims and sexually assault them. In some cases they will also kidnap victims and repeatedly sexually assault them. In the worst cases, they will kidnap, rape, and finally kill them. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

30. Child Enticement Stings and Charging as an Attempt • Some defendants have attempted to argue that they should not be charged as a result of these stings because no actual victim exists. • They argue that they had been communicating with an adult (the undercover officer) and, therefore, there was no ability or intent to harm a child. • These defense arguments have been routinely defeated as courts generally determine that, although no actual child victim exists, the defendant did not know that at the time, and therefore the defendant’s intent remained the same. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

31. Other Potential Charges Stemming from Child Enticement • Bear in mind that most of the above statutes relate only to the attempt to entice the child into a meeting for the purposes of sexual relations. • If pedophiles send images of pornography or child pornography to victims during the “grooming phase,” they are committing a separate offense by exposing the minor to harmful or illicit materials and/or possession/distribution of child pornography. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

32. Law Enforcement Response to Online Child Enticement • The first, and least effective, response method is a passive, reactionary response paradigm. • Under this model, police wait until a juvenile victim is reported missing or reports being sexually assaulted. After the fact, the police during its investigation determines that the child victim met the predator online and communicated via email, a chat room, or another instant-messaging service. • The police then try to trace and reconstruct the conversations and messages that were exchanged. Very often, the habits of the victim or other people using the victim’s computer may result in evidence being lost. If, for example, the victim routinely deleted email messages from the offender, officers may not have much to work with. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

33. Tracking and Tracing • If there are a sufficient number of messages remaining on the victim’s computer, officers will attempt to use the messages to trace a link back to the suspect for identification purposes. • Officers can trace email message headers back to a source IP address. • Officers will subpoena records from the IP owner to get personal information about who was using that IP address. • If there are no email messages involved, the victim’s PC and software may have been configured to automatically keep chat transcripts, or to otherwise log messages that have been sent and received. • If officers get a user name, they can subpoena records from the offender’s Internet Service Provider. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

34. Reactive versus Proactive • The reactive approach has several inherent weaknesses. • The first, and most glaring, is the fact that it does nothing to prevent the victimization of a child in the first place. • Secondly, the nature of high-tech evidence is extremely fragile. Important messages, logs, email addresses, etc. can very easily be deleted by the victim, or by the system if configured to automatically do so. • Therefore, a proactive approach is preferred. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

35. Proactive Approach: The Sting • Every state or region in the United States now has an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force. • These task forces are often run by the state government, in conjunction with national standards and training. There are nationally recognized ICAC courses available nationwide. • One of the best resources in this area is the ICAC Technical and Training Assistance Program. • http://www.icactraining.org/default.htm • Among other things, this program offers a week-long class in the intricacies of conducting an undercover chat room sting. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

36. Sting Methods • The proactive mode sting is accomplished by a law enforcement officer going online into chat rooms or other areas frequented by young people (and hence targeted by predators). • In these chat rooms, the undercover officer will pose as a young person. • Many times chat user names or email addresses will feature either the child’s age or the year of his or her birth. Therefore, “Jenny14” would imply a 14-year-old girl, or “Christy92” would imply a girl born in 1992. • Officers, like pedophiles, can easily set up and use whatever user name or nickname they want. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

37. In the Chat Rooms / Avoiding Entrapment • After creating the user name, the officer will generally wait to be contacted by other users in that particular chat room or online community. • It is important to avoid the pitfall of entrapment in any kind of sting operation, and this is especially true in a child enticement sting. • Officers must be careful to be passive actors in all that they do. They can respond to messages or requests, but they should not initiate contacts. • In many chat rooms, it will not take long for the officer to be contacted by other users. • The most common first line of contact is A/S/L — asking for the chatter’s age, sex, and location. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

38. Avoiding Entrapment, con’t • Entrapment is a lawful defense to criminal activity. • Entrapment occurs when a government agent (i.e., police) induces a person to commit a crime that he or she wouldn’t have ordinarily committed. • In order to be proven, it requires the defense to show that the police induced the unwilling person to commit a crime. • Merely being present in a chat room and posing undercover as a young child is not entrapment. • Responding to messages from potential sexual predators is not entrapment. Merely providing them with an opportunity to share photographs, such as child pornography, would not be considered entrapment. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

39. Avoiding Entrapment, con’t. • However, if there would be any evidence of persuasive communications (i.e., multiple requests made by the undercover officer for the photographs that are eventually sent) or promises for rewards (i.e., an offer and promise to pay for the illegal photographs), entrapment might be raised as a legal defense. • It is recommended that the undercover officer “go with the flow” of the conversation and, once the bait is taken, to just “roll with it.” • Lastly, in order to avoid claims of entrapment, be sure to properly record and preserve all chat logs. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

40. More Enticement Sting Methods • Many times, the chatter contacting the officer will not appear to care that the officer’s user name or implied persona is an underage minor. • Predators may ask questions like “Do you have a boyfriend?” or “Do you like older men?”. In some cases they may even be more blatant and say things like “I’m 25 — is that okay?” • The officer or “victim” can answer all of these questions and can engage in normal conversations. • The officer can respond when asked about exchanging photographs, but he or she should never suggest it. • The offender may ask for a picture of the “victim.” CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

41. More Enticement Sting Methods, con’t • It has been long established by the Supreme Court that police can lie during sting operations. • If drug dealers ask undercover agents if they are cops, they can deny it without jeopardizing their case. • The same is true of officers posing as minors online. • Further, officers can send fake photographs or give other bogus information so as not to give away their true identity. • The officer could, therefore, respond to the offender’s request for a photo by sending a photograph scanned from a magazine or school yearbook. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

42. Sending Obscene Materials / Other Offenses • If the offender wants to send emails or other messages containing photographs, the officer can give out an email address or otherwise make arrangements to receive those photos. • If the offender would send images of a pornographic nature to the officer, this would violate state statutes in most states. • Most states have a obscenity laws against showing harmful or pornographic materials to a minor. • If the offender would send child pornography to the “victim,” this would violate the possession of child pornography laws that exist in every state. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

43. Charge with Transmitting or Continue the Sting? • Although the officer could bring charges for the distribution of harmful material to a minor, or for the possession or distribution of child pornography — both serious charges — the officer may wish to continue the enticement investigation. • Often these materials are sent to further groom the victim, as it is the offender’s ultimate goal to arrange a real-life meeting so as to sexually assault the victim. • If the offender asks for a meeting, the officer should agree to a date and time and set up the meeting. • The officers will then set up an undercover sting to meet the subject at the agreed-upon date and time. Some law enforcement agencies have utilized young-looking police officers, explorers, or cadets to pose as the victim; others rely upon the explicit nature of messages before the meeting to meet the statutory elements of attempted child enticement. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

44. Summary of Chat Investigation Protocols • Create an undercover online identity, including user name, email address, photo, etc. • Set up chat room clients to automatically log all chats and other activities. • Visit online chat rooms that might be commonly used by teenagers or underage children. • Reactively engage in conversations with other chatters and people that contact you. • Document any attempts to transmit pornography, child pornography, or other harmful materials to a minor. • Document any attempts to entice a child into meeting for the purpose of sexual activity. • If a meeting is proposed, Reactively agree to the meeting and set up a sting operation to apprehend the adult suspect. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

45. Web Resources and Organizations • Civilian investigators pose as children online in an attempt to lure these predators out into the open. • One example is a Web site called www.perverted-justice.com. This Web site recruits people to follow the investigative protocols above, posing as children between 10 -15 years of age. • Once they have received inappropriate materials or have been propositioned for sex, etc. they turn all documentary materials over to the appropriate law enforcement agency. This site is also an excellent resource as it lists numerous sample chat logs from these sessions. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

46. Child Pornography Overview • The creation, possession, and/or transmittal of child pornography is a crime of epidemic proportions. • Trends and indicators that are measurable are truly frightening. • While states may differ on the precise definition of child pornography, it is generally defined as the visual representation of a child engaged in sexually explicit conduct or a sexual act. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

47. U.S. Code Outlawing Child Porn • Federal Law defines a child as anyone under the age of 18. • Title 18, Chapter 110: Sexual Exploitation and Other Abuse of Children. 18 U.S.C. § 2256 defines “child pornography” as: “Any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, or computer or computer-generated image or picture, whether made or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means, of sexually explicit conduct, where – (A) the production of such visual depiction involves the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; (B) such visual depiction is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; (C) such visual depiction has been created, adapted, or modified to appear that an identifiable minor is engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or (D) such visual depiction is advertised, promoted, presented, described, or distributed in such a manner that conveys the impression that the material is or contains a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct . . ." CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

48. “Virtual” Child Porn • In 1996 Congress adopted the Child Porn Prevention Act of 1996 (CPPA). • This law, now included within section 2256 above, attempted to outlaw “virtual child pornography,” which is an image depicting a child engaged in sexual activity that may have been created or modified by a computer. • Virtual child pornography may make it impossible to determine if there is an actual child victim that was photographed. The original law, as written in 1996, criminalized the possession of “visual depictions of what ‘appears to be’ minors engaging in sexual conduct,” even in those cases where prosecutors could not prove that an actual child existed. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

49. First Amendment Defenses? • One of the common defenses in this type of case is a First amendment challenge, citing “free speech.” • Child pornography is not protected by the First amendment, although there have been several challenges to child pornography laws, often under the auspices of a free speech restriction. • Often the material will be presented as “artwork,” and thus an expression of free speech. • The virtual child pornography clause spawned a Supreme Court challenge in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002). CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7

50. Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002). • In Ashcroft, at issue was whether two provisions of a federal law that criminalize computer-generated images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, but may not involve actual minors, violate the First Amendment. • Perhaps surprisingly, the court struck down the “appears to be” and “conveys the impression” provisions of the Child Pornography Prevention Act. • The rationale behind the court’s decision is that these portions of the Child Pornography Prevention Act prohibit speech that records no crime and creates no victims by its production. In other words, there is no crime if the image is not a real person. CJ 316 Investigating Cybercrime - Unit 7