Sex and Minors

One of the more interesting aspects of the vast amounts of information available to the public is the determination of whether certain news stories mark a true increase in certain activities, or whether nothing has really changed much—we’re just hearing about it more. For example, just after the New Year was rung in, a tragedy occurred at a mine in West Virginia. Immediately following that story was a story about a mine in Mexico collapsing. And following that, another mine disaster occurred. Did this signal a rash of tragedies, or are such tragedies rather commonplace and they simply took on more importance because of the media’s desire to follow compelling stories?

Sometimes, the news really does signal an increase in activity. For example, we surmised that the Antitrust Division at the US DOJ was beefing up its prosecutions, based largely on the appearance of AD press releases in more newswires. It turns out that our suppositions were correct, and the AD really is increasing its investigations and prosecutions of anti-competitive behavior. What, then, to make of the recent rash of prosecutions involving minors and sexual conduct? Is child pornography, sex trafficking, and sex tourism on the rise, or is it simply in the news more? Ultimately, only time may tell.

In any event, a Deputy Press Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, Brian Doyle, “has been arrested on charges of using the Internet to seduce a person he thought was a teenage girl.”^[1] Mr. Doyle’s case seems to be based on State charges, though he could certainly be subject to Federal charges.

Yesterday, Reuters ran a story about Atlanta becoming “the No. 1 sex center” in the United States, “where the world’s busiest passenger airport provides a cheaper, more convenient and safer underage sex destination for men seeking girls as young as 10.”^[2] Georgia officials think that is because State law is less punitive than Federal law.^[3] Of course, Atlanta is not the only city with a significant population of underage prostitutes; the FBI has also named Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington, D.C. as “centers for the sexual exploitation of children.”^[4]

Just over a week ago, we mentioned that an Illinois attorney, Gary Peel, had been indicted on a number of charges, including possession of child pornography. His case has been the source of an enormous amount of interest in that State, but his indictment is certainly not the only one in recent days. For example, in Alabama, four individuals were indicted on March 29 on child porn and sex trafficking charges.^[5] Their indictment was just two days after a Huntsville Alabama police officer was charged in a Criminal Complaint for allegedly engaging in the interstate sexual exploitation of a child.^[6] In Arizona, on March 15, an individual was charged in a four-count indictment for allegedly receiving and distributing child pornography.^[7] That followed a March 10 guilty plea in California on one count of possessing child pornography.^[8] Just the other day, another California individual pleaded guilty to possession of images of child exploitation,^[9] and the list goes on and on.

When we discussed the breakup of the “Kiddypics & Kiddyvids” child porn ring, we noted that Toronto’s sex crime squad had seen a 10,000-fold increase in child porn seizures over the course of a decade. Much of that was due to increased interaction between private companies and public law-enforcement. But the increases are also based on the increasing use of cyber-bait. According to authorities, Mr. Doyle “had a sexually explicit conversation with a person he believed was a 14-year-old girl whose profile he saw on the Internet on March 14. … According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the supposed teenage was actually an undercover Polk County Sheriff’s Computer Crimes detective.”^[10] With law-enforcement agencies across the country seemingly increasing the use of similar sting operations, we fully expect to see many more investigations into child pornography, sex trafficking, and sex tourism in the future.

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[1] Homeland Security Official Arrested, Associated Press (via CBS News), Apr. 5, 2006.
[2] Verna Gates et al., Sex Tourism Thriving in US Bible Belt, Reuters, Apr. 4, 2006.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] US Attorneys Office, Four Men Charged in Child Pornography Cases Mar. 29, 2006.
[6] US Attorneys Office, Huntsville Police Officer Charged Federally With Child Pornography, Mar. 27, 2006.
[7] US Attorneys Office, Case Unsealed Against Child Pornographer, Mar. 15, 2006.
[8] US Attorneys Office, Joshua Tree Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Offense with 10-Year Mandatory Minimum Sentence, Mar. 10, 2006.
[9] US Attorneys Office, Visalia Nurse Pleads Guilty to Possession of Images of Child Sexual Exploitation, Mar. 31, 2006.
[10] AP, supra note 1.