Rise in Pedophilia Cases: 0.74 Million Registered Offenders - Research Paper

Introduction

Statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigations shows that cases related to pedophiles have drastically increased for the example; the number of child pornography cases has increased at least twenty-five times compared to the past decade (Laorden et al., 2015). At least 60% of sex offenders confined in state prisons committed the offenses against children (Laorden et al., 2015). The government has records of 0.74 million registered child sex offenders (Laorden et al., 2015). Sadly, at least 100,000 of them are either missing or non-compliant (Laorden et al., 2015).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

It is challenging to establish the prevalence of child exploitation and pedophiles because of the low levels of reporting. For example, the National Center for Center of Victims of Crimes reports that only 31 out of 100 cases of child sexual exploitation are reported (Laorden et al., 2015). They estimate that the number of people of cases that proceed to conviction and sentence is equally low.

How children become victims of exploitation and pedophiliaAccording to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, US, in every twenty-five children between ten and seventeen years, one has received at least an online sexual solicitation from a person who tried to contact them on online platforms. The organization believes that child exploitation offenders and pedophiles target children using the information solicited from social media accounts (Laorden et al., 2015). They take time to study the likes and dislikes of the children. In some extreme cases, they visit them at school.

Laws and Agencies Protecting Children from Exploitation and PedophilesThe US has both federal and state laws that protect children from exploitation and pedophiles by punishing the offenders (US Department of Justice, 2015). The most common and applied are the federal laws on child pornography, child sexual abuse, child support enforcement, extraterritorial sexual exploitation of children, international parental kidnapping, obscenity, prostitution of children and sex offender registration (US Department of Justice, 2015). Federal laws on child pornography cover the production of child pornography, buying and selling of children with intentions of using them in pornography, possessing and distributing child pornography, and sexually explicit depictions of children (US Department of Justice, 2015). Federal laws on child sexual abuse cover cases of abusive, aggravated sexual abuse, and sexual abuse of a minor. Child support enforcement laws involve cases where one fails to obey child support obligations.

Extraterritorial sexual federal laws apply to cases where one travels with a child to another country to engage the child in any form of sexual conduct. Also, it involves ancillary and sex trafficking cases. International parenting kidnapping involves cases where a child has been moved from the country to deny a legal guardian the rights of being with a child (US Department of Justice, 2015). Federal laws on obscenity involve cases of selling, buying, mailing, broadcasting, transporting, engaging in the business obscene matter. Also, they involve transferring the obscene matter to children and creating misleading domains, images, and words on the internet. Prostitution of children involves sex trafficking cases that involve children through coercion and enticement and using interstate facilities to fraudulently provide information about a minor (US Department of Justice, 2015). Sex offender registration federal laws requires sexual offenders to register with the government.

Additionally, there are agencies or units created to help in tracking people who exploit children and pedophiles. For example, the Child Exploitation and Investigation Unit investigate reported cases of child abuse and exploitation. It is a unit of the Immigration and Customs. The unit tracks pedophiles and people exploiting children, opens cases against them and ensure that the victims get justice.

Cases of Child exploitation and pedophilesThe National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse reports that it is only after the 1950s that cases of child exploitation and pedophilia could be discussed in public and reported to authorities. It is because the country lived on the illusion of the perfect family. The perception was evident even in movies like the 'Ozzie and Harriet.' However, between the 1960s and 1990s, when the ideas of sexual freedom spread across the world, there were numerous cases and prosecutions of cases involving child exploitation and pedophilia matters. The following are some of the cases:

In April 2010, Eral Bradley was found guilty of assault, rape, and sexual child exploitation of eighty-six children in Delaware (Miller, Hefner, and Leon, 2014). Evidence presented in the court pictures of installed video cameras and drives containing tapes of Bradly's experience with children for ten years. He forced children as young as two years to perform oral sex to him (Miller et al., 2014). He raped some of the children to the point of victims fainting. Then, he would resuscitate them using the Cardiopulmonary machine.

Similarly, in 2012, Jerry Sundusky was convicted of sexually abusing young boys. Sundusky was an assistant football coach in Pennsylvania (Drape, 2012). A jury at the Centre County Courthouse found Sundusky guilty of sexually abusing ten boys (Drape, 2012). Court evidence showed that he targeted children from poor homes through the university football program and a charity program, Second Mile, founded by his friend.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the two cases show the efforts child exploitation and pedophiles would go to achieve personal gratification. Also, they show that most offenders are people who are in regular contacts with the victims. Meaning, child exploitation, and pedophilia cases are complex and require diligence and patience among people determined to give justice to the victims. Admittedly, statistics on child exploitation and pedophilia are worrying. Nevertheless, the indictment of many cases is proof that the problems can be eliminated when the law is diligently applied.

References

Drape, J. (2012, June 23). Sandusky Guilty of Sexual Abuse of 10 Young Boys. New York Times, p. 1. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=77246923&site=ehost-live

Laorden, C., Galan-Garcia, P., Santos, I., Sanz, B., Nieves, J., Bringas, P. G., & Hidalgo, J. M. G. (2015). Negobot: Detecting paedophile activity with a conversational agent based on game theory. Logic Journal of the IGPL, 23(1), 17-30. https://doi.org/10.1093/jigpal/jzu034

Miller, S. L., Hefner, M. K., & Leon, C. S. (2014). Diffusing responsibility: A case study of child sexual abuse in popular discourse. Children & Youth Services Review, 37, 55-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.12.005

US Department of Justice. (2015, July 6). Citizen's Guide To U.S. Federal Child Exploitation And Obscenity Laws. Retrieved from The United States Department of Justice: https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ceos/citizens-guide-us-federal-law-sex-offender-registration

Ventus, D., Antfolk, J., & Salo, B. (2017). The associations between abuse characteristics in child sexual abuse: a meta-analysis. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 23(2), 167-180. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2017.1318963