 |
||
 |
 |
|
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
National
Juvenile Online Victimization Study & Criminal Justice Barriers
to Investigation and Prosecution of Juvenile Online Victimization
|
|
Summary. These are two
related projects. The first, the National Juvenile Online Victimization
Study (N-JOV), is funded by the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children. It will look at the incidence and characteristics
of juvenile online victimization cases, including sexual exploitation
and child pornography cases, in the criminal justice system. The
second project, Criminal Justice Barriers to Investigation and
Prosecution of Juvenile Online Victimization (CJB) is funded by
the Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention. It will catalogue and describe barriers to the investigation
and prosecution of juvenile online victimization cases. Background As
Internet use among children and adolescents has become widespread,
concern has grown about the extent to which sexual offenders are
using the Internet to gain access to child and adolescent victims
and to collect and transmit child pornography. The
full incidence of juvenile online victimization (JOV) is difficult
to measure because sexual crimes are often unreported. However, the number of Internet-related
child exploitation cases referred to the FBI Innocent Images program
grew exponentially between 1996 and 2000. JOV cases have received a great deal of
publicity, caused much concern among parents, law enforcement
agencies, law makers, educators and other child advocates, and
become a factor in the debate over Internet regulation. However,
largely because these crimes are a recent phenomenon, information
about the characteristics of JOV cases, offenders and victims,
and about the concerns and experiences of the professionals involved
in cases stemming from these crimes has not been systematically
gathered. The
goals of the JOVIS project are to: 1)
Provide sound national estimates of the number of juvenile online
victimization cases ending in arrest during a one year period
(July 1, 2000 through June 30, 2001) 2)
Define categories and subcategories of juvenile online victimizations
and describe case, offender and victim characteristics 3)
Make policy recommendations to increase reporting of these crimes
and improve prevention measures and provision of victim services The
goals of the CJB project are to: 1)
Describe barriers to the investigation and prosecution of JOV
cases 2)
Catalogue jurisdictional, evidentiary and other legal issues arising
during investigation and prosecution of these crimes 3)
Provide data about the disposition of these cases, sentences imposed,
and the use of victim services agencies in connection with these
crimes 4)
Make policy recommendations which respond to investigatory and
prosecutorial needs Methodology These studies will use mail surveys and
telephone interviews to gather quantitative and qualitative data
from criminal justice professionals about their experiences with
JOV cases. For N-JOV, the researchers will survey
by mail a national sample of law enforcement agencies with varying
degrees of experience with JOV cases. Follow
up telephone interviews will be used to gather more detailed data.
For the CJB project, researchers will conduct
telephone interviews with investigators and prosecutors. Projected
timeline for findings An
initial report was released in Novembe 2003, followed by additional
publications listed on the CCRC website. For
more information, contact: Janis
Wolak or Kimberly Mitchell 11/03 |
