Transcript Protecting Children From Sexual Abuse In Cyberspace And In

Risk Management Authority Best Practice
Session, 8th September 2006, Glasgow
‘Internet Sex Offending: Assessing
And Managing The Risk: A Survey
of Current Practice’
Dr Julia Davidson
Session Aims
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Explore Internet sex offender behaviour and
the context in which the sexual abuse of
children occurs online
Provide an overview of recent initiatives in
the risk assessment, management and
treatment of internet sex offenders
Provide a forum for discussion regarding
work with this offender group
Session Structure
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Are children really at risk?
Internet sex offender behaviour and
legislation
Case study: Online grooming
RMA study: Current Practice And Research
Into Internet Sex Offending
Key findings
Children’s Use Of
The Internet
(Davidson & Martellozzo, 2004)
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Use the internet a great deal
(60% used 4+ times per week)
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65% access to the internet at home
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76% long periods of time unsupervised
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13% felt talking to an adult posing as a child
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5% ‘uncomfortable’ –approached about sex
Sex Offenders Use Of
The Internet
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Sex offenders socialize and groom children in
preparation for sexual abuse online and to contact
other sex offenders.
(Davidson, 2004).
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Sex offenders use children’s computer language and
learn about their hobbies and interests
(O’Connell, 2003. Chase and Stratham, 2005).
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Sex offenders use the Internet to access indecent
images
(Martellozzo, 2006, ongoing)
Online Grooming
‘Grooming online was infrequent but there is now a rich seam
of perpetrators online every day, officers act covertly as
children on a regular basis and we are catching offenders
every week’ (Interview. Metropolitan Police HTCU, 2006)
‘I’ve worked with men who’ve spent months preparing a child
for abuse online before meeting up with them. The lengths
they will go to are extraordinary. I knew one man who spent
a long time online learning children’s computing language
so that he could communicate more effectively and present
himself as a child. He would spend time in chat rooms
learning how children talk to each other and then go online
to see if he was convincing. After a lot of test runs
eventually he was convincing' Probation Officer, National
Probation Service, 2006).
Legislation -Online Grooming
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Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual
Offences (Scotland) Act 2005 includes ‘meeting a child
following certain preliminary contact’ (s1)
Sexual Offences Act 2003 (England and Wales) s15
‘meeting a child following sexual grooming’ *an offence,
Applies to the Internet, other technologies such as
mobile phones and to the ‘real world’.
Six cases of online ‘grooming’ have been brought under
the new legislation in England and Wales since 2004
(Metropolitan Police, 2006).
* this section of the Act also applies to Northern Ireland but the SO Act is under review
Indecent Images: The Nature &
Scale Of The Problem
Child Pornography is a record of the systematic rape,
abuse and torture of children on film, photograph and by
other electronic means (Edwards, 2000)
Home Office Task Force On Child Protection On The
Internet (2005)- approx. 1 million images of child abuse
in circulation on the Internet, number is expanding at a
rate of 200 a day. Sites hosted outside of the UK.
UNICEF (2006) 80% of paedophile-related investigations
involve more than one country. Supply and demand.
Legislation – Indecent Child
Images
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The Protection of Children and Prevention of
Sexual Offences (Scotland) act 2005, s.16
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The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (England and
Wales), s.45-46
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Attempts to curb the production, distribution and
possession of indecent images of children on the
Internet
Are children really at risk?
How do sex offenders
operate online?
Private
Fantasisers
Trawlers
Distributors
Browser
Producers
Krone’s
Offender Type:
Typical Behaviour
Non-secure
collectors
Physical
abusers
Secure
collectors
Browser
Online
Groomers
Krone’s (2004) Typology
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‘Browsers’ accidentally come across indecent images
and save them, in reality such images are either
purchased via credit card or are swapped by collectors
‘Private fantasisers’ create digital images for their
own private use
‘Trawlers’ search for indecent images through open
browsers and may engage in some networking
‘non-secure collectors’ look for indecent images in
open areas of the Internet such as chat rooms,
probably be networking
‘secure collectors’ - online hidden, paedophile
network. Highly organized collectors who employ
sophisticated security to conceal their offending
Krone’s (2004) Typology
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‘Groomers’ target and groom children via peer-topeer technology, interactive Internet games and chat
rooms.
‘physical abusers’ contact abusers who have an
interest in indecent images as a part of their fantasy
cycle. These offenders may photograph their
abusive behaviour for their own use.
‘Producers’ record the sexual abuse of children for
the purposes of distribution to networks and to
satisfy their own fantasy.
‘Distributors’ distribute indecent images either for
financial gain or as part of their collecting behaviour.
Case Study One: The On Line Groomer, Non- Secure
Collector and Physical Abuser
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34 year-old man met a 15-year-old girl from the USA in
England
He first groomed both the mother and the girl for a long
period of time on the internet
After having spent some time together and gaining their
trust, the man persuaded the mother to let him look after
her daughter and promised he would bring her back to
the hotel
He then invited the girl back to his house and took her to
his bedroom, where he performed oral sex on her
Later, the mother noticed love bites on the girl’s body
and took her immediately to the doctor, where it was
discovered that she had contracted a sexual transmitted
infection.
Police Investigation
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Previous criminal convictions
He previously had met and sexually abused another
child who he had groomed online
6000 indecent images of children under the age of 16
on his computer
He regularly discussed the sexual abuse of children
with other like-minded individuals by logging on to
dedicated websites e.g. child love forums
He had been sending the victim indecent images of
other children
He asked the victim to send him indecent pictures of
herself
Police Investigation
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The suspect was then arrested and interviewed.
The suspect admitted his ‘unusual’ close relationship
with the girl
But attempted to transfer blame to the mother.
He was involved with charities and participated in
awareness campaigns for child amputees increasing his
access to disabled and/or vulnerable children for the
purposes of abuse.
CONVICTION
charged with grooming, producing and distributing
indecent images of children under the Sex Offences Act
(2003), and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Moves To Protect
Children Online
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The Virtual Global Task Force ( law enforcement
agencies from Australia, Canada, the United States,
the United Kingdom and Interpol).
Internet Watch Foundation (Government
watchdog in the UK)
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
(CEOP). Raise awareness, provide support and
advice.
Police High Technology Crime Units- policing the
internet
Raising Awareness- educational programmes
involving children, the police and parents.
Risk Management Authority
Scotland (2006)
‘Current Practice And Research
Into Internet Sex Offending’
Key Findings
Dr Julia Davidson
Protecting Children
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Significant efforts to protect children and raise
awareness made: by organisations such as the
IWF, the VGT and CEOP who also work with
the IT industry.
Police High Technology Units trace online
abusers and identify victims portrayed in
indecent images. Helped by CEOP and the
VGT
However
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A growth in the number of indecent images -of an
increasingly violent nature depicting the abuse of
young children.
Governments failing to make the growing trade in
indecent images of children a high enough political
priority
Carr (2006)
Risk Assessing Internet Sex
Offenders
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Scotland, England and Wales Internet sex
offenders are currently risk assessed using
RM2000 (with certain suggested adaptations)
Further assessment instruments are required
to take account of internet offending
‘At the moment it’s difficult to classify
people according to risk’
Chair, National Police Sex Offender Working Group,
Scotland, 2006.
Research And Risk
Assessment
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Little work on risk assessment with online groomersoffending is potentially more dangerous
Little work exploring link between indecent image
use and online grooming
‘We’ve got clients who are convicted for both grooming
and indecent image related offending. It’s difficult to
separate these offenders into categories. Also offending
can escalate in seriousness from the use of indecent
images to contact abuse’
McDade, 2006.
The Quay Project, Scotland
Practitioners & Risk
Assessment
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Criminal justice social workers/probation officers
should use standard screening questions computer/Internet use when compiling
SERs/PSRs on all sex offenders.
‘I think we should be screening all sex offenders and
asking the right questions about Internet use. I’m
sure we’d find a lot more using the Internet
Probation Officer/Facilitator 1.
National Probation Service, 2006.
Practitioners & Risk
Assessment
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Practitioners need some basic IT knowledge in order
to effectively conduct basic screening.
Offenders convicted indecent image related offences
assessed as ‘low risk’ may be a higher risk in terms
of their propensity for contact abuse.
‘It is also really essential to explore the boundary
between online and offline abuse. I.e. Is there one? Or is
the person collecting as part of a fantasy cycle and then
putting fantasy into action? That’s the danger that
practitioners should be aware of and looking for’.
Quayle, 2006
Inter- Agency Working
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Effective collaborative working between criminal
justice social workers, probation officers and
specialist police units working with sex offenders
was identified as key in risk assessment and
management.
Assessing Risk At SER Stage And
Beyond: Key Screening Questions
Explore all sex offenders’ access to the Internet
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All sex offenders level of technical IT knowledge
should be assessed
The nature of Internet use should be explored and
monitored.
Does the offender frequent chat rooms for and for
what purpose? Are they familiar with children’s
text/computer language?
Assessing & Monitoring Risk At SER Stage
And Beyond: Key Screening Questions
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Explore: History of previous allegations (not just
convictions) and the nature of the allegations. Any
history of contact sexual offending for example?
Any attempts to conceal Internet offending?
Offender immediate or other access to children?
Offender use of own time and exploration of
hobbies.
Exploring Internet Use
‘Looking here for obsessive behaviour, how much of
their time is focused on the obsession and the nature of
the obsession. As a screening question I would be
asking about computer use and about how they spend a
typical day. I really want to know initially how much time
they are spending on their computer and if they have a
computer at home, although they could be using an
Internet café- I know of one such case – but the more
obsessive would be working at home/somewhere quiet’.
Quayle, 2006
Assessing Risk: Collecting
Indecent Images Of Children
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The way in which images are sourced.
Offender involvement in the production and distribution
of images.
The nature of the collection in terms of its seriousness
and the degree of violence involved? (Levels 1-9, SAP,
Taylor & Quayle, 2001)
The degree of collection organisation.
The extent to which the collection suggests a preoccupation and the frequency of offender use.
The extent to which the images form a part of the
offender’s fantasy abuse cycle.
Quayle, 2006
Managing Internet Sex Offenders
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The management of sex offenders via MAPPA
arrangements was welcomed
Some respondents critical of the way in which the
arrangements have operated in practice in England
The enforcement of MAPPA arrangements was
seen by the police in England & Wales to require
further attention and more resources
MAPPA and Internet Sex
Offenders
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Routine inspection of home computers
Unannounced visits by MAPPA Officers to view
offenders home environments and explore
computing use
Monitoring software in use in the United States
may be introduced in the UK
‘We want to introduce software (in use in the States) to allow us
to monitor what convicted offenders are using their computers
for. We certainly could use this with Internet sex offenders and
possibly others on the register .There may be difficulty in
resourcing and monitoring but it’s being considered. We could
then produce a weekly printout about computer use’.
David Middleton, NPS, 2006
MAPPA
‘The key is really to have unlimited access to (sex) offenders
computers through MAPPA arrangements in future, we will target
offenders appropriately. New legislation is coming into force in
Scotland soon that will enable the police to enter sex offender’s
home to verify what is said in risk assessment reports. The police will
have the power to check the computers of all registered sex
offenders (we will target resources). This will greatly extend our
powers and it’s a measure that’s needed’
Chair, National Police Sex Offender Working Group, Scotland, 2006.
‘MAPPA Officers should be regularly ‘dip-sampling’ from the register
to check all sex offenders (not just Internet sex offenders) and should
be checking out their lifestyles regularly. They should be checking
Internet sex offender’s computers on a regular basis’
Metropolitan Police Paedophile Unit,2006
Treating Internet Sex
Offenders
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Based upon cognitive behavioural model which
underpins Sex Offender Treatment Programmes in
Scotland, England and Wales.
Innovative CBT approaches under development
Lundie in Scotland, Graf in Switzerland.
England and Wales -Internet Sex Offenders Treatment
Programme (i-SOTP, Middleton) introduced by the
National Probation Service. July 2006.
‘Early feedback from trained staff (facilitators) is that the training
manual looks positive but we will wait to see how it works in practice.
The CBT programme draws upon the best elements of other CBT
models so it should work’.
Senior Probation Officer,
National Probation Service, 2006
Extreme Pornography -Adults
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Serious violence, intercourse or oral sex with an
animal and sexual interference with a human corpse
(Home Office, 2006).
A possession offence is proposed in an attempt to
disrupt demand and supply.
Illegal to sell, import or publish in Scotland (Civic
Government (Scotland) Act 1982) and England and
Wales (Obscene Publications Act, 1959, 1964)
possession not currently an offence.
Extreme Pornography
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No research to suggest a correlation between
the viewing of extreme pornographic material
and violent sexual offences
Little known about those who use such images
Some cases involving the abuse and murder of
victims by offenders using extreme Internet
pornography eg.Jane Longhurst in 2003
Extreme Pornography
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Definitions unclear
No clear guidance to police and sentencers
Differential sentencing practice
Categorised as sex offenders?
Limited resources
A Cautionary Word
‘There’s no certainty that sex offenders using the Internet are really
that different as a group to those who don’t. If they are using
indecent Internet images are they any different to those who’ve used
such images as part of their fantasy cycle in the past but from
different media? Sex offenders are an extremely heterogeneous
group but our research knowledge is really very limited here. And we
should be really careful about how we risk assess and treat these
offenders’.
Lundie, 2006. SPS
‘They seem to be a different group to other sex offenders I’ve worked
with. They are intelligent, often professional men who are well
motivated to work on their problem’
Probation Officer/Facilitator,
National Probation Service, 2006
Thank you for your
attention!
Dr Julia Davidson
[email protected]