12. Sex Offenders & The Internet. Part 3. CSAM

Question 1

Why do people view & collect / posess CSAM?

Answer 1

In general: They are sexually interested in children!!

Specific reasons:
* Validation / minimisation (of their feelings)
* Sexual Gratification. The obsessive collecting / organising can also give gratifcation. Having all numbers in a series.
* As grooming material. De-inhibit - use of CSAM of same age as child being groomed.
* As blackmailing material. To ensure silence or for profit / control.
* To Prove (they have a sexual interest - name on paper)
* To Memorise. Child will age beyond age preference.
* To Trade
* To Profit

Question 2

Typology of Pedophile Picture Collections.
2001
COPINE Project

10 typologies. Wholly based on internet sources.

1 to 4 are usually corroborative evidence of a sexual interest in children (depending on country legislation).

5 to 10 are usually illegal.

Answer 2

1. Indicative
   Non-erotic and non-sexualised pictures showing children in their underwear, swimming costumes, etc. from commercial sources or family albums; pictures of children playing in normal settings, in which the context or organisation of pictures by the collector indicates inappropriateness
2. Nudist
   Pictures of naked or semi-naked children in appropriate nudist settings, and from legitimate sources
3. Erotica
   Surreptitiously taken photographs of children in play areas or other safe environments showing either underwear or varying degrees of nakedness
4. Posing
   Deliberately posed pictures of children fully, partially clothed or naked (where the amount, context and organisation suggests sexual interest)
5. Erotic posing
   Deliberately posed pictures of fully, partially clothed or naked children in sexualised or provocative poses
6. Explicit erotic
   Emphasising genital areas where the child is posing either naked, partially or fully clothed
7. Explicit
   Involves touching, mutual and self- sexual activity masturbation, oral sex and intercourse by child, not involving an adult
8. Assault
   Pictures of children being subjected to a
   sexual assault, involving digital touching,
   involving an adult
9. Gross assault
   Grossly obscene pictures of sexual assault,
   involving penetrative sex, masturbation or oral sex involving an adult
10. Sadistic
    a. Pictures showing a child being tied, bound, beaten, whipped or otherwise subjected to something that implies pain
    b. Pictures where an animal is involved in
    some form of sexual behaviour with a child

Question 3

Typology of online CSE material viewers

Answer 3

1. SIMPLE VIEWERS. Greatest in numbers
   Most likely caught, Operation Landslide/ Koala, Addresses, Credit Cards, IP Addresses
   Use Key Word searches (e.g ‘lolita’ / ‘teens’)
   Have different Motivations. Often CSE rather than CSA material.
   Generally Web Users. Simple saves of images by screenshots or right click.
   (generally hanging round finkelhors preconditions 1&2). Some never contact offend.
2. OPEN TRADERS
   Graduates from simple viewers
   Getting more complicated. More of the “internet”. Image by image - Automation, web spiders, saving of pages. Become more technologically advanced. May use Proxy or Tor to avoid detection.
   May post files to share in groups.
   Cuckoo traders - obtain & upload large files from internet and share url to groups / forums.
3. CLOSED TRADERS
   Closed groups and communities
   Yahoo groups Msn communities (obsolete. Now more likely to be discord servers)
   Very important relationships. Members moderated.
   80 / 20 rule. 80% of work done by 20% of the group
4. EXPERTS. Lowest in numbers
   hardest to catch.
   Insatiable appetite for new material
   Likely to encourage contact offending in order to get new material. May pool financial resources to get new material.
   Top of the pile. Small groups.
   Focused and determined
   Hierarchical management of small group
   Technologically superior
   Organised and Dangerous Criminals
   Good Opsec. Appoint security officer.

Question 4

Summary of Essential Reading:
TYPOLOGY OF PAEDOPHILE PICTURE COLLECTIONS.

Taylor, Holland & Quayle (2001). COPINE Project.

Answer 4

Aim:
Looking to better understand the process of collecting CSAM images & the factors that influence collecting behaviour & the relationship between collecting and the collected material itself.

Covers understanding victimisation & categories of pictures - including the importance of non illgeal material. Offers a structure for making systematic discrimations between picture collections. This offers a way to judge degree of sexual victimisation portrayed in the images. Also provides a basis on which systematic picture qualities may relate to offender behaviour (including legal images) which in turn may help develop understanding of the dynamics of CSAM & adult sexual interst in children..

10 levels of severity of images were discerned (see previous card).

Question 5

What are the Key Points from the TYPOLOGY OF PAEDOPHILE PICTURE COLLECTIONS.
Taylor, Holland & Quayle (2001)

Answer 5

• Collections of CSAM are not accidental. They are a result of delibereate choices.
• The sexual / erotic nature of the material is from both the OBJECTIVE nature of the material (e.g LE grading) but also the SUBJECTIVE mind of the viewr / collector.
• The collecting choices made by a person reflect some VALUE to them.
• Can identify 2 different perspectives when considering images collected by persons with a sexual interest in children: The strict LEGAL perspective (varies & will ignore material outside that) and the PSYCHOLOGICAL perspective of the collector.
• Images that are attractive to peprsons with a sexual interst in children are therefore on a continum of increased sexual victimisation (starting with pictures of clothed children right up to extreme sexual assault.
• this perspective allows us to focus on the preffered types of pictures for each collector. Improves knowledge of the factors that enable & sustain the behaviour as trelationship between collecting behaviour and the picture material become clearer.
• VICTIMISATION. Whether a child is aware an image of themselves was taken or not, or what the nature of the image is, victimisation occurs every time an image is opened for a sexual purpose. The victim status is exaggerated by continuing use.
• An important purpose of picture collections is that it allows instant access to a child as a VICTIM. Contact offending is harder.
• Non illegal categories were deliberately included in the 10 categories. The importance being on the SUBJECTIVE use of the images - significant in promoting & sustaining sexual fantasy.
• Sexualising images of children is a psychological process.
• Knowledge of VICIMISATION does not necessarily diminish it’s gravity. Consider surruptishly taken images of children in a pool or play area with a zoom lens. Particularly corrosive & offensive because they sexualise situations that should be safe and secure?
• pseduo images where the ‘victim’ does not exist still represent a form of VICTIMISATION & can be used to entice / lower inhibitions & normalise sexual activity to children.
• Narrative & THEMATIC linkages (series of images of differning ‘severity’ serve important roles for the collector. Sustaining & generating fantasy, ‘personalising’ & ‘engaging’ with the child. Also im portant for structuring collections and need to fill ‘gaps’ in series.
• Factors that affect extent & severity of VICTIMISATION. Size of collection & quality of it’s organisation - obsessional sorting and offlien viewing. Presence of new / private material - access to a child? Age of child (research sugegsts it is decreasing. Younger children more compliant? Greater imbalance of power.