Sitting at a computer 12 hours a night, can take a toll on someone. Now imagine you are searching for predators, predators that prey on our children. It’s a terrifying thought, but that’s what I do. A Pedophile is a person who is sexually attracted to children. You start in a simple chatroom, and a lie, and from there opens up a whole new world. I came into work as a 32 year old man, Steve, to imitate a 14 year old female, Stacie.
It is believed that more than half a million pedophiles are online every day. Before the Internet, pedophiles physically had to go to parks, zoos, typical places children are interested in. Thanks to the popularity of the Internet, pedophiles have taken their victims from approximately one or two a day, to an unlimited number. The U.S. Department of Justice stated “one in five children (10 to 17 years old) receives unwanted sexual solicitations online.” In order to be considered a pedophile you must fit into certain categories, you must experience sexual fixation, fantasizing, or must have sexual activities with a preadolescent child for at least six months of the year. In order to be considered a pedophile, you have to be 16 years or older and the victim must be a minimum of five years younger.
Pedophiles are broken down into three categories, a secretive pedophile, a child pornography collector, and an active file. The secretive pedophile may look completely normal, may even be married, have a few kids of their own, and could possibly never sexually assault a child. A child pornography collector is a person that gets sexual gratification from collecting and/or trading images and videos with other pedophiles. Active pedophiles are who perform physical acts against a child or several children, they are known to be the ones who actually create or manufacture child pornography by pictures or videos of sexual acts against a child.
Now back to Stacie, long blonde hair, blue eyes, nose piercing and the typical “daddy issues”. Stacie enters a chatroom, and introduces herself. “stacie14” This part takes time, you must lure the predator in and keep their interest, not for hours or even days, but weeks sometimes months. The inevitable private chats start, starts with one or two and before you know it, we are talking hundreds within a week time period. “I’m 25, is that okay?” Pedophiles use a technique called “grooming”, overcoming the victims sense of right and wrong. After months of communication, Stacie’s next step is to try and set up a “real world meeting”, whether it be a concert or ice cream. The pedophile must be explicit, and ask for sex.
It is important to avoid entrapment in any kind of sting operation, this is especially true in a child enticement sting. Officers must be careful to be passive actors. They can respond to messages or requests, but should not initiate contacts. In many chat rooms, it will not take long for other users in the room to contact the officer
Using a proactive approach, I used his message header to trace back his IP address. Once the suspect is located, I subpoena the IP address in order to find out personal information from the person really behind the keyboard. When it comes to digital evidence, it can be a tricky matter, digital evidence is so easily altered/ damaged. It is a better idea to the mouse, click anything, use the keyboard, anything that can manipulate any input device on a suspect’s computer system.
The first step is the picture taking process, starting from the outside in, showing a wide view. Once inside the room, the picture should get gradually closer more specific. Empty ports should be labeled as empty or not in use. For those ports with connections, one colored label should be placed on the port, and a matching colored label should be attached to the end of the cable plugged into that port. Once the crime scene has been documented, the system must be moved to a secure location. In order to move the system it must be shutdown, unplugging the power for a hard shutdown is the recommended approach because this does not involve manipulating the mouse or any other computer interface devices. Damage can occur to computers or media in transit because they are sensitive electronic devices. This is done for every case, and is done perfectly according to the procedure, or you throw yourself in the way of a miss trial.
47 people were arrested for buying/ selling child pornography, in our 10 week “sting”. The majority have been through the court system before. Line up, take your picture, fingerprint, and shower. Make a person feel good, getting that many criminals off the street. Until two years later.
Approximately half of the criminals that were caught that day, were either done with the system and had been sentenced, or still in the process at this time, some had even registered as sex offenders, required by “Megan’s Law”. The case took a horrible turn when we realized that everyone had a common factor. They were all victims of identity theft, and patterns were not noticed in the beginning. Everyone that was arrested were innocent. The card owners were arrested not the card user.
Identity theft, the unlawful use of another’s personal identifying information without their knowledge, to fraudulently obtain money, goods, services, or anything of value. Also, “a fraud that is committed or attempted, using a person’s identifying information without authority” (Federal Trade Commission 2004). Almost 10 million Americans have discovered that they were the victim of some form of ID theft within the last year, Federal Trade Commission, Identity Theft Survey Report, 2002.
The individuals information was taken when pervert1 hacked into a banks data base, through the available WIFI network, credit cards were taken out in their names and used for very illegal/ degrading reasons. The average victim spends anywhere from $500.00 to $1,200.00 along with 30 to 60 hours of time resolving and repairing the damage (Federal Trade Commission, 2003), but these people spent a lot longer, and a lot more money.