Prevention Works

The Evolution of Exploitation

Pedophiles, whether on or offline, pose an indescribable threat to children. The New York Times released a two-part series* about web pedophiles and new websites designed to skirt current child pornography laws. These sites, while claiming that they are engaging in the child modeling business, contain lascivious pictures of children who are barely clothed. Some of the producers of these pictures believe that they should be shielded from child pornography and child abuse laws because the children and infants pictured are clothed. However, the intentions of the pictures are clearly sexual. The New York Times reports that these sites describe the young children as “hot” and “delicious.” 

While there are real child modeling sites on the Internet, the so-called “modeling” sites that are popping up online are not. According to The New York Times, real modeling sites password- protect their pictures of children (which are nonsexual), and make them available only to bona fide companies and casting agents who have been subject to a background check.

US law defines child pornography as “sexually explicit content” regarding minors, including “lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area.” Thus, the partially clothed minors depicted on these pornographic sites are victims of child pornography. Moreover, consumers of this material are breaking federal law.

Most pedophiles do not view themselves as rapists or aggressors. Instead, they believe that children are able to consent to sexual acts.

It is both abhorrent and baffling that anyone can assume that children of the age of two, 10, 12, or any other age under 18 are able to consent to a sexual act. Even more disheartening is the fact that most child sexual abuse comes from a parent or someone who has consistent access to the child. According to The New York Times many pedophiles speak about taking jobs as camp counselors and teachers.

Let’s hope that federal courts are able to quickly shut down the burgeoning market of pornographic child modeling sites.

Creating child pornography is child abuse, and both consumers and producers of the images perpetually victimize the children involved. If you witness the sexual exploitation of children, or encounter child pornography, you should immediately report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline.

---
*The articles, entitled “Dark Corners: With Child Sex Sites on the Run, Nearly Nude Photos Hit the Web” and “Dark Corners: On the Web, Pedophiles Extend Their Reach” were published August 20 and August 21, 2006, respectively. They are available from www.nytimes.com for a fee.

Revisiting Prisoner Reentry

With more than 650,000 offenders released yearly from prisons, reentry is clearly an important social issue in the United States. At the recent Community Capacity Development Office’s Law Enforcement Conference in Phoenix, AZ, no less than seven workshops and training sessions were dedicated to this issue.  More and more communities are incorporating ex-offender reentry initiatives into their crime prevention strategies, and they vary from one jurisdiction to another.

A well-thought-out ex-offender reentry initiative can help crime prevention efforts, but many challenges must be addressed to facilitate successful reentry. A couple of recent publications address these concerns and can help programs plan more effective reentry efforts. The current issue of the Western Criminology Review features articles and commentary on reentry strategies. The articles in this issue dedicated to the topic of reentry provide guidance in the enhancement of reentry programs.  Another great resource is the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s publication titled Reentry: Helping Former Prisoners Return to Communities. It offers a way to think about and reduce the negative impact of incarceration in communities.

About 97 percent of the people currently in prison will come back into our communities. Unless they make positive connections in the community when they are released, many will be arrested again within three years. A variety of programs and services can be developed to help people who have the determination to improve their lives. It is important that organizations create the best possible programs for their unique community to make reentry work.

This Internet Angel Watches Over You

A professor at Carnegie Mellon University has developed a program that patrols the Internet and searches for sensitive information that could be used by crooks to steal someone’s identity.  Once that information—name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number—is located, the benevolent computer program, dubbed the Identity Angel, sends an automated message to that person’s email account warning them that their personal data is available to the public.  According to an article by Consumer Affairs, the Identity Angel has already alerted thousands of people to their risk of identity theft since it became active on July 23.

Online job seekers make up one major demographic that the Identity Angel has focused on. Millions of people post their resumes online, and often they include a bit too much personal information.  Pursuing their hopes of finding a new job on the Internet, they could inadvertently find themselves swindled by identity thieves.  Presumably, after receiving a warning from the Identity Angel, they will go online to remove the very sensitive information the Angels warns them about from the public’s view.

But what happens if the Identity Angel cannot find an email address to accompany all of the valuable personal data?  There is no other way for the program to contact people.   Let’s hope that if the Identity Angel is able to locate someone’s Social Security number online, it could also find that person’s email address.

Rebuilding Safe Communities

August 29, 2006 marks the first year since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, leaving some 780,000 Louisiana residents displaced from their homes. One year later, the rebuilding and cleanup in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama is still going on. People from Louisiana, where New Orleans took a direct hit, are scattered throughout all 50 states; many are living temporarily with family members or starting new lives. Although Houston, Atlanta, and other cities opened themselves up to those displaced by the storm, some people have gone back to the Gulf region.

In New Orleans, which now has a population of approximately 155,000—the population was almost half a million before the hurricane—people are rebuilding and using many programs to do so. (Three examples are The Road Home, FEMA, and programs run by the American Institute of Architects.) The city has focused on rebuilding houses and businesses. As the population starts to rise again—estimates place the population at 280,000 by 2008—the city will also be rebuilding its infrastructure. Crime has run rampant, police have been accused of wrongdoing, and the people returning home will need to become part of the solution to rebuild not only homes and business, but the infrastructure and their communities.

Those who come back to New Orleans will want to move to a safe, secure neighborhood. Only if the residents of those neighborhoods work with their law enforcement will this be possible. Only if those programs engaged in designing the new and rebuilt communities work to make them less accessible to people considered dangerous will New Orleans flourish once again. Just rebuilding an old house or building or building a new one doesn’t make a community. The people who live in the house or building are what make the community, and only if they are involved can they make a difference.

Drug Testing on Prisoners

A recent article in the New York Times broached the issue of whether prisoners could be used as testing subjects for new pharmaceutical products that are in the testing phase.  In the past pharmaceutical drug testing on prisoners was standard, with roughly 90 percent of all drugs being tested on them.  But as the Times article shows, after some questionable and somewhat unethical practices were uncovered, the regulations on testing new drugs on prisoners became much more strict.  Now, prisoners are being intentionally excluded from trials of drugs that could potentially help them. The current regulations, which were passed in 1978, state that prisoners can participate in experiments as long as there is only a minimal risk. However, a report by the Institute of Medicine claims that prisoners should be allowed to participate in riskier experiments as long as the potential benefits are greater as well.

One of the major controversies with this idea is the fact that the prisoners would have to be able to volunteer willingly to participate in medical studies. Some people claim that a person who is locked up is not capable of making an uninfluenced decision about participation.  And, according to an article by Jens Soering,

“19 percent of all prisoners are completely illiterate, another 40 percent are functionally illiterate, and 20 percent are mentally ill.” 

Also, a large segment of the prison population does not speak English, or at least does not speak it well.  All of these issues could leave the prisoner at a disadvantage when faced with deciding whether to join a medical study.

How To Delete Online Predators

The Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) has been passed by the House of Representatives and will be considered by the Senate.  If passed, it will amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require schools and libraries receiving federal aid to block minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms.  Social networking sites are quickly becoming the most common way for youth to communicate with one another on the web.  According to an article published by Technology Review: an MIT Enterprise,

“MySpace has 95 million registered users. If it were a country, it would be the 12th largest in the world (ranking between Mexico and the Philippines).”

Many don’t agree that this law will work because most children who become victims of predators know their abductors. The U.S. Department of Justice’s statistics on the kidnapping of children reports that only 24 percent of all child abductions are carried out by strangers, compared with 49 percent that are carried out by family members and 27 percent by acquaintances. 

Supporters of the act agree that it will be a useful tool in protecting children from online predators.  However, some one of the key factors for those opposing this law are that it may also ban legitimate websites, because the law will block any site where the user is required to create a profile.

What is Self-Defense Anyway?

Over the past year, many states have enacted laws that expand upon the right of self-defense.  These new laws allow the use of deadly force in cases that would have previously resulted in criminal charges.  Before, victims of crime were required to attempt to flee before turning on their attackers in self-defense, but the new laws state that any unlawful intruder in a person’s house or vehicle may be killed, regardless of whether the intended victims fear for their safety or not.  Supporters call the legislation “stand your ground” laws, but opponents call them “shoot first” laws.

Last year, Florida was the first state to enact laws of this kind, and since then 15 other states have followed suit.  The laws have reduced the number of charges and convictions of people who claim self-defense, and consequently they have sparked serious debates across the country. 

The National Rifle Association is a strong supporter of the new laws, and believes that crime victims should be granted more leeway to confront attackers in order to save their own lives.  They plan to lobby eight other states to enact the laws in 2007.  However, opponents of the laws see them as a license to kill, essentially.  Some high profile cases in Florida are receiving critical attention, and could potentially make it harder for other states to adopt these laws. 

You can find more of the ongoing debate by searching the web, or read NCPC’s tips on how to stay safe from violent crimes.

No More Free Refunds

U.S. retailers have been losing approximately $16 billion to the fraudulent return of merchandise each year since 2002.  An array of different schemes cheat businesses and their customers out of merchandise and money, and the perpetrators have help:  Blogs on the Internet give instructions on how to exploit stores’ return policies; websites sell gift cards that were obtained returning stolen merchandise; even “live” receipts are sold online to be used by shoplifters to make fraudulent returns after they have stolen the items on the receipt.

In response to these tactics, retailers are also stepping up their defenses.  But it is at the price of consumers.  An article printed by Reuters explains some of the new safeguards retailers have begun using to minimize fraudulent returns.  Many stores across the country are now using software, such as Return Exchange, to collect personal data on their customers during transactions.  This practice has outraged many consumer groups, and caused a backlash on websites such as the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, where consumers are encouraged to share their experiences with these new, frustrating return policies.

Collecting customer information will help to reduce the amount of fraudulent returns, and retailers seem confident that the data will be stored securely.  The Return Exchange website claims that their software complies with all state and federal regulations regarding privacy, and that they do not share or sell the information with anyone else.  Still, the issue of security vs. privacy is still a hot topic right now at the center of many debates.  With all of the recent news concerning data theft and the loss of sensitive information, consumers simply do not believe their information is safe in the hands of retailers.  If our government is prone to security breaches, people wonder how store employees will be able to safeguard the sensitive data they are collecting.  Eventually, everyone involved will have to reach a compromise that allows retailers to defend against fraudulent activity while respecting the privacy of consumers.

Can curfews cut crime?

A day after the nation's capital implemented an earlier curfew for teens, DC residents are reacting.  Some think that the curfew will keep teens out of trouble and reduce crimes committed at night, but others insist that the curfew is a temporary solution that will not produce any long-term results. 

In July DC declared a crime emergency due to a spike in violent crimes that police say is being caused in part by an increase in juvenile crime. You can read about this crime trend here. But are curfews an effective crime prevention method? That is debatable. Washington has used curfew before to slow juvenile crime but many think they did little to decrease crime. DC Mayor Anthony Williams says that the curfew will keep children from becoming victims of crime. Others say it is discriminatory against young people. The Washington Post reports

“This tells young people they’re the problem, not part of the solution,” said Eshauna Smith, executive director of the DC Alliance of Youth Advocates, a large coalition of more than 50 groups.

A curfew alone won’t stop crime. More preventive measures, including recreational activities and job opportunities, are needed to reach out to young people and keep them from committing crimes. Most will agree that some form of action is better than none but only time will tell if the curfew will have a lasting affect on the city’s fight against crime. 

For details on the curfew, visit the DC Police Department’s website.