The study reveals that considerable portions of arrests for Internet sex crimes against minors (25%) are of offenders who solicited undercover law-enforcement agents, but who could not be linked with identified victims of Internet-related crimes in the current investigations. These undercover investigations in which
agents impersonate youth are a new facet of law-enforcement activity in the sexcrimes-
against-minors field, because investigators could not easily deploy decoy
targets until the advent of the Internet. This study shows that these investigations
now comprise a fairly large component of the law-enforcement activity in this area and one that is resulting in a considerable volume of convictions. Cases involving Internet sex crimes against minors are clearly complex and time-consuming. Most were multijurisdictional and involved more than one lawenforcement
agency. Many involved collaboration between federal and local law
enforcement. Many entailed charges brought in more than one jurisdiction. These are clear arguments in favor of continuing efforts to promote collaboration among jurisdictions including multijurisdictional task forces, collaborative protocols, and
training of professionals at all levels in how to conduct joint investigations and prosecutions.In spite of these complexities, the evidence about outcomes suggests that Internet sex crimes against minors are not posing insurmountable difficulties for
law enforcement. The rate of dismissed cases and acquittals is possibly lower than for other kinds of child sex offenses. This is even true in cases involving the solicitation
of undercover law enforcement and the CP Possession cases, where no victims were identified. It suggests that whatever novelty and complexity the Internet adds to these cases may be offset by other Internet features that aid in prosecution such as transcripts of conversations between the offenders and victims or images of
children stored or sent online. In summary this study provides both worrisome and reassuring information about a new crime domain that is receiving considerable attention. It is clear that
while the dynamics and potentials of this new technology are yet to be fully
understood, it has created new possibilities for crime and threats to young people.
On the other hand the study gives evidence of considerable law-enforcement activity
in response to these threats and implementation of both novel and conventional
strategies with some success. As this process of threat and response continues, it is
clear that this crime domain warrants careful monitoring in the future.
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