Internet Sex Crime Statistics
Unlike most personal injury claims, internet sex crimes are intentional criminal acts and are therefore treated as intentional torts in personal injury law. Intentional misconduct cases sometimes result in punitive damages on top of compensatory damages. The Bellingham sexual abuse lawyers at Tario & Associates may be able to help you fight for the damages that you deserve. through a civil suit.
Often victims of internet sex crime are reluctant to come forward out of embarrassment or shame. Our internet sex crime attorneys will always treat you with care, respect and understanding while fighting for a settlement on your behalf.
Internet sex crime statistics
In a ten year span between 2002 and 2012, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) child victim identification program processed more than 80 million child pornography images. There are more than 747,408 registered sex offenders in the United States, but over 100,000 of them are lost in the system. (Source: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 2012)
While only 18 percent of minors participate in internet chat rooms, the majority of internet-initiated sex crimes against children begin in chat rooms. The sexual abuse victim’s social networking site was used by predators to gain information about the victim’s likes and dislikes in 82 percent of online sex crimes against minors. Sixty-five percent of online sex offenders used the victim’s social networking site to gain home and school information about the victim in the internet sex crimes that they committed. Twenty-six percent of online sex offenders used the victim’s social networking site to gain information about the victim’s whereabouts at a specific time. (Source: Journal of Adolescent Health 47, 2010)
Most likely because of the shame or fear associated with sexual crimes, only one in three children will report sexual crimes to an adult. Worldwide, at least 1.8 million children are used in commercial sex; many of them are sold into sexual slavery by poor families and others are abducted and trafficked into brothels. Dr. Michael Seto – Director of Forensic Rehabilitation Research at the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group where he focuses on pedophilia and sexual crimes committed against children – estimated that three percent of the male population is aroused by pedophilic stimuli. Internationally, at least 200 million girls and 100 million boys will be sexually victimized before they reach adulthood. (Source: International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children)
According to a UN report, 79 percent of human trafficking is done for sexual exploitation (Source: International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, 2009)
One in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before adulthood. (Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Prevalence of Individual Adverse Childhood Experiences, 1995-1997)
- Thirty to 40 percent of sexual assault victims are abused by a family member.
- Fifty percent of sex abuse victims are abused by someone outside the family but whom they know and trust.
- (Source: United States Department of justice. National Institute of Justice. Youth Victimization: Prevalence and Implications, 2003)
One in seven kids had received a sexual solicitation online. Fifty-six percent of kids who were sexually solicited online were asked to send a picture; 27 percent of the pictures were sexual in nature.
Forty-four percent of sexual solicitors were under the age of 18.
Four percent of all youth internet users received sexual solicitations that included overt invitations like being asked to meet in person or speak on the phone; some received packages or letters in the mail including money and gifts.
Four percent of youth were distressed by the sexual solicitations that they had received.
Seventy-three percent of youth who met a child predator in person or spoke to one on the phone had originally met that person online.
The most common online forums for sexual solicitations of youth:
- Chat rooms (thirty-seven percent)
- Instant messaging (Forty percent)
- Other forums, like gaming devices (Twenty-one percent)
(Source: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2006)
Participating in risky online behavior dramatically increases the chance that that child will be contacted for an online sexual solicitation. Risky behaviors include:
- Posting personal information, 50 percent increase
- Communicating with online strangers, 45 percent increase
- Adding strangers to online “buddy lists”, 35 percent increase
- Sending personal information to strangers, 26 percent increase
- Browsing X-rated or pornographic websites, 13 percent increase
- Talking about sex with strangers, five percent increase
Source: Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 2007
Over time, 80 percent of online offenders against youth state their intentions and only five percent hid the fact that they were adults from their victims. (Source: Journal of Adolescent Health. 35.5., 2007)
The majority of victims of sex crimes that began through online communication were between 13 and 15 years old; 75 percent were girls and 25 percent were boys. (Source: Journal of Adolescent Health. 35.5., 2007)
- Fourteen percent of students in 10th through 12th grades had either accepted an invitation to meet an online stranger in-person and/or had invited an online stranger to meet them in-person.
- Fourteen percent of students in 7th through 9th grades reported that they had communicated with someone online about sexual things; 11 percent of students reported that they had been asked to talk about sexual things online; 8 percent had been exposed to nude pictures and seven percent were also asked for nude pictures of themselves online. Fifty-nine percent of these sexual abuse victims said their perpetrators were a friend they “know in-person”; 36 percent said it was someone else they know; 21 percent said the online sex offender was a classmate; 19 percent indicated the abuser was an online friend; and 16 percent said it was an online stranger. Nine percent of these children had accepted an online invitation to meet someone in-person and 10 percent had asked someone online to meet them in-person.
- Thirteen percent of children in 2nd and 3rd grades stated that they had used the Internet to talk to a stranger; 11 percent reported having been asked to describe private things about their body; and 10 percent had been exposed to private things about someone else’s body.
Source: Rochester Institute for Technology, 2008
Seek the help of a sex abuse lawyer
If you or a loved one has been injured as a result of abuse or assault, you have enough to deal with. Let an experienced sex abuse attorney help you fight for justice. You may be able to seek justice through a civil lawsuit. Call the caring personal injury lawyers at Tario & Associates, P.S. in Bellingham, WA today for a FREE consultation! We have been representing residents of Whatcom County, Skagit County, Island County and Snohomish County since 1979. You will pay nothing up front and no attorney fees at all unless we recover damages for you!
