by peter e. bortner
Authorities agree computer technology has helped perverts in Schuylkill County and the rest of Pennsylvania produce and distribute much more child pornography than in the past.
"As the Internet has become more popular ... it's just exploded," state police Trooper Paul Iannace, who works with the state police Southeast Computer Crime Unit in Bethlehem, said recently of the growth of child pornography.
Pottsville psychologist Dr. Joseph B. Sheris agreed.
"It's increased tremendously since the Internet," said Sheris, who evaluates sex offenders to determine whether they qualify as sexually violent predators under Megan's Law. "Plus, individual access to it has increased."
Behind the images, however, are real children subjected to great suffering, said Jenny Murphy-Shifflet, president and chief executive officer for the Sexual Assault Resource Counseling Center of Lebanon, which has an office in Pottsville.
"The fact is that child pornography is not just images or video, it is a depiction of real child sexual abuse," she said.
County and federal prosecutors find themselves striving mightily to keep pace with the flood of child porn, which also has been linked to sexual violence against children.
"We've had quite a number of cases," District Attorney Karen Noon said. "Certain agencies are being aggressive in looking for individuals who indulge in child porn."
Federal authorities also are handling more cases, according to Heidi Havens, media and community relations specialist for the office of U.S. Attorney Peter J. Smith of the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Those cases include Jonathan M. Binns, 38, of Shenandoah, who pleaded guilty Jan. 9 in U.S. District Court in Scranton to production of child pornography. Senior U.S. District Judge Edwin M. Kosik is scheduled to sentence Binns on June 20; the defendant faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 30 years and a $250,000 fine.
Binns also pleaded guilty Jan. 20 in Schuylkill County Court to rape and related charges in connection with his assaults against two preteen girls; he is scheduled to be sentenced in that case June 22 by Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin. Many studies show a relationship between child pornography and sexual violence against children, and professionals also see such a relationship, although they are not certain of the extent.
"It is there in some, probably more than we can be aware of," Sheris said.
Havens agreed.
"There is a correlation between possession of child pornography and contact offenses with children," she said. "The degree of correlation is subject to disagreement, with some studies showing a number as high as 80 percent of child pornography offenders having also abused children."
In a study of 155 child pornography offenders published in 2009 in the Journal of Family Violence, 85 percent admitted that they had at least one hands-on sexual offense.
Another study, published in 2010 in the Journal of Forensic Nursing, examined 283 male adolescent sexual abusers and 170 male delinquent youth who had not sexually offended, and found that the juvenile sexual abusers reported significantly more frequent exposure to pornography before age 10 than non-sexually offending delinquents.
Iannace has no doubt there is a connection.
"From our experience, child pornography is definitely a stepping stone to ... sexually assaulting a child," he said.
Even without sexual violence, child porn brutalizes the young victims, Iannace said.
"The problem is, people think it's a victimless crime," Iannace said. "Behind every picture and video is a crime scene. That child is being raped and sexually assaulted in the worst way."
Iannace said the pain of child pornography on the Internet never goes away.
"It's there forever. It gets recorded," he said. "Most of the stuff we're seeing are video files."
Noon agrees.
"Every time someone watches this video, this child is victimized again," she said.
Child porn victims include youngsters of all ages, even infants, according to Sheris.
Noon also said perpetrators make no allowances for age.
"I've prosecuted cases where they're babies," she said.
Almost all child porn users are male, according to the experts.
"I have not had any women with child porn," Noon said.
Havens said the U.S. attorney's office has prosecuted some women, but mostly men, while Iannace said he has prosecuted only two women for child porn offenses in his 12 years with the unit.
"Offenders cross all ages and economic status," Havens said.
Many of them wonder why those offenders watch child porn.
"I don't want to know," Noon said.
Havens said federal prosecutors see two reasons.
"We believe for sexual gratification and predatory grooming," she said.
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer N. Lehman, who prosecutes sexual assault cases in the county court, is baffled by child porn's popularity.
"I have no idea why" people use it, she said.
Sheris sees no one reason for child porn's popularity.
"There are a lot of different reasons," he said.
Some people who use child porn want just it because they are interested only in children, but the majority start with an interest in adult pornography, Sheris said.
"They're into pornography, and they drift into the child pornography as a way of adding more stimulation," he said. "It becomes more exciting to them."
Others are obsessed with the Internet, according to Sheris.
"They're more obsessive-compulsive type people," he said.
Still others are anti-social people who care about only themselves, he said.
"That's another way of self-gratification," Sheris said.
As the Internet has grown, so has the amount of child porn made in the United States, according to experts.
"It usually came from overseas," Iannace said. Before the Internet law enforcement authorities had more success controlling its flow, in the 1970s and 1980s.
"Now, a good 60 percent is from our country," he said.
"I can't say that I've seen any from overseas," Lehman said.
Sheris said there still is some imported from overseas, but it now comes mostly from this country.
"There's a lot being produced here," he said.
Regardless of why child porn users indulge in it, or from where it comes, law enforcement pursues them vigorously.
"It's a concerted effort" of federal law enforcement agencies and the Pennsylvania State Police, Noon said.
Havens said trained agents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Secret Service combine their abilities to fight child porn.
Noon said federal authorities take many of the child porn cases because punishments are harsher in the federal system.
Lehman said she has had two cases where she has prosecuted the offender for physically and sexually assaulting the child, while federal authorities prosecuted on the child porn charges.
Murphy-Shifflet said her organization also is fighting child porn by urging children to stay away from people who use it.
"What we're trying to do in our education program is help children" realize that people who expose them to child porn are not trustworthy, she said. "We have had children who have been exposed to child porn. Sometimes, we don't hear that right away."
Exposure to child porn is difficult even for someone like Iannace, who combats it daily.
"The stuff is so disgusting. Nothing can prepare you," he said. "The audio is worse than the video, hearing the children scream."