The World Wide Web is a part of all our lives. It’s one way we access news, shop, bank, attend college courses, play games, listen to music and view videos, among many other things. It has brought the world into our homes or most any place we choose to access it. It provides a wealth of information in a way never before imagined, but as convenient as it is, the web also defines the old adage that if something appears too good to be true, it probably is. Along with all the wonderful things that we can access online, there are evils as well.
One of those evils is the use of the Internet to exploit our nation’s children. Sexual predators who historically would prey on children in public places, such as playgrounds, schoolyards and shopping malls, no longer need to leave the comfort of their home to satisfy their needs. The web has opened a worldwide market for these predators where thousands of images of sexually abused children are transmitted with a push of a button and swapped like trading cards.
Locating these predators in such an elusive environment is a challenge for law enforcement officers. Working undercover posing as children on the Internet, detectives are able to collect evidence from predators who believe that they’re cultivating a new victim.
Nearly always men, these offenders put a great deal of effort into learning how to lure children. A predator may pretend to be a child himself, preying on a child’s innocence and insecurities to build a relationship of trust as he fulfills his own needs. In other instances, an offender could already be in contact with a child or children, and trading images of the abuse he inflicts on the child online. More common is the offender who doesn’t create the image, but collects them from those who do, building a library for his own enjoyment and to share with other disturbed individuals online.
Holbrook Police Department Detective Tim Dixon played a lead role in locating one such man in the Show Low area, Patrick Barrow, who was recently charged with 10 counts of exploitation of a minor for receiving, distributing and possessing images of child pornography.
In another recent case, this same detective assisted an out of state agency in locating another man who was exploiting minors by sending sexually explicit images of them over the Internet.
In each of these cases, as in others, a great deal of work goes into researching, locating and prosecuting these offenders. Once convicted, the sentencing in these cases can range dramatically depending on the circumstances involved. In many instances the predator could face 10 to 24 years per image for the crime of exploiting minors, as in the case of Bullhead City resident Johann Hartman, who was convicted in 2010 of 11 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor due to images in his possession. He received a 110-year sentence in a state prison.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) website notes a single offender can have thousands of images on his computer. Once these images are on the Internet, they are irretrievable and can continue to circulate forever. This means the child is being re-victimized each time the image is viewed.
While it is imperative that these offenders be apprehended, there remains another aspect to the cases that may be even more difficult to solve: locating the victims.
All images in cases such as those previously mentioned are gathered and submitted to the Child Victim Identification Program (CVIP). There, the images and videos are reviewed using NCMEC’s Child Recognition and Identification System (CRIS). Each submitted image and video file is run through and/or visually reviewed by an analyst in an attempt to help law enforcement identify the children depicted.
During these reviews, NCMEC analysts closely examine the images and videos, documenting all investigative clues that may lead to the location of a child victim. To assist in this process, CVIP launched the Victim Identification Lab website in 2006. This system allows sworn law enforcement, prosecutors, and professionals at accredited child advocacy centers to register and participate in the identification process by viewing sanitized images and video files in hopes of identifying the location of child’s sexual exploitation.
“These images are sent out to 5,000 different agencies to see if there are any recognizable clues in the image. Background, clothing, vehicles, anything that could be associated with a particular area,” explained Dixon, who recently contributed to the effort by identifying an article of clothing on a young boy as being from Arizona by the partial lettering on his shirt.
Each piece of information is gathered to complete the puzzle and once a possible location has been determined, NCMEC works with the appropriate law enforcement agency to help locate and assist the child victim(s).
Dixon has been actively involved in the apprehension of sexual predators who target our children for the past eight years. As the only officer in Navajo County trained in peer-to-peer interviewing and as an undercover officer in this field, his work involved cases throughout the state and in some instances throughout the country.
For Dixon and others who investigate, apprehend and prosecute these types of offenders, the outcome, when successful, makes a very difficult job very rewarding. “This is definitely a collaborative effort with other ICAC detectives throughout the nation. There’s a wealth of good experience out there and we try to pull it all together,” he said.
While law enforcement officers face a great deal of tragedy in their line of work, dealing with the suffering of innocent children has a strong impact. “I don’t work at this full time, but I sacrifice a part of my mind by doing this work. The individuals who process this information on a daily basis sacrifice a part of their mind for this work. You have to learn to cope with that, but to me, this work is the most valuable part of my job. No other outcome matters as much as saving these kids,” said Dixon.
To learn more about the efforts to help our abused children and to apprehend offenders, visit the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force website at www.azicac.net/ and NCMEC at www.missingkids.com.
