Investigative aspects of crossover offending from a sample of FBI online child sexual exploitation cases

The prevalence and availability of child pornography on the Internet has increased the number of cases investigated by law enforcement and public concern regarding the extent to which individuals who collect child pornography also commit contact sexual offenses against children. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) III - Crimes Against Children conducted an archival review of 251 online Sexual Exploitation of Children (SEOC) cases to assess the range of offending behavior and the relationship between child pornography possession and other sexual offenses against children. Analysis revealed 38% of the cases (n = 95/251) involved crossover offending, in which offenders who possessed child pornography also attempted or committed other SEOC crimes. Although 62% of the investigations uncovered possession-only offenses, the frequency of crossover offending observed in this sample indicates that the act of viewing child pornography does not always exist in isolation, and that a child sex offender's sexual interest in children may be part of a larger pattern of offending behavior. Awareness and understanding of potential crossover offending behavior offers additional investigative, prosecutive, supervisory, and assessment/treatment considerations when working with this population of offenders.