Sexting: When Are State Prosecutors Deciding To Prosecute? The Third National Juvenile Online Victimization Study (NJOV-3)

• NCJ Number: 248661
• Author(s): Wendy Walsh; Janis Wolak; David Finkelhor
• Date Published: January 2013
• Length: 4 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2009-SNB-90001
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Corporate Author: Crimes Against Children Research Center
• Sale Source: Crimes Against Children Research Center
• Publication Format: Document; Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This exploratory study determined how often prosecutors offer alternatives to charging minors and how often charges are filed in "sexting" cases (the technology-facilitated creation of images by minors that meet statutory definitions of child pornography).

Abstract

The study found that the majority of State prosecutors (62 percent) in the sample (n=378) who had worked on technology-facilitated crimes against children had processed "sexting" cases that involved juvenile offenders; 36 percent reported that they had ever filed charges in these cases. When charges were filed, the majority charged child pornography production felonies, and 16 percent of the prosecutors had sexting cases that resulted in the defendant being sentenced to sex offender registration. Research on such cases should be continued in order to assist prosecutors in developing tools and strategies for dealing with these complex crimes. 3 figures, 1 table, and 4 references (Publisher abstract modified)