Chapter 11: Crimes Against Children
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Chapter 11
Crimes Against Children
Learning Objectives
1. Recognize types and patterns of burn injuries found in child abuse.
2. Understand what sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is and its misconceptions.
3. Discuss the prevailing theories in SIDS research.
4. Understand criminal homicide as a possibility in SIDS deaths.
9. Understand the relationship between child pornography and sex tourism.
10. Outline the types of child pornography.
11. Discuss the use of the computer and the Internet in child pornography.
12. Discuss additional ways that the Internet is used to exploit children.
13. Be able to differentiate between sudden death syndrome and physical abuse.
Introduction
Probably no other crimes are more emotionally laden than those involving children as victims.
Police officers and investigators often speak of the intense emotion associated with viewing
innocent children as victims of crime. Unfortunately, incidents of crime against children have
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against children. For this reason, this chapter focuses on issues of child abuse and assault,
including some of the techniques and problems associated with investigating these crimes.
Crimes perpetrated against children occur in many forms and contexts. Children may experience
abuse, for example, that results in burn injuries; yet deliberate burning often goes unrecognized.
It is especially important in such cases that investigators establish good rapport with hospital
Also discussed in this chapter are sex tourism and child pornography, crimes that are rapidly
increasing owing to facilitation by the Internet. Other types of Internet exploitation are also
covered. Next, infant abduction is defined and analyzed. In regard to older missing children,
Lecture Notes
I. Assaults against Children
The most common cause of child deaths is physical abuse, often perpetrated by the parents. The
electric cord.
II. Burn Injuries and Child Abuse
Burn injuries make up anywhere from 6 to 20% of all child-abuse cases, and about 10% of
hospital admissions of children to burn units are the result of child abuse. Children are burned for
different reasons.
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A. Typologies of Burns
Children may incur various types of burn injuries. A burn may be classified by how severe, or
B. Medical Classification of Burn Severity
Physicians primarily categorize burns as having either partial thickness or full thickness. A
child’s age plays a part in how severely the child is injured by a particular incident.
C. Causes of Burn Injuries
The severity of a burn is also directly influenced by the circumstances that caused the burn:
• Scald burns occur when the child comes into contact with hot liquid.
• Contact burns occur when the child encounters a hot solid object or flame.
Scald burns are the most common type of burn injury to a child. Spill/splash injuries occur
III. Unexplained Child Fatalities
A. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Although sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is a medical phenomenon, not a crime, a
lack of knowledge about its elements can cause individuals involved in its investigation to
The following are the characteristics of SIDS victim’s appearance:
• Usually normal state of nutrition and hydration
• Blood-tinged, frothy fluids around mouth and nostrils, indicative of pulmonary edema
• Bruiselike marks on head or body limbs (postmortem pooling or settling of blood in
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dependent body parts)
Some of the autopsy findings of SIDS victims are as follows:
• Some congestion and edema of the lungs
The misconceptions about SIDS are as follows:
• Aspiration, choking
There are a number of theories about the causes of SIDS. One of the theories about the
mechanism of SIDS is that it results from spontaneous, protracted apnea, or cessation of
breathing.
B. The Police Officer’s Role
The law enforcement officer serves a key role in the SIDS case and is often the first person to
encounter the shock, grief, and guilt experienced by the parents. Obtaining answers to the
following questions are of considerable value to both law enforcement officers and medical
personnel in determining the cause of death.
• Age, date of birth, birth weight (if known), race, and sex.
C. Criminal Homicide as a Possibility
Some studies raise the specter that in recent years there may have been cases in which
IV. Traumatic Brain Injuries and Death
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Most child deaths are directly related to injuries that are a result of a specific act of hitting,
striking, or physically abusing the victim. Prime examples of such crimes occur as the result of
an adult caregiver or parent striking the child in the head. Often the child (especially if the child
is younger or is an infant) is taken unconsciously to the hospital emergency room under the ruse
of “falling out of the bed” or “falling down the stairs.” Such is the case of little, 14-month-old
Angela who was taken to the emergency room of an urban hospital in a semiconscious state.
A. “Coup–Contrecoup” Injuries
From the French word for head, “coup” injuries are observed at the direct site of the impact of
the head and a moving object. A “contrecoup” injury occurs inside the skull on the opposite
side of the area of impact.
B. Shaken-Baby Syndrome
Shaken-baby syndrome (SBS) is the severe intentional application of violent force
(shaking), in one or more episodes, that results in intracranial injuries to the child. The
Crying has come under increasing scrutiny as a stimulus for abusive activity. Because shaking
is generally a response to crying, a previous illness causing irritability may increase the
likelihood that the infant will be shaken.
The following are some investigative guidelines:
• The use of MRI has helped detect old and new intracranial injuries and has aided
recognition of subtle instances of repetitive shaking.
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“unintentional” event.
V. Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy
Munchausen syndrome is a psychological disorder in which the person fabricates the symptoms
of disease or injury in order to undergo medical tests, hospitalization, or even medical or surgical
A. Investigative Guidelines
A partial list of investigative guidelines is given below.
• Consult with all experts possible, including psychologists.
B. The Role of the Physician in Child-Abuse Cases
The problem the investigator often encounters is that the victim is either too young to explain
what has occurred or too intimidated to cooperate. In injuries or deaths of young children,
VI. Child Sexual Exploitation
A. Child Molestation
The situational child molester does not have a true sexual preference for children but
engages in sex with children for varied and sometimes complex reasons. A regressed offender
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Preferential child molesters have a definite sexual preference for children. Seduction pattern
characterizes the offender who engages children in sexual activity by “seducing” them—
courting them with attention, affection, and gifts. Introverted pattern of behavior characterizes
Common sense and formal research agree that children are not merely miniature adults. It is
known, for example, that children develop in stages during which they acquire capacities for
new functions and understanding.
When anatomically detailed dolls (male and female dolls with all body parts, including
genitals) were first introduced in the late 1970s, they were widely hailed and almost
universally adopted by child-serving professionals as an important advance in techniques for
communicating with troubled children.
A recent spate of highly publicized sexual-abuse allegations has caused the public to recoil
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and question the limits of credulity. Because many investigators are parents, they react
strongly to the pedophile. However, for legal and pragmatic reasons, such feelings must never
be translated into physical or verbal abuse.
B. Child Pornography
Child pornography can be behaviorally (not legally) defined as the sexually explicit
reproduction of a child’s image and includes sexually explicit photographs, negatives, slides,
magazines, movies, videotapes, and computer disks.
Some examples of published material relating to children include books, magazines, articles,
or videotapes dealing with any of the following areas:
• Child development
Some examples of unpublished material relating to children include items such as the
following:
• Personal letters
Commercial child pornography is pornography that is produced and intended for commercial
sale. Contrary to what its name implies, homemade child pornography can be as “good” as, if
not better than, the quality of any commercial pornography. Although the reasons why
C. Child Sex Tourism
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Child pornography is closely tied to another form of child sexual exploitation—that of child
D. Use of the Computer and the Internet in Child Pornography
The ubiquity of the computer, and by extension the Internet, is an asset to the child
pornographer. Many child pornographers are compulsive record keepers, and for them the
VII. Internet Crimes against Children
Cyberenticement through social sites, instant messaging, email communications, and gaming
connections can lure an unsuspecting child into sexual contact with a pedophile. Investigators
also have several tools at their disposal to help investigate Internet crimes against children.
A. Bullying and Cyberbullying
Bullying is defined as “aggressive behavior or intentional harm by an individual or group
repeated over time that involves an imbalance of power.” Cyberbullying is defined as using
VIII. Child Abduction
A. The Parental Interview
Parents must be interviewed separately from each other and from other family members and
B. Victimology of the Missing Child
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To understand whether the child’s absence is consistent with established patterns of behavior,
officers first must understand the child’s normal actions before the disappearance. Officers
should use the following guidelines for assessing the personality of the missing child:
• Develop and verify a detailed timeline of the child’s last known activities up to the time
the child was last seen or reported missing.
C. Abduction Patterns
Experts in the field have noted patterns in familial and non-familial perpetrated abductions
D. Checklist for Law Enforcement
The following checklist describes some of the most important steps that law enforcement can
take as the investigation begins.
• Issue a BOLO (Be On the Look Out) bulletin to be broadcast to local law enforcement
agencies alerting them to the missing child, and send a teletype locally or regionally.
E. Amber Alert Plan
The AMBER Alert program is a voluntary partnership between law enforcement agencies,
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state transportation officials and radio, television and Internet broadcasters to activate an
urgent news bulletin in child abduction cases. Broadcasters use the Emergency Alert System,
IX. Sex Offender Registration and Notification
In 1994 Congress passed the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually
Violent Offender Registration Act. The act required that states create sex-offender registries
within three years or lose 10% of their funding under the Edward Byrne Memorial Program.
Although sex offender registration requirements vary according to state laws, some common
The most basic form of notification, sometimes referred to as passive notification, allows citizens
to access registry information at their local law enforcement agencies. In addition to allowing
X. Crime in Schools
In an effort to develop a systematic procedure for threat assessment and intervention in school
violence cases, the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC)
conducted an in-depth review of 18 school shootings. The study analyzed the shootings from a
behavioral perspective and resulted in the development of the threat assessment intervention
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model.
A. Threat Assessment
Threat assessment rests on two critical principles: (1) that all threats and all threateners are
not equal and (2) that most threateners are unlikely to carry out their threats. A threat may be
precipitating event obviously depends on predisposing factors: underlying personality traits,
characteristics, and temperament that predispose an adolescent to fantasize about violence or
act violently. The following are some of the personality traits:
• Leakage
• Low tolerance for frustration
• Poor coping skills
• Lack of resiliency
• Failed love relationship
• Externalization of blame
• Masking of low self-esteem
• Anger-management problems
• Intolerance
• Inappropriate humor
• Manipulation of others
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B. Classification of Threats
• A direct threat identifies a specific act against a specific target and is delivered in a
straightforward, clear, and explicit manner: “I am going to place a bomb in the school’s
gym.”
C. The Role of Law Enforcement
In the vast majority of cases, whether to involve law enforcement hinges on the seriousness of
the threat: low, medium, or high.
• Low level: A threat that has been evaluated as low level poses little danger to public
safety and in most cases would not necessitate law enforcement investigation for a
D. Investigating School Violence
When investigating threats of violence in schools, listen carefully to witnesses in order to
correctly identify the level of the threat and subsequently take appropriate action. Key
questions include the following:
• Who made the threat?
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Some departments are now using rapid response deployment or quick action deployment
(QUAD). This approach focuses on training patrol officers in the principles and tactics of
rapid deployment for responding to critical incidents, especially incidents of school violence.
A number of planned school shootings and bombings around the nation have been
successfully averted by the use of home searches. Home searches should be conducted only