Policing Online Sex Crime: Victim Hierarchies and ‘Typologies’

• In Event: Understanding and Responding to Cyber Victimization

Abstract

The Internet has reoriented patterns and forms of crime, where individuals engage in criminal activity when recording, sending and uploading to the Internet (Yar 2012). Concomitantly, the Internet and other digital developments significantly challenge traditional forms of policing, leading scholars to suggest that the digital world is increasingly the “new frontline” (Blakemore, 2012, p. 16) for police work. In response to forms of crime stemming from information-computer technologies – including the production and distribution of child pornography and sextortion – police have become increasingly ‘networked’. More than ever before, police must collaborate across specialized units, services, and civil society groupings to respond to crimes. While researchers have shown that policing is increasingly ‘networked’, there remains a lacuna in empirically founded knowledge on the perceptions of police in units that respond to and investigate forms of online sexual victimization. In response, we draw on case studies of sex crime-related police units (including Internet child exploitation, sex crimes, and sexual assault/abuse units) in 10 Canadian police services at various levels to understand how police investigate and interpret child, youth, and adult victims of online sex crimes.

Authors

• Dale Spencer, Carleton University

• Rose Ricciardelli, Memorial University

• Dale Ballucci, Western University