The number of child predators in Wyoming continues to rise, leading to a spike in calls to law enforcement and arrests.
Chris McDonald, commander of the Wyoming Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, told the Cowboy State Daily that he and his team are busier than ever.
Arrests in 2023 increased by 45% compared to the previous year. Last year, authorities filed 817 tips and made 58 arrests. In 2022, McDonald’s employees arrested 40 suspects out of 783 tips received.
Tips come from a variety of sources, including social media platforms, gaming sites, internet platforms, and even news outlets like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
So far in 2024, the bureau has seen a 60% jump in tips in the first three months of the year, with 256 tips reported, compared to 160 tips in the same period last year.
Despite the increase in tips, McDonald said his team has held up well thanks to its efficiency and skill.
The ICAC team consists of himself, six full-time investigators, one forensic investigator, one part-time investigator, and a network of affiliates aligned with the agency’s mission across the state.
“We’ve never been busier, but we have some really talented people with a great combination of experience and passion,” McDonald told the Cowboy State Daily. ” he said.
This includes young and talented investigators, as well as a former ICAC director from Montana, McDonald said.
repeat offender
Most concerning to MacDonald is the trend in repeat offenders over the past year.
“We don’t know why, but it’s certainly concerning to us because people who have already registered as sex offenders are reoffending and the recidivism rate is quite high,” he said. Ta.
He and his team don’t have an answer as to what causes this, other than that perpetrators may be trained to become better predators.
He also would like to see closer coordination of sentencing between state and federal courts, especially in cases where suspects travel or attempt to travel to have sex with children.
Under the Child Sexual Exploitation Act, passed by the Wyoming Legislature in 1999, offenders who commit sex crimes against children under the age of 18 can face up to 12 years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both. will be punished.
In contrast, federal law is much stricter, he said, pointing to the conviction of a 29-year-old Cheyenne resident. cody lee fosterHe was sentenced in March to 60 years in prison for raping a child and possessing pornographic videos depicting infants and toddlers.
Under federal law, first-time offenders who produce child pornography face a minimum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
homemade
Also worrying to MacDonald is the continuing number of crimes committed against children by family members and friends. So far this year, his team said Wyoming people have witnessed the production of several child pornography cases that exploit Wyoming children.
This includes taking sexually exploitative images and videos of children and trading them on the internet and dark web.
“There’s a lot of content being distributed and available,” he said. “Like the worst game of whack-a-mole ever, it’s hard to keep going.”
On the positive side, the number of teens who are sextorted appears to be decreasing. Sextortion is when a sex offender tricks a teen (usually pretending to be a teen of the opposite sex) into sending sexually explicit videos or images, but does not share the content with family or friends. This occurs by asking for money.
McDonald credits public awareness and the fact that teens seem to be more knowledgeable about this type of catfishing scam.
Are teenagers more knowledgeable?
Part of ICAC’s national mission is to educate parents and youth, and McDonald and his team provide presentations to students and parents about the dangers of online predatory behavior and other topics. We are doing
Terry Markham, executive director of a Sheridan-based human trafficking nonprofit uprising The company, which provides education and training to teens, parents, law enforcement, first responders, and others, has also seen a decline in the number of teens who report being approached in a hostile manner by strangers online. He said there was.
At a recent student training session at Green River, Markham said fewer teens are disclosing unpleasant confrontations, which means teens are getting smarter about sextortion. He said he was hopeful.
Still, the sheer volume of reported snitching suggests an ongoing problem that Markham calls “shooting fish in a barrel.”
family trafficking
Mr Markham noted that flooding was a constant occurrence and Mr McDonald and his team were working hard to combat it, and warned against panic over the high rate of tips and arrests. In her view, this means ICAC is becoming more efficient at capturing predators, including improved techniques for capturing them.
“I can’t say enough good things about Chris and his team,” Markham said. “They’re a very well-oiled machine and they’re getting better and better at catching them.”
She also said that in her anecdotal experience, the core of Wyoming’s sex trafficking problem remains familial based on what she has seen, but there is no hard data to support that. Ta.
“What I’ve found is diverse, but it’s usually parents who exploit their children,” she says. “And the top two reasons I think are money or drugs.”
She said they’re either trying to find the next solution or trying to put food on the table for their families.
This type of trafficking is particularly difficult to catch, given the complex relationships between families and the many ways children can be exploited without informing their friends, teachers or police.
She included a handwritten note praising McDonald and his team for their “huge effort” to catch these predators and letting them know how much her group appreciated them. He said he regularly sends gift baskets.
grew up on porn
In Markham’s estimation, addressing the broader issue of sex trafficking and crimes against children in general comes down to the larger society of widespread pornography that is easily accessible to children of all ages on the Internet. It comes down to the problem.
“Nobody wants to talk about it, but we feel that’s the root of the demand. If we can suppress the demand, no traffickers will be willing to meet that demand, so it’s OK. ” she said. .
She said the numbers are alarming, citing a recent study by Culture Reframed, a national nonprofit organization that provides educational resources to parents about the sexual harms of pornography on children and adolescents. .
The study found that the average age at which most teens are exposed to pornography is 12 years old, and that 15% of children under the age of 10 are accessing pornography for the first time.
This exposure not only teaches them that violence is a healthy part of sex and many other emotional and developmental issues, but also a porn addiction that often directly leads to buying sex. Markham said it also leads to
In conversations with sex buyers, all, without exception, admitted to having an addiction to pornography, often starting at an early age.
“It’s one of the most taboo subjects that parents and adults are afraid to talk about to their children because it’s weird and uncomfortable,” she said.
She knows this firsthand as a mother of three daughters and has had to have uncomfortable conversations with all of them.
She encourages parents to access the following courses and training materials: reconfigure culture And start talking to your kids before they are exposed to porn for the first time.
Further human trafficking training
Uprising will also host the third annual Greater Rocky Mountain Exploitation and Human Trafficking Intensive Training (GRIT). meeting Held May 6-8 in Laramie. This year’s theme is labor trafficking, which Markham said is a growing problem across the state.
The conference is open to anyone in the region who may participate in identifying and responding to human trafficking cases, including members of community-based task forces, church groups, and other professionals.
