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Localizing child-porn prosecution story with data and examples

By Mark Obbie

Howard Mintz of the San Jose Mercury News provides this overview of the big increase in child-porn prosecutions by federal authorities. He notes both the nationwide caseload and the local scene, colored in by examples of men caught possessing or trafficking in illegal images and now facing stiff prison terms. There's nothing shockingly new in the story -- much has been written in recent years about the phenomenon and related policy debates -- but Mintz does a solid job of explaining the cases and issues to his readers. His was one of two projects that I spotted in the Sunday papers that were based on data compiled by my colleagues at Syracuse University's TRAC. The other was this interesting article by the Times' Charlie Savage on the tendency by political-patronage appointees to the immigration courts to reject asylum requests in greater numbers than other immigration judges. (Via Sentencing Law and Policy blog, which provides additional background)

Full post as published by Lawbeat on August 24, 2008 (boomark / email).