What’s Different about Child Pornography Compared to Other Cases?

There’s no question about it—if you’ve been charged with child pornography, you are alienated from society in many ways. What will happen? Am I going to jail? Do I have to register with the sex offender registry, and for how long? What are my friends and family going to think, and who will find out?

There’s no question that judges and juries have a complete disdain for anyone who has been charged or who is accused of possessing, creating, or manufacturing child pornography. It evokes an extreme emotional response from the public. The accused person is immediately labeled as evil and someone who hurts children.

Of course, this is not always the case. Not everything is true. And we have been able to show and prove that the defendant did not do what is alleged. In those cases, our client is completely vindicated.

When a person comes into our office regarding a child pornography case, we attempt to walk them through the process and explain to them what we’re dealing with. Society and legislatures have created many laws in the last 10 years to address sexual deviations and sex offenses. One of them is child pornography, which has exploded across the globe, and law enforcement has put a lot of money and resources against it.

From the standpoint of evidence, these are difficult cases because they boil down to whether or not a person was actually “searching” for child pornography by using specific search terms and the amount and type of downloads found on the hard drive. The age of the people depicted in the images or videos, the specific sex acts themselves, and the amount or number of images and videos are important factors. Many times we can show that there was some technical issue that caused the material to be placed on the hard drive with no intent from the owner. The courts over the last 15 years have developed various evidentiary rules regarding computers and downloading – but it’s early and these rules are evolving.