Current statistics on child exploitation in the United States—particularly on Internet crimes against children—are sobering. Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces, composed of state and local law enforcement agencies, reported a 126-percent increase in the number of documented complaints of child exploitation from 2009 to 2014. They also noted more than a 927-percent increase in complaints of child sex trafficking within the same period.

On June 2–4, 2015, the Department of Justice (DOJ) held a National Law Enforcement Training on Child Exploitation in Atlanta, GA. The 3-day training featured more than 70 unique classroom-based and 30 lab-based sessions, and provided cutting edge training to federal, state, and local law enforcement investigators, prosecutors, and forensic examiners responsible for combating child exploitation. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch welcomed attendees via videotaped remarks.

Approximately 1,200 attendees received training from presenters that included representatives from the ICAC Task Force Program, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section on topics as wide-ranging as computer and cell phone forensic analysis, victim and suspect behavior analysis, law enforcement data trends, and child forensic interviewing, among others.

The National Law Enforcement Training on Child Exploitation is funded as part of OJJDP’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program. The ICAC Task Force Program helps state and local law enforcement agencies develop effective responses to technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and Internet crimes against children. Serving a total of 61 coordinated task forces representing more than 3,500 federal, state, and local law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies, the program helps to bolster the forensic and investigative components, training and technical assistance, victim services, and community education of state and local law enforcement.

Since its inception in 1998, the ICAC Task Force program has made significant strides in tackling the problem of child exploitation: training more than 465,000 law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and other professionals on investigating and prosecuting ICAC-related cases; and reviewing more than 516,000 complaints of alleged child sexual victimization that led to the arrest of more than 54,000 individuals.

In 2014 alone, ICAC task forces conducted more than 66,000 forensic examinations: their investigations contributed to the arrest of more than 7,800 individuals, and the program trained more than 31,000 law enforcement personnel, 1,940 prosecutors, and 3,150 other professionals working in the ICAC field. Funding for the ICAC task forces and training and technical assistance totaled $27 million in fiscal year 2014.

Resources:

Visit the ICAC Task Force Program website for more information about the program.

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