Common Ways People Get In To Trouble – Sex Crimes

(The content below was transcribed from an interview done with Acacia Law. We think you'll find it much easier
and more enjoyable to read this way.)

Interviewer: What are the most common ways that people get into trouble specifically online as regards to sex crimes?

Acacia Law: The most common way besides the photographs, the most common cases that we have, involve what's called luring of a minor. Normally, what it entails is; you know the various chat rooms they have? - and they're all over the place, in terms of accessibility. There are all kinds of chat rooms you can get into and talk to different people, right?

Interviewer: Let me make a quick list. A lot of people now they use their cell phones, they'll text each other stuff, they use instant messenger clients, like AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Gtalk. They use Facebook, that has its own email system and you can message people. There's Myspace; there's a whole host of places where you can interact with people.

Acacia Law: That's exactly right. And, in fact, in pretty much every single one of those categories that you've mentioned, I've had people run into trouble. This is what happens. Yes, what happens is that they start- oftentimes what it is that- typically the profile is a male over the age of 18. They made contact, usually intentionally, but sometimes accidentally, with an under-aged person, usually an under-aged girl. The male engages in conversation with them; it will become romantic or sexual in nature, and this may be over a course of days of texting, or phone conversations, photographs; everything- many types of communication. It may not be just one single conversation.

What is happening though is that they are trying to arrange some sort of get together. They don't even have to get that far. If they are trying to persuade them to go there, to engage in some sort of activity that's considered sexual in nature, which would be some sort of sexual abuse of a minor, then essentially they've broken the law right there. What most of these people don't know is that, oftentimes, who they are actually talking to is probably a 35 or 40 year old experienced male or female detective who spends all day on the website pretending to be 13 and 14 year old girls.

Interviewer: Really?

Acacia Law: …and they are very good at it.

Interviewer: So there's a lot of - What do they call them? ‘plants’? Or what do they call those people?

Acacia Law: Basically, I guess you would call them ‘trolling’. They are trolling for what they believe are predators.

Interviewer: Okay.

Acacia Law: It's perfectly legal; it's not entrapment. They are very careful about what they say.

Interviewer: Really.

Acacia Law: Yes, because they can, if they say something that is- they have to have the individual say something- make the invite- not themselves. If they do, then they have created entrapment, which utilizes the defense of the ‘force’.

Interviewer: Oh, okay.

Acacia Law: A lot of the detectives, though, are very careful about that. They try to elicit the invitations from the possible perpetrator. So what they do, is they go to these chat rooms and they identify themselves as- however; whether it's a chat room, by phone, text messaging, anything. They'll portray themselves as an underage girl, or, in some cases, an underage boy. And basically, they have the lingo down, they have the typical sentences and signs, you know the various signs that they use to mean like LOL or -.

Interviewer: Yes, like ‘smiley faces’ or right on, etc.

Acacia Law: Yes - all that stuff. They know everything; how to do it and how to portray themselves, and they are extremely convincing. So convincing that I have had many, many clients go to a shopping mall or a strip mall, or a particular restaurant, to actually meet the underage person, only to be met by three or four patrol cars since there never was a 13 or 14 year old girl to begin with.

Interviewer: Wow.

Acacia Law: It was simply a detective pretending to be one and, had enough on text or on tape or via pictures to establish one of these major- major sex crimes. In fact, I have seen where somebody has maintained a conversation with a minor on the other side of the country; where neither of them had ever actually met; where neither of them ever intended on meeting until that juvenile reached the age of 18. But because of the pictures that they are sending back and forth, or because of the conversations they are having back and forth, the charge is aggravating luring of a minor and it is an extremely serious crime. Even if you don't invite the person to come; even if you've never seen them; even if they don't live within the state; even if there's no chance that you are going to meet them.

Interviewer: Right.

Acacia Law: It doesn't matter. In the State of Arizona, you are basically luring or appealing to what they call prurient or obscene interests of a juvenile who is not sufficiently mature to make an intelligent, voluntary decision about how to express their sexuality.

Interviewer:This is where it gets weird, because what if you're not in Arizona and you never have been? Can you still be charged under Arizona law? Or do you have to have made a communication while you are inside the State of Arizona to be charged there?

Acacia Law: There's a couple ways they can go about it. Normally- yes- if it's going under state code, that normally means that the perpetrator is, in fact, calling from the state of Arizona. However, the other alternative way to get them is simply- they can utilize the Federal courts, because the Federal courts have jurisdiction over interstate transactions that are criminal in nature and therefore the U.S. district court can take jurisdiction. The U.S. Attorney's Office can charge you from the State of Arizona, because even though you may live out of state, you are trying to perpetrate a crime on a victim within the state of Arizona; and that's close enough.