Sex Crimes Investigations
The terms “sexual violence” “rape”, “sexual assault”, “sexual abuse” are considered synonymous and often used interchangeably. sexual violence can be described as any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic a person because of sexuality using coercion, threats of harm or physical force, by any person regardless of relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work. It can occur in many forms, e.g., rape, sexual assault such as child molestation and/or torture, genital mutilation, sex slavery, or human trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Apart from the physical world, a lot of sex crimes are also initiated and/or committed on the internet. As digital technologies continue to influence everyday activities, sex offenders are latching on to their popularity to successfully perpetrate all kinds of sex crimes on the internet. Internet sex crimes include possession or distribution of child pornography; production of child pornography; sexual solicitations1 (online interactions with minors for sexual purposes, including plans to meet offline); and conspiracy crimes (e.g., collaborating with others to distribute or produce child pornography, sexually solicit for minors, sexually traffic minors). Most online sexual offenses involve possession or distribution of child pornography.
Although most cases of sexual violence are perpetrated on women, men and boys can sometimes be victimized by women (or men) as well. The designation of an act as a sex crime differs according to the laws of the jurisdiction where the physical act occurs. This can vary significantly both internationally and intra-nationally and can be influenced by the socio-cultural attributes of each jurisdiction. For example, a child under the age of 14 is considered a minor in Germany, while Australia, the United Kingdom, and Sweden consider youth under the age of 15 to be minors, Belgium considers youth under 18 to be of minor status. Also, given the global nature of the Internet, these sorts of sex crimes present unique jurisdictional, policing, and regulatory concerns.
This lack of uniformity in legal standards and interpretations implies that the investigation and prosecution of both physical and Internet-related sex crimes often require the cooperation of both national and international law enforcement jurisdictions. Digisec aims to foster this cooperation by partnering with several law enforcement agencies all over the world.
Sex Crimes Investigation FAQs
Yes. It is common to use both physical and digital evidence in one sex crime case. For example, a sex offender may lure his victim from a social media chat room to a physical location. In this case, the social media chat serves as the digital evidence while clues gathered at the location serve as physical evidence.
Yes. Once in a while, it turns that the alleged sex offender was falsely accused of the crime and is therefore acquitted of the charge. Sometimes, the court asks the plaintiff to pay a sum to the accused as damages. Note that it could also be that the evidence was not strong enough for a conviction rather than being innocent.
Yes. We are involved in the investigation of all kinds of sex crimes.