Findings trigger heated debate

Experts have often wondered what proportion of men who download explicit sexual images of children also molest them. A new government study of convicted Internet offenders suggests that the number may be startlingly high: 85 percent of the offenders said they had committed acts of sexual abuse against minors.

The study, which has not yet been published, is stirring a vehement debate among psychologists, law enforcement officers and prison officials, who cannot agree on how the findings should be presented or interpreted.

The research, carried out by psychologists at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, is the first in-depth survey of such online offenders’ sexual behavior done by prison therapists who were actively performing treatment. Its findings have circulated privately among experts, who say the findings could have enormous implications for public safety and law enforcement.

Traffic in online child pornography has exploded in recent years, and researchers have not known what proportion of men who downloaded images of children were also molesters; the new study, some experts say, should be made public as soon as possible, to identify men who claim to be “just looking at pictures” but are in fact going beyond voyeurism.

Yet others say that the results, while significant, risk tarring some men unfairly as predators. The findings, based on offenders serving prison time who volunteered for the study, do not necessarily apply to the large and diverse group of adults who have at some point downloaded child pornography and whose behavior is far too variable to be captured by a single survey.

Adding to the controversy, the prison bureau in April ordered the paper withdrawn from The Journal of Family Violence, a peer-reviewed academic journal where it had been accepted for publication. The bureau was apparently concerned that the results might be misinterpreted. A spokeswoman for the bureau said the agency was reviewing a study of child pornography offenders but declined to comment further.

Ernie Allen, who leads the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which is mandated and largely financed by the US Congress to coordinate the nation’s efforts to combat child pornography, said he was surprised that the full study had not been released. “This is the kind of research the public needs to know about,” Allen said.

Others agreed that the report should be published but were more cautious about the findings. “The results could have tremendous implications for community safety and for individual liberties,” said Dr. Fred Berlin, founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic.

“If people we thought were not dangerous are more so, then we need to know that and we should treat them that way. But if we’re wrong, then their liberties aren’t going to be fairly addressed,” Berlin said.

Everyone agrees that researchers need to learn more about online consumers of illegal child images. The volume of material seized from computers appears to be doubling each year — the national center collected more than eight million images of explicit child pornography in the last five years — and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, backed by the White House, made child protection a national priority by pushing through the Project Safe Childhood initiative in 2006.

Those who are arrested on charges of possession or distribution of child pornography generally receive lighter sentences than sexual abusers, and shorter parole periods. They do not fit any criminal stereotype; recent arrests have included politicians, police officers, teachers and businessmen.

“It’s crucial to understand the sexual history of all these offenders because sometimes the crime they were arrested for is the tip of the iceberg, and does not reflect their real patterns and interests,” said Jill Levenson, an assistant professor of human services at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, and head of the ethics division of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.

The psychologists who conducted the new study, Andres Hernandez and Michael Bourke, focused on 155 male inmates who had volunteered to be treated at the federal correctional institute in Butner, N.C., according to a draft of the paper obtained by The New York Times from outside experts who want the study published.

The Butner clinic is the only residential program devoted to the treatment of sexual offenders in the federal prison system. The inmates in the study were all serving sentences for simple possession or distribution of child pornography — not for any touching or molesting of children.

Every six months during an 18-month treatment program, they filled out a record of their sexual history, including a “victims list,” identifying, with initials only, their previously undisclosed targets of abuse. Therapists encouraged the men to be honest as part of their treatment, and the sexual histories were anonymous, according to the paper.

The psychologists compared these confessions to the men’s criminal sexual histories at the time of sentencing. More than 85 percent admitted to abusing at least one child, they found, compared with 26 percent who were known to have committed any “hands on” offenses at sentencing. The researchers also tallied many more total victims: 1,777, an almost 20-fold increase from the 75 identified when the men were sentenced.

Hernandez and Bourke concluded in the paper that “many Internet child pornography offenders may be undetected child molesters.” But they also cautioned that offenders who volunteer for treatment may differ in their behavior from those who do not seek treatment.