Restitution and Victims of Child Exploitation

Years ago, while working as an analyst processing evidence in child exploitation cases, I met a victim of one of the most widely circulated child pornography series to date. While the abuse occurred when the victim was ten and eleven, I met her right before she started college, after her fugitive father was arrested and finally prosecuted for his crimes. She recounted how the abuse was traumatizing enough, but later discovering her father traded images and videos of the abuse online was almost too much to bear. She also discussed the long-term implications from that knowledge, fearful that every person she encountered might recognize her from those images of the worst moments of her life. Knowing that so many individuals took pleasure in her pain was also something she couldn’t comprehend. Meeting her was surreal, as I viewed images of her abuse in nearly every case I examined, and I could not even fathom what she had experienced in her young life. This encounter was almost 15 years ago, and it still has a great impact on me, and I am devastated for her (and all victims of this sort of crime) that those images are probably still being circulated every day, with the victim never being able to escape the daily reminder of the abuse.

Although I am no longer certain if this is the norm, when I worked in that field, it was a requirement that the identified victim of child exploitation be notified every time their image appeared in a case, with some victims potentially notified multiple times a day, every day of the week, due to the frequency their images were traded. While I understand the intent behind this requirement, in reality, it meant the victim faced a constant reminder of the abuse, impeding their ability to move forward. Due to this reason, some of the victims assigned an intermediary to receive the notifications, as they could not handle the constant influx of notices.

Assisting victims of crime and trauma is a challenging situation, as there is no way to erase the impact of what happened to them. “Trauma impacts the individual, his or her relationship with family and friends, his or her ability to hold jobs, and the way he or she interact with the world around him or her. It can change life paths, alter personal abilities, and cause physical and neurological damage that may or may not be repaired” (Rousseau, 2021, p. 8). Every person handles trauma differently, and every case is different, with some offenders penalized to the maximum extent of the law, while others get no penalty. The concept of restitution continues to be brought up when discussing victims of crime, although there are advocates both for and against employing monetary compensation for crime victims. “Restitution means restoring someone to the position occupied before a particular event took place,” while the “purpose of restitution is to make a victim whole” (Boe, 2010, p. 210). Forcing an offender “to pay a monetary fine, often in addition to serving a prison sentence, forces an individual defendant to address the harm his crime has caused to the individual victims of his crime and to society. Victims, especially victims of child pornography, frequently suffer both financial and emotional losses because they have to seek counseling or medical services for the rest of their lives” (Boe, 2010, p. 211). While money will never make a crime victim “whole” again, and will never be able to “restore” them to the person they were prior to the traumatic event, monetary compensation can help alleviate some of the financial hurdles they may face with seeking treatment or account for some of the financial losses they may have incurred due to their trauma.

However, one challenge surrounding restitution is assigning a financial sum commensurate to the impact on the victim, which is seemingly impossible, as the full impact can never fully be accounted. “Knowing that thousands of individuals possess images and video of oneself being raped and sexually abused in humiliating fashion can inflict deep, life-lasting trauma that extends well beyond the initial sexual abuse. This emotional trauma results in economic burdens,” including psychological counseling costs and lost income (Cassell et al., 2013, p. 73). Additionally, “determining each victim’s losses requires a careful analysis of how each victim’s life is impacted by child pornography,” which includes economic, emotional and physical losses, with restitution payments providing “not only psychological counseling, but also vocational and educational training to move forward with their lives” (Cassell et al., 2013, p. 74).

While I don’t have any concrete ideas regarding a “just” way to compensate various victims of crime, I do think some sort of financial reimbursement is warranted to cover some of the long-term medical, legal and therapeutic expenses, which can accumulate quickly. An additional challenge also arises when trying to recoup money for the crime victim, especially if the offender has no financial means to repay the victim. A victims’ compensation fund has been discussed, as have many other ideas, but the practical enforcement of restitution might also impact a victim long-term, if they are additionally traumatized by the justice system. Overall, I find the idea of restitution a fascinating and relevant topic concerning crime victims and the impact of trauma, although there is no easy solution when figuring out how to implement it. For me, meeting the victim was a huge reminder that we never know what anyone else has gone through or is currently going through, as looking at her on the surface, no one would have ever guessed what she was battling under the surface. Overall, it reminded me that when discussing some of these issues regarding restitution, or punishment or rehabilitation, a real-life victim is on the other end, and the human impact element is always the one that needs top consideration.


References

Boe, A. B. (2010). Putting price on child porn: Requiring defendants who possess child pornography images to pay restitution to child                     pornography victims. North Dakota Law Review, 86(1), 205-230.

Cassell, P. G., Marsha, J. R., and Christiansen, J. M. (2013). The Case for Full Restitution for Child Pornography Victims. George                            Washington Law Review, 82(61), 61-110.

Rousseau, D. (2021). Module 1 Study Guide [Notes]. Boston University Metropolitan College.

View all posts