"More federal child porn prosecutions in Texas than bank robberies, mail fraud or wire fraud"

The title of this post is from this post at the always terrific "Grits for Breakfast." The Grits post spotlights this effective Dallas Morning News article, headlined "Texas inmate is part of growing child porn trend that has ruined lives," about a particular downloader of kiddie porn who received only a two-year federal prison term even though "typically, people who view child porn get more prison time than people who sexually abuse children." Here is more from the newspaper piece:

Child porn possession has been a federal crime since 1990. In the last decade, federal prosecutions more than doubled in Texas and nationwide. In Texas, the cases have grown faster than nearly any category of federal offense, according to Syracuse University's TRAC database. Since October 2007, more child porn cases have been filed in Texas than old-school federal prosecutions for bank robbery or bank fraud, mail fraud or wire fraud.

The cases often involve seemingly ordinary people with stable jobs and families. The nearly 1,000 Texans prosecuted since 2000 include band instructors and businessmen, physicians and pastors and prison guards, restaurant managers and retirees....

Researchers say understanding of offenders is in its infancy. There's little data to differentiate passive voyeurs from active predators, and no definitive way to assess future risks for offenders.... "Some people who don't necessarily want to get involved with kids do get hooked," said psychiatrist Fred Berlin, founder of Johns Hopkins University's sexual disorders clinic.

He and other experts say many offenders don't know how to stop.  And the public remains largely unaware that, typically, people who view child porn get more prison time than people who sexually abuse children.

In the last decade, according to a federal public defender's 2009 analysis, the mean federal child porn sentence increased by nearly six years in the decade ending in 2007 to more than 7 ½ years in prison.

Some experts note that those increases came without any scientific data or rationale. Most offenders ... have no prior records –- let alone sex offenses.

The piece also has this notable chart spotlighing the significant the growth in federal child porn prosecutions both nationally and in Texas in recent years.