Six years out of high school, Daniel Boynton of Virginia ruined his life for a perverted thrill: Downloading pictures of children being molested, reports the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. He knew what he was doing was wrong and illegal. He knew he was risking his rising Navy career. But he couldn't stop. Like many child porn addicts, he organized his collection like a librarian arranges books, and his fetish grew more bizarre as time passed. He now is serving 12½ years in federal prison.
Boynton's case is iconic of the growing number of child pornography cases in state and federal courts. The majority of offenders are white males, of all ages, with no criminal history or previous evidence of pedophilia. Researchers and therapists say the lure of child pornography, which grips addicts as intensely as crack cocaine, targets no one kind of people. Offenders' educational and occupational backgrounds vary widely: They are convenience store workers and college professors, enlisted sailors and naval officers, police officers, the homeless, and even the FBI's own. Child pornography was the fastest-growing crime over the past six years in Virginia – up 218 percent from 2003 to 2009. Nationally, the picture is more startling: a 2,500 percent increase in arrests in 10 years, according to the FBI. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made 12,000 child exploitation arrests since the agency was formed in 2003.
Link: http://hamptonroads.com/2011/01/child-porn-activity-grows-efforts-trap-offenders-do-too