Friday, January 29th, 2016 | USD: Buy 531.29 / Sell 543.92

Child pornography cases have increased by more than 60% in five years

Email this page

October 28^th, 2013 (InsideCostaRica.com) Criminal cases related to child pornography, punishable under Article 173 of the Penal Code, have increased 63% since 2008.

According to the Public Ministry, there were 52 criminal cases related to child pornography in 2008, 59 in 2009, 60 in 2010, 68 in 2011 and 82 such cases last year.

The statistics refer to criminal cases involving child pornography, or providing or displaying pornography to children.

The distribution of child pornography in Costa Rica carries penalties ranging from one to four years in prison.

Since 2007, the possession of child pornography has also been criminalized. Those found in possession of child pornography can face between six months to two years in prison.

ATTENTION: If you are seeing this message,

Ken Morris
Well, 52 to 82 is a 63% increase, but the absolute number (30) isn’t very high and surely this many can be explained by increased access to the internet if not also more vigorous enforcement during the same period. Since possession and distribution is apparently illegal, we don’t know whether any more is produced or about ancillary effects, which strike me as the important issues. I’m not sure whether 30 more people downloading child porn points to a real problem or rather signals that agency is trying to make itself look more important (and probably justify a higher budget allotment). I sure wish data like these were put in clearer context.

Popular Content