Child Exploitation Investigative Unit

It’s 8:00 pm, you just tucked your 13-year-old daughter into bed. It’s been a busy day, so you just want to unwind. You log onto your family computer and see what appears to be a chat room still open in the browser. You see a conversation between your daughter and a man who is claiming to be 45 years old. You become curious and begin reading what seems to be the manipulation of your daughter’s innocence for this man’s own personal gain. You have to make the next step. What do you do? You do a quick search online and find yourself torn between two programs that are said to combat the issue: The Child Exploitation Investigative Unit and the Violent Crimes Against Children program. The purpose of my research is to compare and contrast between

the two so that one can make the most educated choice. What program is more effective for the purpose of protecting America’s youth from child predators, the Child Exploitation Investigative Unit or Violent Crimes Against Children program? It is important that this question be answered because as technology begins to evolve, it becomes easier and easier for criminals to gain access to children, making it harder for the criminal justice system to locate and prosecute these individuals. This is relevant to the criminal justice system today because by being able to determine the superior program, we will then be able to effectively facilitate the improvement of programs that are essential in the protection of children from child predators.
Literature Review
In order to make sure that the research being presented is relevant and hasn’t been researched before, a literature review was conducted. Honestly, it was very hard to find any information on this topic. When looking for this information it was very hard to locate any previous research comparing the Child Exploitation Investigative Unit and the Violent Crimes Against Children program.The information gathered speaks specifically in examining the individual programs. There is no current or past research that discusses the research question. While trying to locate information from past researchers it only seemed that literary scholars were looking to discuss the programs and see the effectiveness over the years as individual programs. They seem to describe what the program is doing but seem to be lacking any comparison data. The same went for finding research on the Child Exploitation Investigative Unit. The fact of the matter is that the research topic chosen is very specific. They were selected because they are run by large federal agencies. It is important that this research question is answered because of the lack of research on this specific topic. As the current researcher, a noted struggle has been locating previous research. This increases the level of importance of comparing and drawing the best conclusion. Limitations to current data and statics could haves effected past researchers. Thanks to the increases in technology, criminal justice databases are now available via the internet, and make it easier to be able to conduct side-by-side comparisons of data; something past researcher might have struggled with. With this information at hand, my proposed research will look to compare the Violent Crimes Against Children program with the Child Exploitation Investigative Unit. This will be done by looking at updated statistics and public data available. The aim of this research project is to identify which program is most effective in protecting children from child predators based on the aforementioned data.

Theory
Looking into the future and expectations for this outcome, I hypothesize that once the CEIU and the VCAC programs are compared, then it will be clear which program is most effective in protecting America’s youth from child predators. When looking further into this research, I presume that the FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children program will come out on top. I feel this will happen because when looking at the bigger picture, I feel that the FBI receives more funding and has more manpower to protect children more adequately and effectively from child predators. The theoretical framework commonly used in this line of research is deterrence theory. This is because deterrence theory presumes that humans are rational beings who are responsive to the cost and benefits of their actions. I can relate this to the relationship the VCAC and CEIU because the programs are both put in place to deter child predators from committing crimes. The programs do this by making sure that they are punishing and imprisoning those predators. By deciding which program is more effective, we will, in turn, be theorizing that deterrence theory works in protecting children from child predators.
Method
The independent variable in my research is the Child Exploitation Investigative Unit and the Violent Crimes Against Children Program.

The dependent variable is the effectiveness of which program can protect children most effectively from child predators. The Child Exploitation Investigative Unit and the Violent Crimes Against Children program qualifies to be the independent variable because the independent variable is what is being manipulated. It is the root cause. The dependent variable is what is being influenced; that’s why the effectiveness of the program falls here. In order to understand my variables, they will be conceptualized and operationalized. My test variables are conceptualized by clarifying and arriving at a verbal definition of the VCAC and the CEIU. The VCAC is a program created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which investigates online and in-person child abductions, child sexual exploitation enterprises (child prostitution), contact offenses, sex terrorism (producing child pornography), trafficking of child pornography, and international parent kidnapping(“Violent Crimes Against Children/Online Predators”, n.d.). The CEIU is a task force run by the Department of Homeland Security. It seeks to protect children by investigating those who possess, trade, and produce child pornography. It also investigates those who travel overseas with minors, along with those who engage in sex trafficking of children(“Child Exploitation Investigations Unit”, 2017). When conceptualizing my dependent variable, I will clarify and define what I mean by “protection” and “child predator.” Protection means to prevent from harm or injury. In this case, I mean to protect a child from mental and physical damage from a predator. A child predator can be defined as a person who seeks to connect with a minor via the internet or in person and harm them in any way. The VCAC and the CEIU will be operationalized by measuring the number of children who were found

within the past 15 years due to the effectiveness of either program. This will be captured by looking at present statistics available through government websites. This will be represented with present and past data. This will be measured by compiling data between both programs. The most effective program will include the most children protected. The dependent variable will be operationalized by taking the compared data from government websites and comparing which number are higher in preventing and protecting children.