What Does Sexual Exploitation of a Minor Mean?
Many people ask what does sexual exploitation of a minor mean? Sexual exploitation of a minor is a charge related to making, distributing, or possessing child pornography, or of luring a minor, via the Internet for example, for purposes of sexual exploitation. What you must be going through after getting wrongly accused of sexual exploitation of a minor cannot be understood as much as our attorneys at Snader Law Group. We will ensure we understand your unique case so we can strategize better.
If you have been arrested in Arizona for child exploitation, you are urgently in need of immediate help from a fully qualified criminal defense lawyer. Here’s why: Arizona has some of the harshest laws in the nation on sexual exploitation of a minor, carrying penalties so severe that some people believe that they violate the constitutional prohibition against “cruel and unusual” punishment!
The Penalties for Sexual Exploitation of a Minor
An Arizona conviction for sexual exploitation of a minor carries a penalty of a minimum of ten years prison time for each violation. That means 10 years of incarceration for possessing a single pornographic image! If you are caught with more than one pornographic image, each one can add 10 more years to your sentence, because state law requires that the sentences for multiple counts must be served consecutively. If you have downloaded only 10 pictures depicting a minor engaged in a sexual act, you could be sentenced to 100 years in prison! A number of people are currently serving sentences of several hundred years in Arizona prisons for possessing multiple images of child pornography.
What Constitutes Sexual Exploitation of a Minor?
You can be charged with sexual exploitation of a minor if you knowingly:
- Record, film, photograph, develop or duplicate any visual depiction showing a minor engaged in any kind of exploitative exhibition or sexual conduct.
- Distribute, transport, exhibit, receive, sell, purchase, electronically transmit, possess or exchange any visual depiction in which a minor is engaged in exploitative exhibition or sexual conduct.
In short, if you film, distribute, or simply possess any type of child pornography, you could be facing child exploitation charges.
Luring a Minor for Sexual Exploitation
You can be charged with “luring a minor for sexual exploitation” charges if you offer or solicit sexual conduct with someone while knowing or believing that the other person is under the age of 18. So if you are chatting with an undercover police officer online who pretends to be a minor, and you solicit some kind of sexual behavior, you can be charged and convicted, even though you were never dealing with a minor at all.
The Role of the Internet
Because of the prevalence of computers and use of the Internet, anyone who goes online may come into contact with child pornography. Who hasn’t struggled with malicious programs that somehow get into one’s computer unbidden? Or received an email with an interesting-sounding subject line, only to discover upon opening it that its content is pornographic? And with the prevalence of online chat rooms, it is possible to be set up and unknowingly be enticed into a conversation by a police officer. Any number of possible scenarios can be conceived in which a person might wrongly appear to be violating the law, simply as a result of owning a computer with an Internet connection. It takes a skilled and practiced attorney to determine the best defense strategy and apply it in order to preserve your freedom.
Top Rated Board Certified Criminal Defense for Child Exploitation
If you have been accused of exploitation of a minor in Arizona, you should waste no time in hiring the best criminal defense attorney you can find. In Phoenix and Scottsdale, Howard A. Snader is a Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist since 1995, who has succeeded in having sex crime charges dropped or reduced for many clients, as well as winning numerous acquittals at trial.
Howard will determine if the search and seizure of the evidence against you was done properly, in accordance with your constitutional rights. If it was not, he will seek to have that evidence suppressed. In some cases, he may be able to build a case that the alleged “pornography” is not pornographic but rather is a work of art. Or he may show that you were unaware that the images were on your computer, that they could have been placed there by another party without your knowledge. You have the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and Howard is often able to find weaknesses in the prosecutor’s case, or to present an alternative explanation that will create that doubt and secure your acquittal. Or, he may be able to work with the prosecutor to reduce the charge to one that will penalize you to a lesser extent. Each case is different, and the best outcome for you will depend on the facts and the quality of the State’s evidence. But rest assured that with Howard Snader on your case, you will have the advantage of the most rigorous, aggressive, and knowledgeable representation available in Arizona.
For experienced defense by a seasoned, results-oriented, and board certified criminal lawyer, call the Snader law offices immediately. Do not talk to police until Howard is present, as doing so could harm your case substantially.