Duncan In Child Porn Ring?

by Kevin Taylor & r & The presence of the camcorder, coupled with Joseph Duncan's expertise as a computer user (he was dean's-list student about to graduate from a rigorous computer program at North Dakota State University) raise some disturbing prospects for people who track sex offenders.


Was Duncan part of a kiddie porn swap ring with pedophiles? It is possible he was familiar with peer-to-peer (or P2P) techniques that (in an oversimplified explanation) allow one computer to tie in directly with another and transmit data in a way that is nearly impossible to track?


Dr. Jim Tanner, president of the Colorado-based KBSolutions, has tracked sex offenders and pedophiles for 30 years. He says child pornography swaps race across cyberspace from every corner of the globe.


Whether swapped or not, images of abuse provide more intense "pre- and post-masturbatory behaviors'' than an actual assault, Tanner says.


"There is definitely a market" for child pornography, adds Scott Matson, a research associate for the Center for Sex Offender Management in Maryland.


"Is it a precursor or a trigger?" Just one of the questions no one can answer yet, Matson says.