Judges Are Starting To Let Child Porn Offenders Off With Less Jail Time

Judges are starting to give shorter prison sentences to child porn offenders because they think the sentencing guidelines call for too much jail time, according to a new report by the United States Sentencing Commission.

In 2004, in roughly 80 percent of child porn cases judges handed down sentences within a range suggested by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Those guidelines stipulate a range of 15 years to 40 years for child porn production and a five to 20-year sentence for distributing porn, according to that report.

But now judges are starting to issue sentences for child porn offenders that are below that range, the report found, according to the Wall Street Journal.

By 2011, judges were only following the guidelines in roughly 33 percent of child porn cases. (The rest of the time they presumably handed down sentences below the recommended range.)

Judges might be issuing sentences below the guidelines because there's such a wide range of child porn violations, the WSJ reported.

“Child pornography offenders engage in a variety of behaviors reflecting different degrees of culpability and sexual dangerousness that are not . . . accounted for in the guidelines,” Sentencing Commission Chair Patti Saris told the WSJ. “The existing penalty structure is in need of revision.”