Leader Staff
The state attorney general’s office on Wednesday announced it is joining a push for federal legislation that would allow full restitution to victims of child pornography.
Efforts to gain restitution have already been included in a number of cases prosecuted in Shawano County.
“We have cases where we have successfully argued for restitution in child pornography cases,” Shawano-Menominee County District Attorney Greg Parker said.
Shawano County has seen an increase in such cases over the past couple of years, with the Sheriff’s Department taking proactive efforts to identify those who trade or download child porn by monitoring peer-to-peer networks online.
The district attorney’s office is required to make attempts to contact victims of child porn when possible, even in cases where the videos and images seized might be decades old.
The proposed federal legislation is named after two children who have become so well-known on the child porn trafficking circuit that a series of videos have been named for them.
The proposed bill is the Amy and Vicky Child Pornography Victim Restitution Improvement Act of 2014. The National Association of Attorneys General has urged the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and a House Judiciary Subcommittee to bring the bill to a vote.
In several of the prosecutions in Shawano County, the child in the Vicky series, who is now grown, submitted a victim impact statement describing how she has been made to feel re-victimized every time someone downloads one of the videos or images.
Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced he has joined 43 other state and territorial attorneys general in support of federal legislation that would allow full restitution to victims of child pornography to pay for needed resources including therapy, medical care, lost wages and other services.
In April, a U.S. Supreme Court decision affirmed that victims of child pornography should receive restitution.
“One of my top priorities as attorney general has been protecting our most vulnerable, our children, by aggressively pursuing those who prey upon them,” Van Hollen said. “This federal bill is an important step toward addressing the needs of America’s youngest crime victims.”