WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Sentencing Commission says the advent of the Internet has led to broad sentencing disparities in child pornography cases and that the existing penalty structure needs to be changed.
In a study for Congress, the commission said Wednesday that federal law enforcement agencies handle nearly 2,000 child pornography prosecutions annually, up from 700 a decade ago. It attributed that increase largely to pornographers exploiting the Internet.
The report says the current sentencing scheme fails to distinguish adequately among offenders based on how dangerous they are, and is overly severe in some cases.
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