Combating Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

The investigation structure for cases of sexual exploitation of children, the shaping of hypotheses, policy development and decision-making, interviewing/hearing strategies, as well as the ethical aspects of interviewing children and their families, the implications and use of suspect profiling – these are just a few of the aspects included in the new STAR investigation model, which was the topic of the regional training workshop ‘Combating Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. Sharing Best Practices’. The workshop held during November 28 - December 2 in Chisinau is actually a follow-up of the training workshop bearing the same name held by the International La Strada Centre jointly with the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Republic of Moldova in April this year for the staff of law enforcement bodies of three neighboring countries, namely Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. Being a logical follow-up of the April training event, the workshop aimed at approaching deeper more comprehensive topics regarding successful investigation of offences related to sexual exploitation of children, in the context of new challenges.

"Combating commercial sexual exploitation of children is still a priority direction in preventing and combating child trafficking both for the international community at large and for Moldova in particular", underscored Mr. Valeriu Hincu, Director of the Center for Combating Human Trafficking of the Ministry of Home Affairs, at the beginning of the workshop. "However, it gains special significance if we bear in mind that such crimes are more and more often committed via Internet. Thus, the goal of the regional workshop is to increase the efficiency of the actions aimed at identifying and investigating crimes related to commercial sexual exploitation of children, including through the use of informational technology", mentioned Mr. Hincu, and also thanked the International La Strada Centre and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Denmark for the support in organizing the training workshop, as well as the two foreign experts who had accepted the invitation of their colleagues from the three participating countries.

The workshop participants (over 30 representatives of law enforcement bodies from the three countries: criminal investigation officers, investigators, staff of prosecutor offices and even representatives of several NGOs involved in combating child trafficking), involved in investigating cases of sexual exploitation of children, in particular through use of information technologies, besides acquiring knowledge on best practices related to applying the STAR model, have also deepened their knowledge of the behavior analysis systems (rationale for getting involved in the hearing of the person who had abused the child; interview concept development and planning; analysis of the crime of sexual abuse of the child; criminal profiling). They have enriched their professional arsenal with advanced techniques and practical skills for interviewing persons who had abused children sexually, skills for analyzing their behavior during investigation, with the guidance of two trainers with unique experience in the field (Dr. Joe Sullivan, expert in judicial psychology, with a rich experience in hearing persons who have abused children sexually, who is actively involved in assisting law enforcement bodies in investigating sexual crimes against children in the UK and other states, and detective Graham Hill, criminal prosecution officer, certified to investigate extremely serious crimes, expert in investigating serial crimes – kidnappings, frauds and extremely serious sexual crimes against children). Both experts have provided training to the law enforcement bodies in the UK and other states in Europe, the staff of Interpol and Europol, the South-East Asia Commonwealth Office. At the training workshop in Chisinau, during two specialized courses, the experts also shared their professional experience regarding styles of manipulation and masks used by sexual cyber-abusers, the realms of their fantasies, the integration of behavior analysis in the investigation process and standard proceedings etc.

"We, the organizers and trainers of the workshop hope that both the knowledge and skills acquired by the participants will have a great value for their day-to-day activity, even if it only lasted a week, and we hope that the course will boost the use of new approaches to investigating crimes related to sexual abuse of children. The mere fact that the best specialists from the three countries attended the training workshop makes us believe that the efforts for combating organized trans-border crime will be more successful and they will be able to respond commendably, as expected not only by the national community, but also by the international community", stated Ms. Ana Revenco, Chair of the International Centre for the Protection and Promotion of Women's Rights 'La Strada'.