Half-full or Half-empty?

Today, a janitor at a local elementary school was arrested for soliticing sex on-line. His intended partner? A 14-year-old. At some point during the communications, the police became aware of the internet intercourse and monitored it.

My husband's question; "How can these idiots continue to keep trying this? Almost every week, there is a story in the news of one of them being arrested."

My response; "IF the police are only catching one out of ten, then what is the risk"

How many cases are reported and caught, and how many are literally consumated?

It is one of those crime statistics that very likely is highly under-reported. I'm not talking about the 18-year-old with the 17 or 16 year-old. I'm talking about the person 25 or older with a minor.

The internet is so vast, and so annonymous. You may pretend to be any age -- older or younger than you actually are. You can pretend to be interested in actions that you would never actually engage in.

Was there a time when people met as "pen pals" and poured out their souls (or pretende to) to strangers they intended to take advantage of? Of course, the local police could not monitor the Federal mail. Nor could the Feds monitor the contents of communications without Court orders.

Is the explosion in this type of arrest due to the accessability of the internet? Apparently, local police do not need a search warrent or a wire-tap authorization to monitor communications.

I could set up a "sex chat" with any reader of this blog in which we established different e-mail accounts, different ages, genders, likes, identies, and pretend we were persons (at least one of whom was unable to consent) who were plotting to meet and engage in illicit activity.

Would we be caught? Unless one of us tipped off a police agency, we would likely not be caught. If one of us were to tip off a local police agency we might be charged with filing a false report or otherwise wasting their time.

But if I were a 14-year old girl, and if you were a 35-year old man, and if my parents did not monitor my internet usage, what could/would we be able to say and possible accomplish.

Are police actually making a dent in internet child-sex crimes? Or are they merely publishing their occasional successes?