Between 2000 and 2009, there's been a fivefold increase in the number of people arrested for online solicitation of undercover cops posing as kids, the Crimes Against Children Research Center reports. Meanwhile, the number of actual kids who were propositioned increased 21 percent.
The disparity indicates that the rise in arrests largely results from tighter enforcement rather than from an increase in the number of offenders, said David Finkelhor, director of the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center, which conducted the study.
Otherwise, he said, the rate of growth for the two groups would be more similar.
