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CRM 1500-1999

1968. Certain Activities Relating To Material Involving The Sexual Exploitation Of Minors -- 18 U.S.C 2252 And 2252A

Section 2252 of Title 18, United States Code sets forth four offenses. Subsection (a)(1) prohibits anyone from knowingly transporting in interstate or foreign commerce or mailing any visual depiction involving the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

Subsection (a)(2) prohibits anyone from knowingly receiving or distributing any visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct that has been mailed or transported in interstate or foreign commerce or from knowingly reproducing any such visual depiction for distribution in interstate or foreign commerce or through the mails.

Subsection (a)(3)(A) prohibits anyone in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or on any government land, or in any government facility, from selling or possessing with the intent to sell any visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct that has been shipped in interstate or foreign commerce or was made with materials sent in interstate or foreign commerce. Subsection (a)(3)(B) penalizes the knowing sale or possession with the intent to sell of any visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct shipped in interstate or foreign commerce, or produced using materials mailed or shipped by any means, including by computer where the production involved the use of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and the visual depiction of such conduct.

Subsection (a)(4) prohibits the possession of one or more books, magazines, periodicals, films, video tapes, or other matter containing any visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, which was shipped or transported or made with materials shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce, including by computer.

Section 2252 imposes, for the first three offenses, a maximum 15 years' imprisonment and/or a fine for the first offense and a minimum five years' imprisonment to a maximum 30 years' imprisonment and/or a fine for a subsequent conviction under this Section, under Chapter 109A, under Chapter 117, or under the laws of any state relating to aggravated sexual abuse, or abusive sexual conduct involving a minor or ward, or the trafficking in child pornography. The penalty for violation of Subsection (a)(4) is a maximum sentence of five years and/or a fine for the first offense, and a two year mandatory minimum with a ten year statutory maximum if the offender has a prior conviction as set forth above.

It is an affirmative defense that if the person possessed less than three matters containing the proscribed visual depictions, such person promptly reported same to law enforcement or took steps to destroy without sending it to anyone else other than law enforcement.

[updated April 2000] [cited in JM 9-75.001]