Forensic Science International
Volume 183, Issue 1 , Pages e21-e24, 10 January 2009

The difficult issue of age assessment on pedo-pornographic material

  • Cristina Cattaneo

      Affiliations

    • Labanof, Laboratorio di Antropologia ed Odontologia Forense, Istituto di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni di Milano – V. Mangiagalli 37 – Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +39 02 50315678; fax: +39 02 50315724.
    • ,
  • Stefanie Ritz-Timme

      Affiliations

    • Institut für Rechtsmedizin des Universitätsklinikums Düsseldorf – Moorenstraße, 5 – Düsseldorf, Germany
    • ,
  • Peter Gabriel

      Affiliations

    • Institut für Rechtsmedizin des Universitätsklinikums Düsseldorf – Moorenstraße, 5 – Düsseldorf, Germany
    • ,
  • Daniele Gibelli

      Affiliations

    • Labanof, Laboratorio di Antropologia ed Odontologia Forense, Istituto di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni di Milano – V. Mangiagalli 37 – Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy
    • ,
  • Elena Giudici

      Affiliations

    • Labanof, Laboratorio di Antropologia ed Odontologia Forense, Istituto di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni di Milano – V. Mangiagalli 37 – Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy
    • ,
  • Pasquale Poppa

      Affiliations

    • Labanof, Laboratorio di Antropologia ed Odontologia Forense, Istituto di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni di Milano – V. Mangiagalli 37 – Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy
    • ,
  • Doerte Nohrden

      Affiliations

    • Institut für Rechtsmedizin des Universitätsklinikums Düsseldorf – Moorenstraße, 5 – Düsseldorf, Germany
    • ,
  • Sabine Assmann

      Affiliations

    • Institut für Rechtsmedizin des Universitätsklinikums Düsseldorf – Moorenstraße, 5 – Düsseldorf, Germany
    • ,
  • Roland Schmitt

      Affiliations

    • Institut für Rechtsmedizin des Universitätsklinikums Düsseldorf – Moorenstraße, 5 – Düsseldorf, Germany
    • ,
  • Marco Grandi

      Affiliations

    • Labanof, Laboratorio di Antropologia ed Odontologia Forense, Istituto di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni di Milano – V. Mangiagalli 37 – Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy

Received 20 March 2008; received in revised form 1 July 2008; accepted 23 September 2008. published online 19 November 2008.

Article Outline

Abstract 

The issue of juvenile pornography has seen an increase in the past few years of the number of expert opinions requested to forensic pathologists, paediatricians and other various experts within the forensic and medical fields concerning the age of represented individuals. Regardless of the entity of the problem, no actual method exists which can allow us to give an objective and scientific answer, particularly in the postpubertal stage. Using parameters related to sexual maturation can be very dangerous. Nonetheless some experts still insist with similar types of “expertises”. This study aims at verifying the ability of different experts in assessing age of postpubertal individuals represented in pornographic material. Results underline the difficulties and major uncertainties of age evaluation by visual observation of photographic material particularly when the subjects have reached the sexual maturation stage – and therefore in verifying whether the individual is above or below 18 years of age (an important age limit for most European countries as far as this type of crime is concerned). Furthermore the study stresses the need both to search for an alternate approach and to apply extreme caution in judicial evaluation.

Keywords: Forensic anthropology, Juvenile pornography, Aging, Sexual maturation

 

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1. Introduction 

A great increase in the diffusion of juvenile pornographic material has occurred in the last years, particularly due to the development of the web technology [1], [2], [3]. Child pornography has increased proportionally along with technical progress [4]. The misuse of internet as a criminal tool is a serious problem [5], [3], particularly with regards to the increasing issue of this type of child abuse.

Websites with pedo-pornographic contents are increasing in number: between 2002 and 2004, in Italy only, an increase of 92.7% was pointed out by different institutions and non-profit associations. In Germany the diffusion of pedo-pornographic material saw an increase of 56.4% between 2004 and 2005 [6]. In other countries numbers are even higher, such as Switzerland, Japan and Australia. It seems to be a profit-driven “business” which amounts in the world to 200–250 millions of dollars every year. The demand of pedo-pornographic material determines its supply; and every single demand of such material on the internet increases the production. For this reason, more and more, experts are asked to evaluate such material and verify the age of the possible victims.

Technically, from a forensic point of view, the difficulty lies in actually verifying whether the material is pedo-pornographic [7]: this depends on what each country's legislation has defined as juvenile pornography or pedo-pornography. Thus the age limit may vary according to each country's different laws. The question may be if the subjects represented are below 18 (this is the case for the legislation in Italy, France, Canada, USA); 16 (for Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands, Great Britain) or 14 (e.g. Germany, Austria) [4], [8], though the age limit may soon change in Germany to 18. Furthermore, a judge may also be interested in defining the age of the victim for other purposes – identification, for example. Therefore, it often happens that specialists such as forensic pathologists, paediatricians or anthropologists are called in by judges, magistrates or the police in order to establish, on videotapes and photos, subject age.

Great attention has been given to this kind of crime. In Italy for example, the criminal code has precisely defined juvenile pornography as “the abuse of juveniles younger than 18 years of age in order to perform pornographic exhibitions or produce pornographic material” (art. 600cpp). Furthermore there is a specific article in the criminal code (Art. 14 of law no. 269) concerning “rules against exploitation of prostitution, pornography, sexual tourism against minors, as new types of slavery” and a law (no. 38, 2006) which establishes the institution of a “National Centre against pedo-pornography on the web”, in order to collect all reports on websites with pedo-pornographic contents, even from foreign countries, public associations and privates. In Germany every Federal State Office of Criminal Investigation along with the main Federal Office of Criminal Investigation have a centre which deals with pedo-pornography. In Switzerland “KOBIK” (Cybercrime Coordination Unit Switzerland) is the main public coordination office to combat pedo-pornographic crime [9]. Interpol has established a database so that victims and suspects, who are already known to the authorities, can be identified rapidly. Europol also has set forth successful operations (e.g. Icebreaker), which have resulted in the arrest of suspects across 13 countries who were involved in child pornography [3]. In the European Union a “Council Framework Decision on Combating the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Child Pornography” [10] has also been founded.

Therefore, more and more, the diagnosis of age has a great importance in verifying the existence of a crime punishable by law.

It would seem reasonable to think that observation of specific parameters concerning growth and sexual maturation may be useful in answering this question – and that specific classes of professionals such as paediatricians, gynaecologists (for females) and forensic pathologists should have the tools to age youngsters even from pictures, such as Tanner staging, used in medicine to verify sexual maturation in adolescents [11]. The Tanner method focuses on the development of pubic hair and mammary glands in females, pubic hair, penis, scrotum and testicles in males [12]. The use of Tanner staging for forensic purposes has already been severely criticised. The author himself quotes that using the Tanner stages to estimate the probable chronological age is a “wholly illegitimate use of Tanner staging” and cautions paediatricians and other physicians to refrain from providing “expert” testimony as to chronologic age based on Tanner staging [13]. The same arguments can be applied to the evaluation of other even more general indicators of growth, such as gross facial morphology.

Great interindividual variability in maturation, and in particular in sexual maturation, has been stressed [14], [15], [16] due to individual biology, pathological factors, such as obesity, and environmental factors [17]. Numerous publications have tackled the difference between rate of sexual maturation in different populations [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35], [36], [37], [38], [39], [40], [41], [42]. Another important limitation is that it is impossible to compare photographic staging (on two-dimensional pictures) with a complete medical examination, including inspection and palpation. Furthermore specific markers can be altered on pictures, e.g. by shaving pubic or axillary hair [43]. Dental eruption and development could be useful also; but frequently detail of the images is not good enough to allow for analysis of dental outlines and features [44]. Another method used in age diagnosis, not yet analyzed in depth, and apparently more subjective and disputable, is based on observation of facial traits. Morphological assessment of juvenile characteristics however may be extremely tricky. A more objective approach may be provided by facial metrics and parameters. The authors are part of a European Commission project which is involved in searching for facial parameters useful in age determination. However, research is at its initial stages.

Regardless of such self-evident reason for caution, many “experts”, among which paediatricians and pathologists often perform an age estimation by methods based on poor scientific data, not confirmed by literature [13], [45].

In order not to be excessively critical concerning the possibility of assessing age of juveniles from photographs one should separate the problematic assessment of pedo-pornographic material in two separate moments. The first concerns distinguishing between prepubertal and postpubertal individuals. For these purposes some anatomical and anthropological information can be gained even from photographs and at times one can give an answer in terms of likelihood or probability. It may be difficult to place the subadult into a restricted age range, but it is usually possible to say something concerning pre or postpubertal stages. However, many countries in Europe are uniforming the age threshold of juvenile pornography to 18 years. This means that the issue frequently becomes that of determining, among postpubertal individuals, whether they have reached the 18-year age threshold or not. These are the instances in which science has very few solutions, regardless of the fact that some experts still recklessly pronounce ages.

The problem therefore is particularly difficult with subjects in the postpubertal period. In order to prove the real importance of the analysis of visual characteristics and point out the need for improvements of new methods and technologies in age estimation procedure from 2D images, we set out to perform the present study in order to objectively verify skills and reliability of different medical specialists in determining the age (in particular whether the person was above or below 18 years) only from photographs from pornographic material.

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2. Materials and methods 

11 photos of 11 females were taken from official authorised pornographic websites where the “actresses” were known and of adult age. On every photo, the observer/examinee (who was unaware of the girls’ age) was asked to establish if each girl was underage (18 years was selected in this trial) or adult, specifying which particular anatomical element suggested the choice (face, breast, pubic hair, other). The photographs were the object of the same study both in Germany and in Italy. In Italy the test was subjected to groups of five observers belonging to three different medical specialist categories: forensic pathologists, paediatricians, gynaecologists, all of experience. Another group, used as a control group, was composed by 13 non-medical specialists (laymen); in total, the subjects who underwent the test were 28. In Germany the exact same study was performed, with the same number of laymen and of forensic pathologists. The number of gynaecologists and paediatricians was slightly lower, for a total of 23 examinees.

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3. Results and discussion 

The Italian results are shown in Fig. 1; the German results are shown in Fig. 2. A very similar outcome can be observed in both countries. All classes performed poorly. The best results were obtained by forensic pathologists who correctly identified the women as being over 18 years of age in 60% and 50% of cases (for Italy and Germany, respectively); laymen (50% and 23%, respectively) performed second best. Paediatricians incorrectly classed the girls as under 18 in 73% and 95% of cases respectively and gynaecologists in 69% and 91% of cases.

When asked which were the areas which helped them in their decisions, examinees responded in the following manner: globally forensic pathologists mostly pointed out facial traits (64%) and breast development (23%), whereas pubic hair (2%) and axillary hair (0%) were less frequently observed; paediatricians took into consideration general facial morphology in 41% of cases, breast morphology in 27% of cases, the pubic area in 23%, axillary hair in 4%; gynaecologists indicated the face in 39% of cases, breast morphology in 36% of cases, pubis in 17%, axillary hair in 2%; laymen used the face in 33% of cases, breasts in 29%, pubis in 17%, axillary hair in 10% of cases. It is difficult to explain the better performance of the forensic pathologists compared to the gynaecologists and paediatricians. Perhaps gynaecologists and paediatricians were more greatly influenced by the apparently “juvenile” sexual traits and faces. Another reason may simply be (since most forensic pathologists involved in the study did not have much experience with pedo-pornographic material) the “innate” inclination of forensic pathologists towards criticism and caution in expressing an opinion.

The present results show the unreliability of criteria which would intuitively be used not only by laymen but by different medical specialists in order to verify chronological age of women photographed within pornographic material. In particular, laymen and forensic pathologists in both countries yielded better results than paediatricians and gynaecologists, who evaluated almost all the girls as younger than 18. This result can be partially explained by the poor quality of pictures, by make up and shaving but also and most importantly by an inappropriate use of aging criteria based on visual characteristics.

Though this study is simple in its devision, the authors think that it was necessary within the medicolegal scenario to prove the inadequacy of the use of visual and other morphological parameters as criteria for aging suspect juvenile pornographic material in the postpubertal stage and the enormous risks judges and “experts” may take in applying them – a phenomenon which is occurring in many courts of law across Europe.

In conclusion, this study does not aim to prove that juveniles represented on photographs cannot be set into general age ranges, or that pre and postpubertal age cannot be distinguished – on the contrary these types of diagnoses in fact can be performed at times, although with great caution and much research is being done and is certainly called for. This study actually aims at stressing the problems and dangers associated with the postpubertal/sexually mature stages – which happen to be the developmental “scenario” most late teenagers and young adult women share (by adult we intend over 18 years of age). Much pornographic/pedo-pornographic material depicts women who seem sexually mature, and who may be late teenagers or women over 18 years of age. Our study in fact proves that it is nearly impossible to say that adults who look like subadults are indeed adults – which obviously may apply to all those subadults who seem sexually mature.

The difficulty and risks of this type of expertise have already been mentioned in the previously cited literature, but to our knowledge they had never been systematically tested on actual pornographic material and among medical experts.

The search for a new approach is fundamental, if possible. However forensic and medical experts should avoid such unscientific behaviour which may have drastic consequences in a court of law.

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Acknowledgment 

This study was supported by the EU PROJECT JAI/2002/STOP/132 “Child pornography: Development of a method for estimation of the victim's age”, funded by the European Union.

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PII: S0379-0738(08)00370-8

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2008.09.005

Forensic Science International
Volume 183, Issue 1 , Pages e21-e24, 10 January 2009

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