On September 16, 2022, Timothy Streitmatter, 44, of Illinois was found guilty of attempted online enticement and attempted sex trafficking of a child. The trial, before U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani, lasted five days. Jurors deliberated for a little over an hour before returning the guilty verdict. During the trial, testimony was offered by multiple special agents from the FBI Allentown Office and the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Additionally, an FBI special agent from the Philadelphia Office offered expert testimony in cell phone forensics and undercover online child exploitation investigations. When Streitmatter is sentenced, under federal law, he faces up to life in prison, supervised release following imprisonment, sex offender registration, and a fine.
According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, on March 3, 2022, Streitmatter knowingly attempted to persuade, induce, entice, and coerce an individual he believed was 13 years old to engage in sexual activity in exchange for money. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Olshefski and Sean Camoni prosecuted the case.
Streitmatter’s case was brought in conjunction with Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat child exploitation and abuse. Project Safe Childhood was initiated in May of 2006 by the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice identifies the five essential components of Project Safe Childhood as building partnerships; coordinating law enforcement; training Project Safe Childhood partners; public awareness; and accountability. Through the initiative, the Department of Justice aims to coordinate and cooperate with federal, tribal, state, local, and international organizations to prevent the sexual exploitation of children.
The CSE Institute commends the work of the FBI and the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General for their diligent work on this case and securing a conviction. The CSE Institute is encouraged to see law enforcement and prosecutors dedicated to targeting the demand of sex buyers, the root cause of sexual exploitation.
The CSE Institute advocates for the Equality Model. The Equality Model consists of four key elements: (1) decriminalization of the prostituted person, (2) criminalization of sex buyers and facilitators with a commitment to treating buying sex as a serious crime, (3) a public education campaign about the inherent harms of prostitution, and (4) funded, robust, holistic exit services for victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The Equality Model calls for a law enforcement to directly target the demand for buying sex by criminalizing sex buyers and traffickers, while decriminalizing those who are bought and sold for commercial sex. The decriminalization of people in prostitution recognizes those who are bought and sold for sex as exploited, not as perpetrators of a crime.
The CSE Institute will provide updates on this matter as they become available.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.