In January 2019, the Commission issued a report, Mandatory Minimum Penalties for Sex Offenses in the Federal Criminal Justice System, highlighting recent trends in the charging of federal sexual abuse and
child pornography offenses. This publication is the sixth and final in a series of new reports building on the Commission’s 2011 report to the Congress on mandatory minimum penalties. Below are some key findings of the report.

https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/mandatory-minimum-penalties-federal-sex-offenses

If you have a client charged with a sexual abuse or  child pornography offense and facing a mandatory minimum penalty, this report may help you show why the prosecutor is exacerbating disparity.

And if your client is accused of receipt rather than possession of child pornography, the report reiterates the Commission’s 2011 views that there is little meaningful distinction beween the conduct involved in receipt and possession offenses. 

Denise C. Barrett, J.D., M.S.W.
Assistant Federal Public Defender-focusing on noncapital mitigation