Most people in Atlanta know that a crime within city limits would be handled by Atlanta police and Atlanta-based prosecutors, be they local or federal. That just makes sense -- an alleged crime should be prosecuted where it happened. But when the crime involves people in different states, things can get a little more complicated.

That is often the story with cases of child pornography. Since child pornography is usually transferred over the Internet, it often involves people who are far away from one another and are in different states entirely. Because of jurisdictional issues and of the severity of the crime, child pornography cases are often handled at the federal level.

Take the instance of a second-grade teacher at a Boston-area elementary school who was recently charged with two counts of possession of child pornography and other related crimes after authorities allegedly "hundreds" of images of child pornography on the man's computer.

The man allegedly tried to sell a pornographic video depicting a child over a website that, unbeknownst to him, was being monitored by federal authorities. If he had found a buyer and were that buyer in another state, it would have taken some time to determine who should be charged where, since the crime of selling child pornography would have, in this instance, have crossed state lines.


The teacher is currently on paid administrative leave and will go to trial next month. A conviction would probably end his career, since he would likely be prohibited from interacting with people under 18 and that, naturally, would preclude his work as a teacher.

Source: WCVB-TV Boston, "Court: Teacher Tried Distributing Child Porn Video Online," Jan. 18, 2012