§2G2.6 Child Exploitation Enterprises: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023
Federal courts sentenced 11 people in fiscal year 2023 under guideline §2G2.6, "Child Exploitation Enterprises," and all 11 went to prison. The median prison term was 144 months, and 3 people received a life sentence. The 144-month median is lower than the 360 months for all fiscal years 2016 to 202
· Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2G2.6 Child Exploitation Enterprises › §2G2.6: FY2023
In brief: Federal courts sentenced 11 people in fiscal year 2023 under guideline §2G2.6, "Child Exploitation Enterprises," and all 11 went to prison. The median prison term was 144 months, and 3 people received a life sentence. The 144-month median is lower than the 360 months for all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 11 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
Life Sentences and a 144-Month Median
In fiscal year 2023, the U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 11 people with §2G2.6 as the primary guideline. 11 of the 11 (100%) received a prison term. 3 of them received a life sentence.
The median prison term was 144 months, or 12 years. A quarter received 355 months or more, and a quarter received 90 months or less. The wide gap between those figures shows that sentences in this group varied a great deal.
The median across all years under this guideline is 360 months, for 62 people.
Supervised Release for Life in 5 Cases
All 11 people were ordered to serve supervised release after prison. The median term was 240 months, and 5 people (45%) received supervised release for life.
Restitution was ordered for 5 people (45%), and no fine was ordered. The Commission files these cases under the offense type Sexual Abuse.
Plea Versus Trial
10 of the 11 people (91%) pleaded guilty, and 1 person was convicted after a trial. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 132 months. The person convicted at trial received 240 months.
The trial figure rests on a single person and cannot be read as typical. Among those who pleaded guilty, 90% had a written plea agreement, and 10% were straight pleas with no agreement.
Mandatory Minimums and the Guideline Range
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 11 of the 11 people with that information recorded (100%).
3 sentences (27%) were within the guideline range. 7 (64%) were below the range at the government's request, and 1 (9%) was below it without a government request. None were above the range. The within-range share was higher than the 16% for all years under this guideline and lower than the 42% for all guidelines in fiscal year 2023.
Criminal History and the Yearly Table
91% of the 11 people were in the lowest criminal history category, Category I, and 0% were in the highest, Category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
The table shows 1 to 18 people per year under this guideline. Fiscal year 2023 is the second-largest group, after the 18 people in fiscal year 2019. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2023, 64,124 people were sentenced, with a median prison term of 30 months. Fiscal year 2023 ran from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 4 | 356 months | 3 of 4 |
| 2017 | 9 | 240 months | 8 of 9 |
| 2018 | 9 | 408 months | 8 of 9 |
| 2019 | 18 | 370.5 months | 100% |
| 2020 | 5 | 264 months | 4 of 5 |
| 2021 | 2 | 282 months | 2 of 2 |
| 2022 | 1 | 470 months | 1 of 1 |
| 2023 | 11 | 144 months | 91% |
| 2024 | 3 | 470 months | 2 of 3 |
What the Numbers Cannot Show
The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so only federal numbers appear here.
Only people who were convicted and sentenced are counted, and a group of 11 is small. The records do not explain why a sentence was set where it was, and one year is not a trend.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2G2.6 (11), U.S. Sentencing Commission individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Mandatory minimum sentences. Many federal statutes on drugs, images of child exploitation, child sex abuse, and firearms carry mandatory minimum prison terms. The UCMJ has mandatory minimums only for a few offenses (a dishonorable discharge or dismissal for rape and sexual assault, and life for premeditated murder). Federal sentences for these offenses are partly set by Congress, not by the judge.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2G2.6 Child Exploitation Enterprises: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.