Kyle Stephen Thompson v. United States

18 U.S.C. § 2251(a) is one part of the federal scheme to combat sexual exploitation of minors. Section 2251(a) singles out for severe penalties those defendants who, not only induce or coerce a minor to engage in “sexually explicit conduct,” but do so “for the purpose of” producing a visual depiction of such conduct. Id. (emphasis supplied). There is a split in the circuits concerning an important and recurring question about the “purpose” element of § 2251(a), in those cases where the defendant has multiple purposes for inducing or coercing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct: Whether the “for the purpose of” element of § 2251(a) means the defendant’s prevailing or most influential purpose for the sexually explicit conduct was to produce a visual depiction of it?