The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report on Thursday highlighting some disturbing realities about how the FBI handles cases of sexual abuse against children.

After conducting an extensive audit of the Bureau’s approach to these causes, the Inspector General concluded that “further improvements are needed to build upon the FBI’s recent changes to its crimes against children and human trafficking (CAC/HT) program to ensure it appropriately addresses child sexual abuse allegations,” according to a press release.

The OIG “flagged 42 incidents, 13 percent of the incidents we examined, for FBI headquarters review because we believed they may require immediate attention.” These included “(1) cases that lacked any recent investigative activity or case updates, logical investigative steps, or referrals to appropriate agencies, (2) leads that were not appropriately covered, and (3) instances of substantial non-compliance with FBI policy.”

The report revealed that in nearly half of the 327 cases the OIG reviewed, FBI personnel did not comply with mandatory reporting requirements to local law enforcement or social services, which severely undermined the agency’s efforts to protect children.

Despite these improvements, we found the FBI does not document and process all incoming tips and allegations within Guardian, and 40 percent of the incidents we reviewed did not include evidence that the FBI responded to an allegation involving active or ongoing child sexual abuse within 24 hours as required by FBI guidance.

The lack of action in response to these types often left children at risk for extended periods, according to the report. “The types of concerns that led to flagging an incident for the FBI’s review included the following: Lack of any recent investigative activity or case updates, lack of logical investigative steps, and lack of referrals to SLTT law enforcement or social services agencies when required by law or policy,” the report noted.

The time that many of these cases went neglected is quite disturbing. In at least one instance, the FBI began looking into a case after having the allegations for over one year. After the OIG flagged the incident, agents “interviewed and offered services to the victim, who then provided additional incriminating evidence against the subject.”

The OIG identified part of the problem, noting that agents assigned to child sexual abuse cases frequently have high caseloads, which can cause delays in investigating new allegations. In one case, an agent “had a caseload of 44 pending cases, including 40 CAC/HT cases,” the report noted.

In the case mentioned previously, the Bureau failed to act for over one year on an investigation into a registered sex offender. During this period, the suspect allegedly victimized another child.

In December 2021, the FBI received an allegation through its National Threat Operations Center (NTOC) of a historical incident involving the subject—a registered sex offender—engaging in sexual activity with a minor victim that involved travel across state lines.

In another case, the Bureau took nine months to refer a case involving the sex trafficking of minors to the appropriate state agency.

In May 2022, [the National Threat Operations Center (NTOC)] received an anonymous complaint of sex trafficking of unknown minors and drug trafficking by an identified subject. NTOC transferred this complaint to the appropriate FBI field office, but we did not identify any evidence of verbal contact between NTOC and the FBI field office, as required by FBI policy.

Despite the sex trafficking of minors allegation, the first investigative activities documented in the case file by the FBI field office assigned the complaint were completed approximately 5 and 8 months after the receipt of the allegation.

The OIG made 11 recommendations aimed at improving the Bureau’s handling of cases of sexual abuse against children. The press release notes that the FBI “concurred with all 11 recommendations” and that it “took corrective action on two of our recommendations” before the report was released.