Does Viewing Child Pornography Lead to Action?
Child porn unlikely to trigger act: doctor April 17, 2007 THE Australian men arrested in a police crackdown on internet child pornography were unlikely to commit offences against children, the psychiatrist who has interviewed many of them says. Olav Nielssen, a psychiatrist at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, said giving the men access to "virtual" child pornography, in which computer-generated images rather than real children were used, would do no harm to society. Dr Nielssen and two colleagues have interviewed about 30 men arrested during Operation Auxin in 2004 for possessing thousands of pornographic images of children. Dr Nielssen, who interviewed the men for court reports, said most were heterosexual with no criminal past. They had no history of anti-social behaviour, and no psychiatric disorders other than their abnormal interest in child pornography. Most had not, and probably would not act out their fantasies, he said. "Their median age was 40. They were timid, solitary and had poor personal relations and were socially inept," he said, "but most were employed, many in good jobs." Dr Nielssen said the men were different from the many pedophiles he had interviewed in Long Bay Jail. The convicted pedophiles were more likely to be homosexual, and to have severe personality disorders. Many had brain injury or mental retardation, and had committed other crimes. Dr Nielssen will present the findings in Sydney today to the World Congress for Sexual Health. He said a similar study of Swiss men arrested for possession of child pornography also concluded the men were unlikely to act out their fantasies. Easy access to child pornography on the internet had "brought on" the men's fetish. "It's the internet itself that has created a new disorder, and a new offence," he said. Most of the men had begun with viewing adult pornography and then "slid down the slippery slope to pre-pubescent material". They were no longer interested in normal sexual relationships. The men felt deeply ashamed about their part in the abuse of real children who were used in the production of the images. But they could not stop collecting thousands of images, many more than they could ever look at. Dr Nielssen said it was hard to cure people of the fetish because sexual interest was deeply ingrained. "My personal view is that they should be allowed to look at simulated material - like in video games," he said. "To allow them to proceed in their solitary way would not be harmful to society on the whole." However, he believed Australian law precluded the use of virtual child pornography. The US Supreme Court in 2002 struck down parts of a child pornography prevention act that made virtual images illegal. It said these sections went "overboard" and violated free speech. No victims were created by the images, and the causal link between virtual images and actual instances of child abuse was not proven. However, the Bush Administration brought in another act in 2003 to outlaw such images. An Australian organisation against child abuse, Child Wise, said simulated child pornography would send the wrong message. "It almost condones what we consider illegal behaviour," said Karen Flanagan, the child protection program manager. http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/child-porn-unlikely-to-trigger-act-doctor/2007/04/16/1176696757630.html
Porn 'Not Perv Link' CHILD sex abuse is NOT linked to looking at kiddie porn, a top cop claimed yesterday. Det Chief Supt Stuart Kirby, of Lancs Police, told an international psychology conference: "Research shows there is no proven link between viewing porn and committing hands-on offences." His force took part in a study of 18 men who had downloaded child porn. Around 70 per cent were "enthusiasts" who did not live with kids and had no convictions. The rest were in long-term relationships but did not live with their kids. None were "predatory". The Sun, 16/12/05 Two comments, for now. How come the Daily Mail et al did not comment on this piece? I am delighted that The Sun reported this.
No Link Between Child Porn and Sexual Abuse Thursday, 15th December 2005, 14:47 Category: Crime and Punishment LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - There is no link between looking at child pornography and sexual abuse of youngsters, a senior police officer told a conference today. Studies have found no correlation between those who download graphic images of youngsters via the internet and child molesters. Dr Stuart Kirby, Detective Chief Superintendent with Lancashire Police, told the International Investigative Psychology Conference: "When you look at all the research that has been done nationally, the consensus is that there has not proven to be a link between the viewing of pornography and the committing of hands-on offences. "In a follow-up study by Lancashire Police, that was found to be clearly the case." He added: "Viewing child porn is illegal and there is the issue that if people did not view it, then people would not take the pictures and those children would not be abused in that way. We are not making light of child porn." The study by Lancashire Constabulary and a PhD student from the University of Liverpool looked at 18 men with an average age of 41 who had downloaded child porn. The study labelled 70 per cent as 'enthusiasts' who spent a lot of time online, often lived alone or with their parents, without any children and had no previous convictions. 30 per cent were labelled 'paedophiles' who were in long term relationships, had children but did not live with them, were unskilled and likely to change their job frequently. None of the 18 fell into the 'predatory' category. This British research and others before it contradicts an American study which stated one third of people who used graphic images were 'actively abusing children.' Dr Kirby, who has a PhD in Psychology, said: "We have not found that in our research." Operation Ore in 2002 was an international crackdown on child pornography across the world and it implicated 6,000 in the UK. Dr Kirby said there needed to be more research focusing on educating potential victims. Four per cent of the population suffer from 44 per cent of all crimes and Dr Kirby said there needed to be a better understanding of the victim and location. He added: "We have focussed a lot on the offender and we know a lot about them and have a good understanding of them. But crime is affected by the dynamics surrounding the victim. "This is an area that still needs to be explored. We need to make public services think what rings those warning bells with the victim - that they might carry on putting themselves at risk. We are in no way saying the victim plays any role in instigating the offence and the culpability always lies with the offender. "But as we learn more about the dynamics of the offence the more we can do in terms of prevention." Another study by Dr Kirby focussed on 219 sex offenders which found only one fifth had re-offended in a 15 year period. http://www.lse.co.uk
Pedophiles Mark Gado The pedophile (sic) collector falls into three general categories: closet, isolated and the sharer. The closet collector maintains and views his erotica in secret and does not molest children. This type of collector builds his collection in a clandestine manner and keeps its existence a secret. Sometimes, he will maintain this collection for years without the knowledge of a live-in spouse. The isolated collector is actually engaged in molestation and will display the material to a victim. The sharer-collector trades and displays the material with others and may do so for profit. He also will molest children and keeps company with other pedophiles. Mark Gado is a detective with the City of New Rochelle Police Department in New York for the past twenty-nine years. He was also a federal agent assigned to a D.E.A. Task Force from 1997 to 1999. http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/pedophiles/3.html
Impact of Viewing On Behaviour? "Not a causal relationship, but viewing increases the likelihood of offending for at least some people." Victimisation through the production and distribution of abuse images, Dr. Ethel Quayle and COPINE Project, UCC - Ireland, Warsaw, March 2004. We need to maintain a sense of proportion in making judgements related to predicting the extent to which an individual possessing child pornography might engage in contact offences. Quite clearly, producers of child pornography are involved in sexual assaults against children. Where opportunity allows, some collectors of child pornography may become involved in assaults (which may or may not involve photographs) through exposure to child pornography, and some people may become involved in other forms of assault or potentially assaultive behaviour through activities such as seeking to meet children through chat rooms. There is also the possibility of individuals 'commissioning' the production of photographs or engaging in the direction of sexual assaults through video-conferencing. The evidence, such as it is, suggests that all of these groups are in a minority when compared to the very large numbers of people who in some way or another access child pornography on the Internet. Child Pornography - An Internet Crime, Professor M. Taylor and Dr E. Quayle, 2003, Brunner-Routledge, p. 197.

MBS? (2002-2005)

Category: Pornography Including Minors
Forum: Child Pornography/Operation Ore Issues
Thread: Does Viewing Child Pornography Lead to Action?

[1 - post 917 - user 3] WebManager (04/02/2004 00:56:58) >Does Viewing Child Pornography Lead to Action?<

I was asked to put together a succinct reply to this question. This is what I decided, at the time. Please let me know if anything needs adding.

OK, my slant on it is here (MY COMMENTS IN RED):

The Assessment of Male Sexual Child Abusers

madbadorsad.org

and here:

"There is no doubt, whatsoever, about the proposition of the experts; and it is: "We have regular contact with the sexual abusers of children. A number of them possess pornography including minors, thus, those who view pornography including minors, are potentially the sexual abusers of children."

"The major issue here, is that their supposition is bad science (even if they are scientists). They have made a correlation (although hardly having a CC=1) between some abusers of minors, and the fact that they possess pornography including minors (no surprise there, as stated above, whether the abusers are paedophiles or not).They have not proven, or even evidenced, any causality between using pornography including minors and the sexual abuse of minors (other than the well known and historical use of pornography in seduction). These experts are, then, advising all authorities, in a relatively new area of sexuality analysis, and their word is taken as gospel. Subsequently, poor law (and justice) is made on this basis, and we now find ourselves in the present perplexing and confused situation - why is this the case? is the rhetorical question, at this time. Although, with, perhaps, 250 000 more UK users emerging, perhaps it needs to be more than rhetorical. "

www.madbadorsad.org

... and here are the quotes which should carry the most clout:

Lords Written Questions, 2nd March 2004

The Lord Hylton

• To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking in conjunction with internet service providers to limit access to child pornography.

• To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress is being made in investigating and prosecuting internet child pornography; how many persons have been (a) charged; and (b) convicted, as a result of the police "Operation Ore"; and how many more they expect will be prosecuted in the coming 12 months.

• To ask Her Majesty's Government what correlations they have found between individuals with access to child pornography and offences of sexual abuse of children, whether in the United Kingdom or overseas.

Child Pornography and Sexual Offences: Answer 14th March 2004

Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:

What correlations they have found between individuals with access to child pornography and offences of sexual abuse of children, whether in the United Kingdom or overseas.[HL1675]

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: People who sexually abuse children are often found to be in possession of indecent images of children. There is evidence to suggest that child pornography can be used in an attempt to legitimise their sexual activities with children and to "groom" or encourage compliance from their victims.

However, we are not currently aware of any evidence to support a direct causal link between access to child pornography and the commission of sexual offences against children.

www.publications.parliament.uk

Donald Findlater - Lucy Faithfull Foundation, ''Head Abuser Treater'', in his interview on Newsnight, in response to the ''Carr Report'', 12/1/04.

"we frankly don't know how many" will go on to offend.

VI. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY AND CHILD SEX ABUSE CRIME

Considerable controversy exists within the social and behavioural science community about the negative effects, if any, of child pornography upon the behaviour of potential or actual offenders.

The main reason for the debate is that it is virtually impossible to conduct research in the laboratory using standard scientific methods which yield statistically reliable results. The constraints of ethical research, false reporting, interviewer distortion and a whole host of other problems contribute to the difficulty of acquiring scientific results.

Many researchers have come to the conclusion that there is no sound scientific basis for concluding that exposure to child pornography increases the likelihood of sexual abuse of children.

Others have suggested that there is a consistent correlation between the use of pornography and sexual aggression.

Some social scientists interpret the research to indicate that the use of child pornography is a precursor to other sex crimes and that child pornography is fuel to feed the obsession of paedophilia;

Child Pornography and Sexual Exploitation: European Forum for Child Welfare Position Statement, 3 (Nov. 1993) [hereafter EFCW Position Statement] (citing studies that support this thesis).

Others conclude that it is a safety valve that prevents such crimes. Kutchinsky, B., The Effect of Easy Availability of Pornography on the Incidence of Sex Crimes: The Danish Experience, Journal of Social Sciences, 29:3, 163-81 (1973); see Daniel Lee Carter, et al., The Use of Pornography in the Criminal and Developmental Histories of Sexual Offenders, Journal of Interpersonal Violence 207 (June 1987).

Law enforcement agencies also have differing opinions. In 1995, several Australian law enforcement agencies testified in hearings on organised paedophile activity that "there was a significant likelihood that a person in possession of child pornography was also involved in sexually abusing children." Organised Criminal Paedophile Activity: A Report by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority, Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia 36 (Nov. 1995) [hereinafter Australian Parliament Report].

This view is not universally accepted, even in Australia. Id.

It is well documented that paedophiles may possess extensive collections of child pornography. However, not all paedophiles who collect or view pornography sexually molest children and not all of those who collect child pornography can be characterised as paedophiles.

What is clear, however, is that law enforcement agents have found that a significant number of arrested child molesters are in possession of child pornography. One detective in the Los Angeles Police Department estimated that of 700 child molesters arrested over 10 years for extra-familial child sex crimes, more than half had child pornography in their possession and about 80% owned either child or adult pornography.

From 1986 to 1988, an organisation called Childwatch in England found that of the 27 child molesters convicted, 23% were using their child victims to make pornography and nearly all of the child molesters had child pornography in their possession (no surprise there then).

When discussing the relevance of child pornography to the sexual abuse of children, most experts note that it is important not to confuse the question of statistical line (i.e., whether some or many child sex offenders possess child pornography) with the separate issue of causality (i.e., whether possession of child pornography causes people to commit child-sex offenses).

While taking pains to acknowledge that there was no evidence of causality, however, a U.S. Senate Subcommittee investigating child pornography came to the conclusion that "[child pornography plays a central role in child molestations by paedophiles, serving to justify their conduct, assist them in seducing their victims and provide a means to blackmail the children they have molested in order to prevent exposure." U.S. Senate Report, supra note 7, at 44.United States Embassy Stockholm, World Congress Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, August 27-31, 1996,

www.usis.usemb.se

"most experts note that it is important not to confuse the question of statistical line (i.e., whether some or many child sex offenders possess child pornography) with the separate issue of causality (i.e., whether possession of child pornography causes people to commit child-sex offenses)."

and:

Research to date has not determined whether child sex offenders (N.B. - offenders) are more, or less, likely to offend if they view and/or collect child pornography (Queensland Crime Commission and Queensland Police Services 2000; Smallbone and Wortley 2000). Although a Queensland study found that non-familial offenders reported using adult pornography (72 per cent) and child pornography (9 per cent) (Smallbone and Wortley 2000), these findings need to be treated with caution. The study sample was almost exclusively comprised of male incarcerated offenders who had low Internet literacy (88 per cent had not used the Internet). Thus, the characteristics of incarcerated offenders may differ from the wider population of offenders and it would also appear that the Smallbone and Wortley sample may potentially represent a different group to those offenders who target children via the Internet.

Child Abuse Prevention Issues Number 15 Summer 2001, Child abuse and the Internet, Janet Stanley, www.aifs.org.au

and:

Perhaps the greatest distortion in the child porn furore concerns the simple word "paedophile", which in general usage has come to signify absolute predatory evil. News headlines record how police "hunt for paedophiles", who are supposed to operate in rings or packs, and whose sexual assaults often escalate to murder.

If a particular man is found using child porn, then he is a Paedophile, capital P, sworn in to the mysteries of the evil empire. However much it contradicts received wisdom, the link between child porn use and active molestation is tenuous and unproven.

Most molesters probably use porn, but a great many pornophiles do not molest. We assume otherwise only because until recently, it was very difficult to be arrested just for viewing child porn, unless the offender was involved in some other criminality.

www.guardian.co.uk

and:

It is sometimes alleged that child pornography is a critical ingredient in motivating child molestation in some people, but a recent clinical study of eleven male pedophiles indicated that such material may not even be necessary. These men were arousable by media materials widely available, such as television ads and clothing catalogues picturing young children in underwear. In other words, rather than using explicitly pornographic materials, these men appear to construct there own sexually stimulating materials from sources generally viewed as innocuous.

Howett in Abnormal Psychology, C. Davison and J. Neal, 1998

and:

For example, "the vast majority of individuals who commit sexual offenses against children are not sexually aroused by stimulus material involving children; ''their primary sexual orientation is to adults and they molest children by fantasizing that they are engaging in relationships with appropriate sex partners.

[Quoting prosecution expert from trial record in State v.Spencer, 459 S.E.2d 812, 815 (N.C.App. 1995).]
www.forensic-evidence.com

and:

Men who are otherwise conventional in their sexual interests and behaviour can be sexually aroused by pedophilic stimuli. In a study using both self-support and penile plethymographic measures, one-quarter of people drawn from a community sample showed or reported pedophilic arousal.

The investigators found that this abnormal arousal was correlated with conventional arousal, that is:

the more aroused the people were to adult heterosexual pictures, the more aroused they were to the pedophilic pictures.

Although this finding may be disturbing to us, it highlights the importance of the distinction made by the DSM and health professionals in general between fantasy and behaviour.

Hall et al home.tiscali.nl in Abnormal Psychology, C. Davison and J. Neal, 1998


If they quote the UCPIS ''evidence'':

Update (23/11/03): Well, well ...During the fiscal year 1997, the USPIS began compiling statistical information on the number of child pornography suspects that were also child molesters. Of the 1,207 individuals arrested by Postal Inspectors since 1997 for using the mail and the Internet sexually to exploit children, actual child molesters were identified in 36% of cases. Since the USPIS frequently target those with prior convictions for sex offences, it may be that this figure somewhat overstates the proportion of users of child pornography as a whole who are likely to engage in actual abuse, but it is still a worrying statistic.

www.rogerdarlington.co.uk

and:

Carr's conclusions and loud alarms in the report have been applauded by influential British figures concerned about Internet safety, but civil liberties champions have criticized the many estimates in the report particularly concerning the real size of the problems of online seduction, child pornography and "age-inappropriate material" marketed to children.

They have pointed to the lack of reliable references for some of his source material, such as his already infamous claim that one in three online consumers of child pornography have committed a sexual offense against a child.

A survey conducted last year by the NZ Department of Internal Affairs on its database of illegal porn consumers found in contrast that 11.3 percent had been convicted of a direct sexual offense against another person, child or adult.

www.idg.se

and:

According to NCH, an American survey has shown that more than one third of people who look at the sick images go on to molest children.

But DCI Swain (CAMBS Police) disagreed. "I'm not aware of any research which suggests that people who start off looking at pictures then commit sexual abuse," he said.

www.peterboroughet.co.uk

and:

As noted in the Economist,

Proponents of the argument that looking leads to doing say that, in America, 36% of those who watch child pornography are also child molesters. Whether or not that widely-disputed figure is true, it does not prove that watching pornography causes abuse. What about the other 64%? Maybe, for them, looking is a substitute for doing. Interestingly, at the same time as child pornography has become more widely available, so child abuse has declined. According to the Crimes Against Children Research Centre, a research group funded by America's Department of Justice, between 1992 and 2000 the number of substantiated cases of sexual abuse of children in the United States dropped by more than a third. In Britain, child abuse declined by 7% between 1991 and 2001.

Other empiric evidence that those who look at child pornography are likely to be child abusers or sexual predators suggests that the number is probably less than 10%.

www.weblog.nohair.net

and:

Drawing a Line in the Sand: As we all must feel sometimes, there is legality, and then there is truth. They don&rsquo;t always match. There have been attempts to figure out the truth in this matter, but it has proven to be a slippery fellow to pin down. In 1970 the President&rsquo;s Commission on Pornography issued a voluminous report, labeled pornographic itself for all its lurid detail, urging in conclusion that nearly all obscenity laws be repealed. The Commission had been given $2 million by President Johnson and it took 2 years to study the issue. The group commissioned 30 academic studies of pornography, most of which found no connection between pornography and crime. In other words, people don&rsquo;t look at pornography, then go out and commit child molestation. However, Richard Nixon was in office by the time the report was issued. He and his administration flatly rejected the Commission&rsquo;s findings.

Interestingly, both Canada and Great Britain embarked on similar studies at about the same time, and both of these studies came to the same conclusions.

But this was small stuff compared to Denmark. In the mid-&rsquo;60s Denmark actually did what all the studies had been suggesting: It eliminated obscenity laws. What happened was interesting. Crimes of child molestation went down by over 60 percent. This seems an incredible figure, one you should not trust on hearing. It&rsquo;s been cited in several sources, but without attribution, so I went after it and found it in a study called 'The Effect of Easy Availability of Pornography on the Incidence of Sex Crimes: The Danish Experience'; (Journal of Social Science, Vol. 29:3 (1973), pp. 163-181).

www.onlineinc.com

and:

Dismay as International Paedophile Probe Fails

THE massive internet child pornography investigation Operation Ore has ended in Scotland without anybody being charged with sex abuse, senior police officers have revealed. Police chiefs are dismayed that no one found to have accessed child pornography on the web is being prosecuted for abuse despite officers having "grave doubts" about the safety of children living with them. According to the senior officers, the 16-month operation, costing millions of pounds and involving all eight Scottish police forces, failed to gather the necessary evidence. The Scottish arm of Operation Ore was wound up three weeks ago after investigating some 350 people north of the Border, about 200 of whom were in Strathclyde and 70 in Lothian and Borders. One member of the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland (ACPOS) who was involved in planning and pursuing the investigation north of the Border and asked not to be named said: "On many occasions I heard that officers had experienced grave doubts about the safety of certain children, but nobody reported anything to us so we could not press charges. This means that after expending a massive chunk of our resources on this inquiry, not a single person will be convicted of hands-on abuse. "That would not trouble us if we thought that all the men who were looking at child porn on their computer were just sad creeps who did not pose a risk to the children in their lives, but that is not the conclusion that was drawn from every raid. "The National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) was given a list of more than 7,200 UK suspects by the FBI after American investigators took over a website in 1998 used by 75,000 subscribers worldwide accessing hundreds of illegal pay-to-view sites by credit card. It is understood that NCIS decided some 2,000 UK subscribers out of more than 7,200 suspects should be pursued. Computer equipment and other items have been removed and examined for evidence linking the owners to paid-for child porn sites. The operation has been a massive drain on resources, partly due to the rigorous standards of evidence-gathering. Each computer seized can take experts many months to examine at an estimated average cost of £2,000. Celebrities, lawyers, police officers, teachers and clergymen have been among those arrested under Operation Ore. Last week, Detective Constable Brian Stevens, a family liaison officer in the Soham double-murder inquiry, was cleared of charges of having illegal images on his computer and of sexually assaulting two girls. He is just one of some 50 police officers in the UK who have become entangled in Operation Ore's web. However, British forces were overwhelmed by the scale of the operation and, as the months passed, tough decisions had to be made to dispose of some cases with a warning. Some of those who have been caught, including the rock star Pete Townshend - who said he accessed the sites for research purposes - have been cautioned and added to the sex offenders register. The Scottish courts are now experiencing a steady trickle of cases linked to the inquiry and experts estimate it will be another two years before every case is concluded. Under current legislation, people convicted of possessing child pornography face a maximum sentence of five years, distribution carries a maximum penalty of 10 years. The maximum sentence for child abuse is life. Expressing his disappointment that no sex abuse charges have been brought, the senior member of ACPOS said: "When we received our lists from the FBI, there were so many names that we had to prioritise. We had to go first of all to those who had access to children, either through their jobs or in the home. "Last night, Anne Houston, director of the helpline Childline Scotland, said: "We hear from hundreds of children every year who tell us they have been sexually abused. Every image of child abuse on the internet is a crime scene." If Operation Ore is to be wound down, we very much hope police take child abuse on the internet seriously and continue to put resources into catching the perpetrators." SNP MSP Nicola Sturgeon, the shadow justice minister, said she understood the senior officers' frustration: "It's worrying if the police have suspicions that people are involved in child abuse and nobody is going to be convicted."

Marcello Mega, 24/8/03, www.news.scotsman.com

and:

"On BBC's News at Ten (4/2/03), it was stated that of the 1600 Ore men arrested, at this time, 46 seemed to have been actively involved in abusing children, and they will have completed processing the total in two year's time. Well, of course, I must accept that figure, for now, but that amounts to under 3%, so we are already an order of magnitude away from earlier suggestions. I also find it incredible, that 46 UK men, involved in such an obvious entrapment site, would allow themselves to be identified in such compromising positions, perhaps a small number, yes, but 46? Time will distinguish hyperbole from fact, as it is already doing."

http://www.madbadorsad.org/IaCA.htm

A good general review:

Fetishising Images

When does a picture of a naked child become 'child pornography'? Would the description of a sexual encounter between an adult and a child constitute child-porn, or does the definition only extend to pictures? Does pornography lead to sex crimes?

Ageing rock star Pete Townshend was recently released on bail after he admitted accessing child pornography websites. Townshend had issued an emotional statement the previous weekend. He admitted visiting such sites, but said that he had done so for legitimate reasons. Meanwhile, the police operation code-named 'Ore' is said to involve around 7000 UK suspects, and to include policemen, former Labour ministers, magistrates and even a judge (1). Common sense would suggest that committing rape is much more serious than looking at a picture. But it seems that the law is beginning to equate criminal responsibility for the two. The logical consequence of this situation is 'thought crime', where a person is penalised for what he may have been thinking when viewing an image, regardless of whether he has caused actual harm to a child.

Furthermore, it is admitted that the evidence as to child pornography, and its prevalence on the internet, is patchy. Much of the hard core child pornography to be found on the internet was not produced recently, but dates back several decades. To hold viewers of such pornography as somehow complicit in the abuse of children is a legal absurdity.

The law on child pornography

The UK law on child pornography is becoming increasingly punitive. Under section 1(1) of the 1978 Protection of Children Act, it is an offence for a person to:

'(a) take, or permit to be taken, or to make any indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child; or

(b) distribute or show such indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs; or

(c) have in his possession such indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs, with a view to their being distributed or shown by himself or others; or

(d) publish or cause to be published any advertisement likely to be understood as conveying that the advertiser distributes or shows such indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs, or intends to do so.'

The term 'pseudo-photograph' is used in the Protection of Children Act 1978, as amended by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, and in section 160 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, to include images made or manipulated by computer which are not technically photographs. It is possible, for example, to produce a 'pseudo-photograph' by 'morphing' a picture of adults to make them look like children.

The offence of possessing an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child is a criminal offence under section 160(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. The maximum penalty was six months' imprisonment from a magistrates' court. Section 41(3) of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 has now made the offence triable either before a magistrate or before a jury in a Crown Court, with a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment (on indictment). This applies to offences committed on or after 11 January 2001, when section 41 came into force.

The maximum penalty for all the offences under section 1 of the 1978 Act was originally three years on indictment. But this was increased to 10 years by section 41(1) of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000. Again, the increased penalty applies to offences committed on or after 11 January 2001.

The Home Office's Sentencing Advisory Panel recently undertook a consultation exercise on sentencing guidelines for judges in child pornography cases. The panel favours a 'get tough' approach. Its approach, however, suggests that the panel is influenced by political correctness and individual opinion rather than by a more scientific, evidence-based approach.

The lack of evidence

The Home Office's Sentencing Advisory Panel admits that it is impossible to assess the prevalence of child pornography offences with any degree of accuracy. It immediately goes on to opine that the cases coming to court are 'the tip of the iceberg'. This is speculation: even those who specialise in researching child pornography confess that they know little about it.

The panel referred to the COPINE project (Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe) at the University of Cork. This has a reference database of more than 80,000 still pictures and a large number of video sequences, including examples of most of the material publicly available on the internet (2).

Max Taylor, professor of applied psychology and director of the COPINE Project, presented a paper to the Second World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in December 2001, entitled Challenges and Gaps. He acknowledged that: 'we have little understanding of the individual and collective processes that give rise to the production and distribution of child pornography in general, and on the internet in particular. Indeed, given the amount of legislative attention these issues have attracted, it is difficult to find another area of substantial policy development that has been based on such little empirical evidence.' (3)

Even those who specialise in researching child pornography confess that they know little about it'

Taylor pointed out that the work done by COPINE suggested that, while collecting child pornography on the internet may be primarily related to sexual fantasy, it may also draw on other factors related to collecting, social facilitation and risk-taking. Among other factors, he notes that relatively few child victims have been identified.

Child pornography covers a wide range of images and ages. Some is clearly repulsive. But given the lack of 'empirical evidence' about it to which Taylor refers, we should surely question the assumptions upon which the highly punitive character of UK law regarding child pornography is now based: namely, that it is a prevalent problem, that its users are necessarily paedophiles, and that children are harmed in its production, or as a result of its production.

Back in 1999, Max Taylor presented a paper entitled 'The nature and dimensions of child pornography on the internet' to an international conference on combating child pornography on the internet in Vienna. He made the following points:

-- Much of the core of the sexually explicit child pornography currently available on the internet is 30 or 40 years old, and even older;

-- Of the internet material to which his project had access, an estimated 85 to 90 percent was older than 10 to 15 years, with a large amount of that dating from the 1960s and 70s;

-- 'The relationship between adult sexual interest in children and child pornography is complex and poorly understood. Not all convicted child-sex offenders express an interest in child pornography. On the other hand, very many people who have no criminal record, and who seemingly have no known sexual interest in children, demonstrate an interest in child pornography by accessing and downloading images.'

-- 'The relationship between collecting child pornography and sexual assaults on children is also not clear.' (4).

The Sentencing Advisory Panel did not quote Taylor's carefully balanced observations. Instead it stated in its consultation exercise: 'It is said that paedophiles use pornography in order to reinforce and justify their will to abuse. In some cases, pornography is shown to children to encourage them to think of sexual activity as normal.' (5) But it produced no evidence to back up this assertion which implicates pornography in general.

Controversial sources

The only source offered for its argument was an interview with one Ray Wyre in 1990, conducted by Catherine Itzin, who was editor and co-author of a book entitled Pornography: Women, Violence and Civil Liberties (6), an attack on the pornography industry. Wyre worked in the navy and studied at a Baptist bible college to become a minister before choosing probation work instead. Later, he ran a clinic for sex offenders. He is a qualified social worker. In 1988, he provided social workers in Nottingham, who approached him for advice about witchcraft, with a list of 'indicators' of satanic abuse. Social workers used these indicators to identify a local family as satanic abusers.

In what became a national scandal, it was subsequently revealed that satanic abuse was non-existent in this case or any other case where it was suspected, and the list was rapidly debunked (7).

Wyre's interview was about his own beliefs. He asserted that 'men's fantasies are fuelled by pornography. It gives them ideas, and they act those ideas out'. He claimed that all pornography was 'incredibly dangerous', that it maintained 'a climate of misogyny', was a causative factor in violence against women, and 'influenced the attitude of all men'. He regarded all men as 'on a continuum of sexism in the same way all white people are on a continuum of racism'. He regarded emotional abuse as sexual abuse. And he mentioned a boy who, he says, was abused 'within a satanic cult'. The pornography which Wyre mentioned being used as seduction aids by people seeking sex with minors was 'ordinary "soft" pornography', '"ordinary" heterosexual pornography', and 'gay literature' (8).

As Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, says, the idea that porn leads to sex crime presupposes a particularly degraded view of humanity and the capacity to make choices, which appeals to anti-pornography feminists (9). Among Itzin's other contributors were journalist Tim Tate, author of a controversial book called Children for the Devil: Ritual Abuse and Satanic Crime (10), and Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin, for whom pornography is hate speech, sex discrimination and sexual abuse.

MacKinnon argues that women cannot consent to sex anyway, because of male domination. She and Dworkin see heterosexual sex as degrading. Both campaigned unsuccessfully for civil laws to allow victims of sexual assaults to sue producers of porn, even Playboy. Itzin mechanically repeats their dystopian argument that until porn is eliminated, women never can be free (11). As a source used by the Home Office's Sentencing Advisory Panel, then, Itzin's book seems an embarrassing choice.

Camille Paglia has excoriated the MacKinnon-Dworkin view of pornography as preposterous, not least because rape and violence against women predate modern Western pornography by millennia. Paglia scorns the deficiencies in MacKinnon-Dworkin's approach.

'MacKinnon begins every argument from big, flawed premises such as "male supremacy" and "misogyny" while Dworkin spouts glib Auschwitz metaphors at the drop of a bra. Here's one of their typical maxims: "The pornographers rank with Nazis and Klansmen in promoting hatred and violence." Anyone who could write such a sentence knows nothing about pornography or Nazism.' (12)

It is misconceived to argue that the record &lsquo;is&rsquo; the abuse

Paglia's concerns are shared by Judge Richard Posner of the US Court of Appeals (seventh circuit), who says that Mackinnon is obsessed by pornography (13). Despite Paglia's protests, the confused assumption that porn equals rape has become increasingly mainstream.

No law-abiding person condones children being raped or abused, on camera or off it. Clearly, in situations where children are sexually assaulted and the assaults are recorded, the photo or film is a record of criminal acts.

But it is misconceived to argue that the record 'is' the abuse. It is neutral.

It is bizarre to argue that someone who downloads and views a picture of an assault later on - perhaps 40 years later - is somehow complicit in the original assault. This makes no sense. We do not say that someone watching the destruction of the World Trade Center on TV is complicit in the hijackers' acts. Even if that person believed that the Americans got what they deserved and cheered, he could not incur criminal liability for the crimes perpetrated on 9/11.

It is also absurd to argue, as some now do, that sexual victimisation of children is involved, regardless of what the picture actually shows (say, a toddler in a paddling pool or the bath, with no clothes on), or the context in which it was taken, or whether it even shows a real child (14).

Yet these fallacies have filtered into official policy. Of course, actual sexual abuse of children inspires particular revulsion. But it looks as though people who possess images of such abuse - or computer-generated scenarios, which do not display anything 'real' - must now carry the can for those who commit actual offences against children.

This scapegoating also involves the notion of 'thought crime'. People are penalised for what they might be thinking when they view an image, regardless of whether they played any role at all in the actual abuse of children.

Equating images with abuse

The Sentencing Advisory Panel has given the Court of Appeal the following advice on sentencing: 'Every indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child is, with limited exceptions, an image of a child being abused or exploited.' It says that adults 'can' suffer shame and distress knowing that indecent images of them as children are still in circulation (15).

And it goes on: 'An offender sentenced for possession of child pornography should be treated as being in some degree complicit in the original abuse which was involved in the making of the images. Sentences for possession should also reflect the continuing damage which is done to the victim or victims, through copying and dissemination of the pornographic images.' (16) (Note how the possibility of ongoing damage has become a certainty.)

COPINE developed a typology of images of children, with categories ranging from the relatively least problematic (for example: 2, Nudist (naked or semi-naked in legitimate settings/sources), and 3, Erotica (surreptitious photographs showing underwear/nakedness), to 9, Gross assault (penetrative assault involving adult) to 10, Sadistic/bestiality (sexual images involving pain or animal).

People are penalised for what they might be thinking when they view an image.

The Sentencing Panel rejected this typology, and has created its own for sentencing purposes 'according to the degree of harm to the victims' (17). But it may be unclear just who the 'victims' are, and the harm involved will frequently be a matter of speculation.

Furthermore, the panel states: 'Images in COPINE categories 2 to 3 might be the subject of a dispute as to whether or not they were indecent. We have included them at level 1 of our scheme because there may be cases where an offender has been convicted, or pleaded guilty, solely on the basis of images of this nature.' Level 1 of the panel's scheme relates to 'Images depicting nudity or erotic posing, with no sexual activity'.

The panel's assumption that 'Images depicting nudity or erotic posing, with no sexual activity' and 'Nudist [pictures] (naked or semi-naked in legitimate settings/sources)' can be criminal was considered by the Court of Appeal in November 2002. The court disagreed that nudity in a legitimate setting, or surreptitious photos of underwear, were pornographic. But it agreed that 'erotic posing' was. What is an erotic pose?

Donatello's 'David' would probably fall foul of the new sentencing criteria while Bronzino's 'Allegory of Venus with Cupid' certainly would. People like Lewis Carroll and Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden took nude photographs of girl-children, and boy-teens, in the nineteenth century. If downloaded from the internet, it seems that they too could still be suspect.

It seems illogical that possession of such images downloaded from a computer should constitute a crime, while possession of a coffee-table artbook is not.

The current scare over child pornography, then, has two perverse consequences: ultimately, its chilling effect requires the censorship of just about everything; and its repressive measures fuel interest in the very thing that it seeks to suppress.

(1) 'A "paedophile" witch-hunt?' Independent, 17January 2002; 'Paedophiles: The Police Hunt' Independent on Sunday, 19 January 2002

(2) Sentencing Advisory Panel, "Sentencing of Offences Involving Child Pornography: Consultation Paper" January 2002, paras. 31, 37. See also paras. 32, 36, 41

(3) See the COPINE Project website

(4) See the COPINE Project website, 'Published Material'

(5) Sentencing Advisory Panel, Consultation Paper, para. 29, n.3. Wyre is on the statutory list of consultees whom the Panel must consult, by the Lord Chancellor's direction under section 81(4)(a) Crime and Disorder Act 1998. On Wyre's work, see All Wyred up Achilles Heel, Issue 13 Summer 1992. See also Ray Wyre Associates

(6) Pornography: Women, Violence and Civil Liberties Catherine Itzin (ed.) (OUP, 1992; reprinted 2001). Wyre's interview is Chapter 14, 'Pornography and Sexual Violence: Working with Sex Offenders'

(7) See Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Britain, Philip Jenkins, (Aldine de Gruyter, 1992) pp. 85, 97, 158-61, 169-71, 179, 191-2; 'The Making of a Satanic Myth' Rosie Waterhouse, Independent on Sunday 12 August 1990. The Report by a Joint Enquiry Team into the Nottingham débacle is here. And see Child Protection Questions by Jennie Bristow

(8) Pornography: Women, Violence and Civil Liberties Catherine Itzin (ed.) (OUP, 1992; reprinted 2001) p243-4, 236, 241, 244, 246

(9) Nadine Strossen, Defending Pornography (NYU, 2000), p146-7

(10) Children for the Devil: Ritual Abuse and Satanic Crime, London: Methuen, 1991. It was the subject of a successful libel action by a policeman who investigated the Nottingham case: see The Media and the Myth

(11) "The Child Pornography Industry: International Trade in Child Sexual Abuse" Tim Tate, "Pornography, Civil Rights and Speech" Catharine A MacKinnon, and "Against the Male Flood: Censorship, Porngraphy and Equality" Andrea Dworkin, in Pornography: Women, Violence and Civil Liberties Catherine Itzin (ed.) (OUP, 1992; reprinted 2001) chs11, 23-4; Feminism Unmodified Catharine A MacKinnon (Harvard, 1987) chs6-8, 11-16; Towards a Feminist Theory of the State Catharine A MacKinnon (Harvard, 1989) chs7-12; Only Words Catharine A MacKinnon (Harper Collins, 1994), chapter 1, 3

(12) "The Return of Carry Nation: Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin" Camille Paglia, in Vamps & Tramps (Penguin, 1995) p110-1. And see Pornography in a Free Society Gordon Hawkins & Franklin E. Zimring, (Cambridge, 1988) ch 6

(13) Quoted by Defending Pornography Nadine Strossen, (NYU, 2000), p141. And see Sex and Reason Richard A Posner, (Harvard, 1992) p131-2

(14) 'Typology of Paedophile Picture Collections', Taylor M., Holland G. and Quayle E., The Police Journal 2001 74(2) 97-107. See p 7-8 of this paper on the COPINE site

(15) "Advice to the Court of Appeal - 10 Offences Involving Child Pornography", Sentencing Advisory Panel, August 2002, paras 10, 12. The Court of Appeal issued guidelines based on the Panel's advice in R v Oliver and others on 21 November 2002

(16) "Advice to the Court of Appeal - 10 Offences Involving Child Pornography", Sentencing Advisory Panel, August 2002, para 13

(17) "Advice to the Court of Appeal - 10 Offences Involving Child Pornography", Sentencing Advisory Panel, August 2002, para 20, Table on page 5

Barbara Hewson is a barrister at Littman Chambers, Gray's Inn, London, http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/00000006DC06.htm

Hope this is OK for now - IMHO, the fact is there is no evidence of cause - none, only poor pseudoscience.

Feel free to direct them to my site.

Keep strong,

WM.

[2 - post 1822 - user 3] WebManager (19/02/2004 06:13:53) >Oldie But Goodie<

I missed this one, when inside.

Cut child porn link to abusers

Target the technical experts to supress the child porn trade, says Philip Jenkins

Thursday January 23, 2003
The Guardian

Only a couple of years ago, we regularly heard claims that computerised child porn was a kind of overhyped urban legend. Tragically, though, the trade does exist, and this kind of material appeals to millions across the western world.

Even a moderately enthusiastic fan probably has a collection of 10 or 20,000 child porn images. Also, there is no doubt that some of the images are horribly disturbing: we are not dealing with cheesecake Polaroids of precocious 15-year-olds.

One of the most sought-after series recently was KG, a collection of thousands of images and videos that a man had taken using the cover of his wife's kindergarten school. The related series, KX, featured the same four-and five-year-old girls in hard-core sexual situations with adult men. To that extent, the conventional image of child porn is accurate.

But having said this, there are real difficulties with the assumptions we regularly hear from police and media following a sensational arrest. And if the problem is fundamentally misunderstood, then attempts to solve it are likely to be misguided.

Perhaps the greatest distortion in the child porn furore concerns the simple word "paedophile", which in general usage has come to signify absolute predatory evil. News headlines record how police "hunt for paedophiles", who are supposed to operate in rings or packs, and whose sexual assaults often escalate to murder.

If a particular man is found using child porn, then he is a Paedophile, capital P, sworn in to the mysteries of the evil empire. However much it contradicts received wisdom, the link between child porn use and active molestation is tenuous and unproven.

Most molesters probably use porn, but a great many pornophiles do not molest. We assume otherwise only because until recently, it was very difficult to be arrested just for viewing child porn, unless the offender was involved in some other criminality.

After arresting a molester, police would find his child porn collection. Since every porn user in police records was also a molester, police could convincingly proclaim that the two behaviours were intimately related. But think of an analogy: most men who rape women usually relish adult pornography, but that does not imply that every man watching a dirty video is a real or potential rapist.

We get a very different idea of the porn-abuse link from the clandestine discussion boards in which active child porn traffickers and users discuss their trade, in an environment they believe to be secure. Users divide sharply between those who freely admit to being molesters, and others, a sizable majority, who admit to being sexually excited by child porn images, but who condemn actual contact.

Many porn users are just curious, they like to flout authority, or they seek the temptation of the forbidden. Participants might be writing with the intent of deceiving others (or deluding themselves), but this is a largely closed environment in which there is no need to lie.

In drawing the distinction between child porn users and molesters, I am not trying to defend the porn trade. For years, I have been urging authorities to respond effectively to this threat, and often arguing with other academics who see the child porn issue as a glorified moral panic. But I stress the word effective.

If we accept the myth that every casual child porn user is a potential Moors murderer, then we are going to squander a vast amount of official resources going after him, rather than doing something that might actually reduce the volume of child porn traffic. Focusing just on low-level consumers will do nothing to achieve this end, any more than trying to arrest everyone who has ever taken an ecstasy pill will eliminate illicit drugs.

Let us pursue that drug analogy. If you seize a kilo of cocaine, you have successfully taken that illicit product off the market, but if you arrest a man with 5,000 KX images, you have made no impact at all on the availability of that commodity, since millions of other copies exist.

You can only suppress the child porn trade by focusing on people, and above all, on the highly skilled technical experts who run the boards and the websites, rather than the casual users. That kind of laborious work doesn't generate as many headlines as taking out a rock star or MP, but it may be the only way of putting this particularly loathsome genie back into its bottle.

+ Philip Jenkins is professor of history and religious studies at Pennsylvania State University and author of Beyond Tolerance: child pornography on the internet

www.guardian.co.uk

[3 - post 5299 - user 11] lmno (16/04/2004 11:33:00) >Possession and taking of indecent photographs of children<

Anyone know anything about this?
Just checking before I go and buy the article ;-)


taylorandfrancis.metapress.com

The Journal of Social Welfare &; Family Law
Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor &; Francis Group
Issue: Volume 22, Number 1 / February 1, 2000
Pages: 1 - 21
URL: Linking Options

Prosecuting ''child pornography'': Possession and taking of indecent photographs of children

Susan S. M. Edwards

Abstract:

This article examines the application of ''child pornography'' law by police, prosecutors and the courts and presents the key findings from the first national study conducted into child pornography trials in the Crown Court in England and Wales against a wider statistical analysis of proceedings for possession of ''child pornography'' in the Magistrates' Court. The findings show that there are very few prosecutions in the Crown Court and, of defendants proceeded against, most are involved in the taking of photographs rather than in distribution or possession per se. Notwithstanding, few of these defendants are charged with any additional sexual offence, although in the act of taking an indecent photograph of a child some further offence(s) must inevitably be committed. The findings suggest a relationship between child pornography and child sexual abuse. Defendants engage in disavowal and minimizing strategies, while judges also fail to recognize the dangerousness of those defendants convicted of possession or distribution. Sentencing continues to reflect the view that such child pornographers are benign and prison terms remain at the lower end of the tariff range.

Keywords:

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY INDECENT PHOTOGRAPHS PAEDOPHILES SEXUAL ASSAULT

taylorandfrancis.metapress.com
hn3hdu6ekdw&;referrer=parent&;backto=issue,1,9;journal,17,17;linkingpublicationres
ults,id:104719,1

[4 - post 5306 - user 3] WebManager (16/04/2004 12:14:50) >Straw Grasping<

Dear Imno,

No sorry - unaware, for now ...

Notwithstanding, few of these defendants are charged with any additional sexual offence, although in the act of taking an indecent photograph of a child some further offence(s) must inevitably be committed.

Well, there is the first flaw.

WM

[5 - post 9988 - user 5] Nugget (18/06/2004 08:33:00) >Get tougher on child-porn users .. CANADA<

Get tougher on child-porn users and Internet providers, critics say


By CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD, STEVEN CHASE,RICHARD MACKIE

With a report from Joe Friesen
Friday, June 18, 2004 - Page A1

Authorities should seek tougher sentences for those who possess child pornography and crack down on Internet hosts that distribute it, politicians and legal experts said yesterday.

Ontario police and Crown attorneys will examine new ways to shut down Internet companies that make child pornography widely available, Attorney-General Michael Bryant said, after Michael Briere pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Holly Jones.

Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said he hopes to reintroduce a child protection bill that would give Canada "one of the strongest pieces of legislation of its kind anywhere in the world."

The bill, which did not pass before the election was called, included provisions that would have toughened anti-pornography laws, created a new category of sexual exploitation for minors 14 to 18 years old, and increased maximum sentences for child-related offences.

NDP Leader Jack Layton said a New Democrat government would pull the plug on child-porn sites wherever possible.

One of Canada's leading experts on child pornography said that while demands for tougher sentences may sound like just another "right-wing, law-and-order call," harsher penalties would actually work because child-porn users pay attention to consequences.

David Butt, a lawyer who for a decade prosecuted Internet child-porn-users in Toronto, is now a spokesman for Beyond Borders, a group set up to oppose child porn. He said many pedophiles have in their collections newspaper clippings that track the progress of other porn-related cases in the courts.

And with conditional sentences (meaning offenders serve their time at home and not in prison, the norm for possession of child porn), Mr. Butt said pedophiles find encouragement, even tacit permission, for their own viewing.

In psychiatric terms, this is called "normalization" of deviance.

"That so many users keep clippings shows they have a real interest in consequences," Mr. Butt told The Globe and Mail yesterday, after it was revealed in court that Mr. Briere had been watching child porn before he abducted Holly Jones off the street, sexually assaulted her, and then strangled her.

Mr. Butt said that Canada should tackle the issue of child pornography the way impaired driving was addressed: a multi-pronged approach including stiffer sentences, societal disapproval through public-awareness campaigns and demands for corporate responsibility.

Ontario Provincial Police forensic psychiatrist Peter Collins said there is proof of a link between people viewing pornography and committing assaults.

"There is a link between child pornography collectors and what we call contact offences. Data collected by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service . . . gives the figure of 36 per cent of the people they've arrested for child pornography [who] have contact offences against children." Just goes to show that either he is NOT an expert or is simply a liar :evil:

In his police confession, Mr. Briere said, "The simplicity of getting material . . . it's close to mind-boggling. I have never understood how come the whole thing wasn't shut down, just because of the nature of it. You search for the word ''baby'' and it will find stuff there . . . it's easy . . . you don't need a degree."

Since, then it is so easy etc.etc. have the rates of child sex abuse and abduction/murder not changed one bit in the last few years?

Companies such as Internet Service Providers that allow the free flow of child porn and protect the privacy of those who view it, software manufacturers that make "encryption packages," and makers of "thumb drives," which enable users to download images onto a gadget that resembles a key chain, should be held accountable, Mr. Butt said.

He said conditional sentences that see convicted child-porn users effectively sent home under conditions that they not access restricted sites are ineffective.