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To: PeterFinn
Which part? It is not necessarily accurate to assume that anyone who is in possession of child pornography as it is defined today is a pedophile, a term which has a very specific psychiatric meaning. This is muddying the water, confusing REAL exploitation of children, actual abuse, with many other sorts of offenses lumped together in the current atmosphere of hype and hysteria. That’s the first problem I have with this and similar articles/positions/laws. The second is a more ephemeral issue but just as disturbing: I’m not sure how possession of ANY picture of ANY thing (not production, not distribution for profit, simple possession)can constitute a felony...I understand that child pornography is a terrible, terrible thing, I really do, but it is the abuse of the children involved that is the crime, not the pictures themselves. People who abuse children are terribly dangerous and sick. People who look at pictures of such abuse MIGHT be terribly dangerous and sick, but they might also NOT be, and I’m not sure how you can justify prosecution, felony prosecution no less, built on what you think someone might do based on what sorts of pictures they have in their possession. Even when “protecting the children” is the motivation.
Finally, I question the facts quoted in this article. The overwhelming majority of children who are sexually abused are abused by family members. THAT is fact, even though it makes us ill to think about it, and the overall recidivism rate for all classifications of sexual offenders is extremely low. True child predators, like any other predator, are extremely dangerous, should be confined, and fortunately relatively rare. The FBI and other law enforcement need to do a much better job of stopping this stuff from making it to the web by going after the abusers of children, but felonizing everyone who possesses it isn't the answer.
14 posted on 06/20/2007 1:22:03 PM PDT by mjrsgrlnMD
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To: mjrsgrlnMD
Which part?

I was responding to the comment about how this roundup would leave a number of disabled accounts over at DU.

So far as this bust was concerned this was much, much more than just some sweaty pervert in his mom's basement looking at pictures. This was an organized group of freaks who were actively enslaving and abusing children. In the Canadian raid one of the freaks was caught in the act of abusing a child when the OPP raided his house.

21 posted on 06/20/2007 2:00:20 PM PDT by PeterFinn (Oderint Dum Metuant)
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