Posted on 07/20/2007 2:09:44 PM PDT by wagglebee
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Federal Prison Bureau has a new study indicating that 85% of convicted consumers of child pornography may have sexually molested a child. However the New York Times reports that the federal agency has suppressed the publication of the report out of concern that the public will misinterpret its conclusions.
The Times reports that the unpublished research was conducted by psychologists at the Federal Bureau of Prisons and that it constitutes the first in-depth survey of online sexual offenders' history - everything from indecent touching to rape - done by prison therapists who were actively performing treatment.
The report was to be published in the Journal of Family Violence until Judy Garrett, an official with the Prison Bureau requested in April that it be withdrawn saying the report did not meet "agency approval."
"We believe it unwise to generalize from limited observations gained in treatment or in records review to the broader population of persons who engage in such behavior," states a letter from a bureau official obtained by the Times.
A draft of the paper obtained by the Times show the study was conducted by two psychologists, Andres E. Hernandez and Michael L. Bourke, and surveyed 155 male inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina. All these prisoners were serving sentences for either possession or distribution of child pornography.
The psychologists then made a shocking discovery. More than 85 percent of these men admitted to sexually molesting at least one child, far exceeding the 26 percent known to have committed these offenses at the time of sentencing. In the end, the 75 known sexual crimes perpetrated against children became 1,777: a more than 20-fold increase from the time of sentencing.
One anonymous Canadian prisoner serving a 14 year sentence explained to the Times how viewing child pornography would lead him to sexually molest children:
"Because there is no way I can look at a picture of a child on a video screen and not get turned on by that and want to do something about it," he said. "I knew that in my mind. I knew that in my heart. I didn't want it to happen, but it was going to happen."
Dr. Peter Collins, leader of the Forensic Psychiatry Unit of the Ontario Provincial Police, underscored the importance of the Hernandez-Bourke study, calling it "cutting-edge stuff."
Collins criticized the suppression of the study, saying, "We're really on the cusp of learning more about these individuals and studies should be encouraged, not quashed."
Previous studies based on criminal records had estimated that 30 percent to 40 percent of those arrested for possessing child pornography also had sexually molested children.
How can this be "misinterpreted"?
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Good question. Also, wouldn't our taxes have paid for this study?
I wonder if they would allow me to pay at least a portion of my taxes in bullets to remove these monsters.
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As if that wasn't bad enough.
I can make a quick interpretation:
child pornographers = child molestors = target rich environment
If there’s a connection and a strong causal relationship, then report it. Why wouldn’t they report it?
Don't you realize that we, the little people, are too stupid to understand words and percentages? That we're too stupid to draw conclusions from clear and indisputable data?
Like we might conclude that child pornographers are a menace to society? And we might go after them with some of the guns we're not supposed to have?
THAT'S how this study might be misinterpreted.
I wonder if they determined if these men who view this stuff were molested as children themselves. A big viscious cycle.
GLSEN will be most pleased as they promote their GSA clubs.
Put a game in Vegas that pays even money with an 85% chance of winning and watch how fast the line grows.
I wonder if these are the same shrinks who wanted teh APA to remove pedophilia from the DSM index of psychological illness.
Child molestation deserves the death penalty.
San Diego Officially Declares July "Gay Pride Month". [How low we have sunk. City government officials promoting a particular sexuality.]
Obama Supports Sex-Education in Kindergarten, Romney Strikes Back". [The irony of that one. Though, Romney gets major points for his comments.]
To release the study would reveal to much of the mindset of molesters and those who seek to “normalize” them.
You nailed it right there!
Ahh, its not the psychologist trying to stop the study, its the government bureaucrats.
Ahh, its not the psychologist trying to stop the study, its the government bureaucrats.
Government bureaucrats. Words fail me.
Actually, the argument goes not to all those who obtain child pornography, but to those who are *arrested* for it. That is, the priority for *arrest* goes to those most likely to have molested children:
1) Producers of child porn, including parents who abuse their own children. These would be close to 100% molesters.
2) Individuals involved in the trafficking of children and the child porn itself, for money. Also very high probability that they are molesters.
3) Purchasers of child porn who often have very large libraries of child porn. Their use of credit cards, both their own and stolen ones, making conviction easy. Perhaps 50% are molesters, but the rest have a much higher probability to molest at some point.
4) Individuals who have obtained child porn from the Internet, who are usually arrested only after evidence is found on their computers by a third party, or other “accidental” incrimination. They are probably least likely to be molesters of this group, but outnumber the rest by a wide margin, thus skewing the statistics down.
This in no way excuses the feds for at least giving the impression that they don’t want the public to think that all child porners are molesters. At the very least that is highly stupid.
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