Posted on 05/19/2005 11:05:47 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
On February 2, 2003, when seven-year-old Danielle van Dam disappeared from her family home in the middle of the night, every mother’s nightmare was played out on national television for almost a month while authorities searched for the girl. When Danielle’s body was found at the end of that month, the police and prosecutors discovered a frightening story about a neighbor of Danielle’s who had computer files filled with child pornography and even a sickening cartoon video of the rape of a young girl.
According to a report by Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media, on the link between pornography and violent sex crimes, the prosecutor in the Danielle van Dam case said “The video represented [the defendant’s] sexual fantasies and inspired the abduction, rape, and murder of Danielle.” According to Raymond Pierce, a retired NYPD detective who worked on the sex-crimes squad for many years and is now a criminal-profiling consultant, about 80 percent of rapists and serial killers are heavy pornography users. I was a victim of an attempted rape by a disturbed man who turned out to be involved in pornography.
May is Victims of Pornography Month. Today Senator Sam Brownback (R., Kan.), Rep. Katherine Harris (R., Fla.), Rep. Joe Pitts (R., Pa.), and leaders from the values community will participate in a summit to explore the troubling connection between pornography and violence against women and children.
Florida attorney general Charlie Crist advises parents that “we must never lose sight of the fact that sexual predators make the online world a dangerous place for innocent children. Parents must be ever-vigilant to make sure their children are not exposed to images and messages that would have been unthinkable just a generation ago.” Crist warns that we cannot allow the Internet to be a “pipeline for pornography aimed at children.” But while parents can use available means to protect their children when they are in their own homes, there is a cultural climate surrounding our children that threatens them the way Danielle van Dam was threatened. Because of the availability of pornography online, there is no way of knowing what lurks in the hearts of our neighborhoods.
More needs to be done to evaluate the connection between violent predatory behavior and pornography, and to crack down on these violent predators. Police and law-enforcement officers across the country report brutal instances in which those addicted to pornography utilized its sadistic images on their female and child victims.
Just this past February, the New York Times reported a story about a teenage babysitter who had raped three young children he was watching in their homes. According to the Times, his pattern was to watch pornographic videos with the oldest of the children, a 12-year-old boy, and intimidate them all by torturing them with a knife and threats to their family members. Perhaps one of the most notorious serial killers, Ted Bundy, participated in an interview with Dr. James Dobson shortly before he was executed. In the interview, Bundy explained, “I’ve lived in prison for a long time now. And I’ve met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence like me. And without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography — without exception, without exception — deeply influenced and consumed by an addiction to pornography.”
Since 1956, the Supreme Court has made clear that the First Amendment does not protect obscene materials. If we know from the perpetrators themselves how obscenity contributes to violence against women and children, what can we do?
We need to fund more studies of the addiction to pornography and its effects on violent behavior. Parents can install filters on any computer used by children and keep the family computer in a central location, not in a child's bedroom or someplace where parents might not regularly see it. We need to demand tougher law enforcement on the state and federal level. The Bush administration is stepping up federal enforcement of obscenity laws. This is a good first step. Contact the U.S. attorney for your district and ask what they are doing to enforce the laws. We need tougher state penalties against both possession and distribution of child porn and passing any kind of pornographic material to kids. Experts indicate that pornography is often used by pedophiles to break down the resistance of child victims. Parents should check out their state’s penalties for child rape and make sure offenders are going to jail and staying there for these offenses. Florida, for example, just passed a tough new law after the tragedy involving Jessica Lunsford, whose killer was a recently released violent offender. We should pass legislation to address the threat to children on the Internet. This includes chat sites, websites, spam, and peer-to-peer networks. Peer-to-Peer networks are of particular concern because they are widely visited by kids and offer porn for free without any age verification.
As Rep. Katherine Harris has pointed out, "Pornography displays human beings as objects, obliterating the wall between an individual's sick fantasies and the compulsion to act upon them. Often, the monsters who hurt women and children start with this malignant desensitizer." We need to all work together to find better ways to protect women and children against this violence.
You raise a good point about porn often being boring, not stimulating to the reader or viewer. For me, it's embarrassing to watch with anyone else, including the Mrs. Alone, a few minutes of looking at pix and I'm making little overtures to her. No go? Let it go, it'll come up again (wink, wink).
There's more than one point to be made in this discussion. I was thinking it got late in the thread before someone said let's distinguish between legal adult porn and illegal child porn.
How does looking at Sharon Stone naked make a person want to do the paperboy? Doesn't seem to make sense.
To answer another poster: 18 years old is the dividing line and courts and legislatures and town governments have the authority to set the rules.
Historically, societies have had trouble distinguishing art and porn. Courts rule. They may not get it right but at least there is a legal answer. The Pieta is art but what of Mapplethorpe? I thought it was porn and child porn but people paid their way into big art galleries to see it.
Other than the Internet, U.S. society seems to have found a balance it can live with but the web poses problems never before seen.
Are you saying there's anything wrong with Alaskan fishing boats? :)
Not that's what YOU said. Look at your post again.
Nope.
In a "free society", government gets involved when another person's rights are being violated.
The model you suggest is three wolves and a sheep deciding (and voting !) on what's for dinner.
Actually, I thought that was exactly what you were saying... Weren't you the one drawing the conclusion that "pornography" causes sexual predation, and that porn is advertising?
Mark
LOL - I saw on the discovery channel where it was ranked the most dangerous job in the world - I think that somewhere around 30% die each year. For some reason, cyborg, refuses to answer if she would like her husband to have that job. After all, according to her logic, if there is a job out there that you wouldn't want your child doing then it should be illegal.
See your hypocrisy? It's okay to publish pictures of women's attributes that make you horny (breasts, pubic hair, butts) but not pictures that might make women horny (erections).
With you, it really comes down to my way or the highway, doesn't it?
Dead Corpse is none of what you describe.
now, a little refresher on the Rules here on FR:
Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts.
get it? got it? good.
No, you have me mistaken with someone else. I was arguing that media can influence people behaviors.
good point.
Deep sea fishing is the most dangerous job in terms of fatalities. I wouldn't want my son or daughter working as one.
Tricky subject as to whether or not porn encourages sexual predators. I believe it does, just like alcohol abuse can lead to alcoholism. Trying to ban the stuff would be a waste of time trying to enforce and get around all the legal wrangling. I'll go ahead and admit to watching porn on occasion, but it would be nice if it wasn't so prevalent in our society. But just assuming that it were even remotely possible to ban the stuff, our best bets would be to leave along legally (except for the child porn), and use social control to demonize it and keep it from being socially acceptable.
huh? You and your fellow theocons are the ones that are stating that pornography causes people to do violent things. I personally don't think that VS is pornography, but many theocons in these threads do.
that's democracy for you.
a free republican state would be a heavily-armed sheep politely disagreeing with the consensus vote.
the Founders deliberately shunned "democracy" in favor of republicanism.
Check out the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The Founding Fathers of this great nation believed that the people's rights derived from God and were not "created" by man.
It would be crazy to think that they would create a society where rights derived by God would be so easily manipulated into justifying acts against Him.
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