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.
hrmn?
I know DC, so that abuse caught my eye.
if you see similarly grotesque attacks, well... your keyboard evidently functions.
Now answer my questions. According to your logic, if you believe that a certain profession should be legal then to be consistent, you must also be thrilled about a family member entering that profession.
Now again - would you or would you not want your husband to work on Alaskan fishing boats or be a garbage man? If you say you would prefer that they didn't, by your logic, those professions are not good for society and should be made illegal.
You might want to tell some of the folks on your side of the argument the same thing...
Could it be that the pro-porn crowd just proved the argument that bad behavior can lead to more bad behavior? ;)
Oops, sorry, that was from post 170, and it was referring to a specific statement made by gregwest
Mark
Wow, if you think prick is profanity, I hope you never read Snow White to your kids.
LOL!!!! No you sound like a member of ACLU...go look at the bible verses inscribed on our national monuments and tell me that christian morality isn't the province of government. YOU want porn in your marriage? Fine. I hope you aren't anti-abortion and anti-homosexuality either. All of which are tied to the porn industry.
Sorry.
I forgot to add the >sarcasm< tag.
I will NOT make a moral equivalency to fishing with PORN. Go head have your family destroying, abortion causing porn.
No, porn is not the root of evil when it comes to sexual predators and assault. Rape and sexual crimes have been occuring since begining of time.
This is why people feel that the theocon wing of the GOP wants to turn the US into a theocracy.
The big lie is that pornography does not harm. It harms the participants and it harms the user by shaping the way they view their fellow human beings -- as objects to use for satisfaction.
Clearly, the objectification of women (and men) has seriously harmed the moral fiber of our society.
Ted Bundy said it best when he was interviewed by Dr. James Dobson just before his execution when he told Dr. Dobson that pornography was the one factor the most greatly contributed to his downfall.
So you won't answer my question. You pestered me throughout this thread to answer yours but you won't answer mine.
Again, by your logic, if a person doesn't want an industry banned then to be consistent, that person would have to be happy to have one of their family members work in that industry.
Hopefully, this will illustrate to you how flawed your logic is and you won't use it again.
Jeff,
People have been having this battle for eons. The printing press was a "tool of the devil" because for quite some time, it was used primarily for the production of "porn" of the time.
There are quite a few like minded people who wanted to ban the internet because it was and still is primarily used for porn.
As much as these people want to make it go away, it won't, right or wrong.
Here's the gist of the argument. Porn influences people's behaviors. That is why almost all sexual predators say they act out things they see in porn. Porn does not CAUSE sexual crimes. Porn is an INFLUENCE in sexual crimes.
An example: Russian kiddie porn is big now. So the porn industry is encouraging people to raid orphanages and get girls to join the porn industry. I know a girl adopted from a Russian orphanage and several of her friends have disappeared into the industry. The porn industry is driving that criminal behavior.
Another example: date rape pics. You drug a girl, take pics/videos of her in various stages of undress and they get added to porn sites. We had several cases here at the college where this happened. The perpertrators say they got this idea from ..TADA.. porn sites.
Yawn.
You need to change your online name from stuck_in_new_orleans to head_stuck_in_the_sand.
cyborg,
we know each other, correct?
I mean, as well as people can know each other via internet msgbrds alone, yes?
I believe you are a good person.
I am fairly sure you believe I am a good person.
I disagree with you, to some extent, on your judgement of pornography.
I don't see this as a reason for harsh words between us, or between either of us and anyone else who similarly disagree.
You could say that about anything. A person could just as easily make the case that being a member of a fundamentalist church is harmful.
BTW, I've been a member of fundamentalist church and I've seen the damage that they can cause to the emotionally fragile.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.