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.
Straw man. Are you sure you're not an alternate identity for Cultural Jihad ?
Society has drawn a line: porn is legal. Sorry you don't like it. Feel free not to participate.
Who's to say what the difference is? Who has the authority to say so? In a morally relative society it's anyone's say...Is is merely an age of 18 or does the circumstances change the definition?
Do you mean in a "free" society people decide and vote on what laws should be appropriate and just? I thought a "free" society meant that anything goes --sarcasm.
That's the biggest problem with this entire sort of converation. Because everyone's using the word "pornorgraphy," but nobody's bothered actually defining the word, so everyone's arguing about something different.
I've seen the word "kiddy porn" used in a previous post, and I think that it's safe to say that NOBODY here would support the legalization of it (remember, it's already illegal).
But there are some people who feel that Michaelangelo's David and Venus DiMilo are porn, while others get bored reading Hustler magazine. In order to actually have a conversation, you have to agree on just what you're talking about.
Mark
Not everything legal is healthy for society. Abortion is legal. Homosexuality is legal. The line has to be drawn somewhere. It may not end in making things illegal but there has to be standards set in society.
Laws can be changed in a "free" society. Sorry you don't like it.
That is fine for you. Other adults who are consenting don't think your views should apply to them. Muslims think Americans are wicked & have no place in the world....does that mean it is OK to kill us?
My point is that the line HAS been drawn. It's legal. That's the line.
You seem to simply that there are no standards--there ARE standards, there ARE lines. Child porn is illegal. Just about anything else goes. That is a line, that is a standard.
Again, sorry that you don't like it. But no one puts a gun to your head and makes you watch porn. Unless, of course, you're in an Iraqi prison camp...
Taking a shower naked is perfectly acceptable unless you do it outside in front of your neighbors. Same thing with reading Playboy. OK indoors, bad outside around the kids.
Ok, amend the constitution. When you're done, come back and we'll debate on whether porn should be illegal.
Don't forget, though, you're the one trying to shift the line.
Straw man. Are you sure you're not an alternate identity for Cultural Jihad ?
We are in the middle of a Cultural Jihad right now.
Look at the Ford Explorer and the Audi stuck gas pedal. There have also been liability cases involving advertising.
So do you support the banning of books by authors like Clive Barker and Stephen King?
Mark
Viewing porn is also socially acceptable behavior.
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