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.
Funny how "conservatives" embrace "root causes" when it suits them. But mention a link between povery and crime, and suddenly its the individual, not the situation.
Some people/societies have high standards, some do not.
That is not what we're hearing in this thread. According to the theocons, pornography is all around us.
Just what I thought. Can't answer the question so you divert the issue.
The difference between Christian and Muslim philosophy in that regard is that we believe that Jesus himself will "clean house" and destroy evil from the earth. The Bible teaches submission to the secular laws of earthly governments until this event occurs. The kingdom of God comes with Divine power, not man's. Primitive Christians chose martyrdom rather than revolution.
It is NOT accepted as regular & normal (and I live in Hollywood).
Ah, what a lovely ad hominem. Rational argument hurts, doesn't it ?
Stupid question. I don't own a gun and don't wouldn't want my children around them but I am very much in favor of them remaining legal.
Answer the question. Would you be happy about your husband being a garbage man? If not, why not if it's GOOD for society?
It's not stupid but you can't answer the question so I won't bother with you anymore. have a nice day.
Yes, and kiddie porn is outlawed as it should be while adult porn is legal. I am not sure why people have a problem with what consenting adults choose to do. I don't always approve of those choices, but as long as they are not illegal and don't hurt those involved....I don't care.
Are you saying that a VS commercial can influence people to commit sexual crime?
I did. I told you that there are some professions that are preferred over others. In response, you have cowardly answered none of mine.
People don't factor in all the little side issues with porn industry like serial abortions and STDs. Bet no one thinks of that when defending their beloved porn.
That is what the theocons are saying.
Not at all... You made a statement, specifically that you (collectively) are working to build the "Kingdom of God." I was directly responding to your statement. Here, I'll quote you again:
Thus we live in a world that largely rejects God's morality and supplants it with its own. We put up with it and work however we can to influence the outcome of the legislative process, but we are outnumbered. We make "friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness" inasmuch as it furthers our opportunities to build the kingdom of God. Yet we understand that that kingdom will not be built from the political machinations of earthly governments.
Your statement, and my response, had nothing to do with the topic, which is the causal effect of pornography on sexual predators.
However, your statement seems illustrative of what appears to be your wish for a theocracy, under which (I can only hope) that the rest of us infidels will be allowed to live.
Mark
Just wait.
Soon you will see brazen men with their pants down to their ankles masturbating in storefronts publicly before their religious altars: glowing computer screens displaying pornographic images.
And you and I as taxpayers will pay for it - cutting edge "public art."
And some FReepers will even defend it as "free expression."
After all, art is whatever we say it is, right?
There's only "good" art or "bad art," right?
And, who are you to judge?
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