Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Predators & Pornography. A disturbing link.
NRO ^ | May 19, 2005, 8:15 a.m. | By Penny Nance

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.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: amencorner; artorsmut; daniellevandam; mim; needlebutts; porn; violence
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 261-280281-300301-320 ... 641-645 next last
To: Antoninus
I'm in favor of putting the line back to where it was in 1957.

You can only do that if most people still believed what they did in 1957 and if the outlets were as limited and controllable as in 1957, three channels instead of three hundred, no VCRs, no DVDs, no internet...

Prohibition did not fail only because of the demand for booze. It failed also because almost anybody could make alcohol in a bathtub.
281 posted on 05/19/2005 1:27:41 PM PDT by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (Give Them Liberty Or Give Them Death! - Islam Delenda Est! - Rumble thee forth...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 240 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus

You had my post aborted. Weak. Well, at least you understood my point and proved it further.


282 posted on 05/19/2005 1:28:03 PM PDT by ctlpdad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 270 | View Replies]

To: frogjerk
Are you saying that this Nation and its Laws are not founded on the belief in God and the rights that flow from Him?

Yes I would say that explicitly.
283 posted on 05/19/2005 1:28:33 PM PDT by Durus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 277 | View Replies]

To: gregwest
You know what I'm talking about. A battered self-image, devastated marriages, disillusioned children, and emotional heartache are the ultimate rewards in this evil indulgence.

You nailed it buddy!
See #232 above.

284 posted on 05/19/2005 1:29:17 PM PDT by XR7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 276 | View Replies]

To: Durus
Are you saying that this Nation and its Laws are not founded on the belief in God and the rights that flow from Him?

Yes I would say that explicitly.

Well, you would be explicitly wrong.

285 posted on 05/19/2005 1:29:22 PM PDT by frogjerk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 283 | View Replies]

To: frogjerk

No I wouldn't.


286 posted on 05/19/2005 1:29:47 PM PDT by Durus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 285 | View Replies]

To: Durus

Yes, you would.


287 posted on 05/19/2005 1:30:17 PM PDT by frogjerk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 286 | View Replies]

To: Durus

America would not exist if it weren't for religion and belief in God. Think Mayflower.


288 posted on 05/19/2005 1:31:33 PM PDT by frogjerk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 286 | View Replies]

To: jjmcgo
Children were sexually assaulting other children long before porn became popular.

BS
Never in our free republic's history has it been like today.
You are either extremely naive, a fool, or a purposeful flamethrower.

289 posted on 05/19/2005 1:32:14 PM PDT by XR7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 273 | View Replies]

To: Durus
Hmmm..., you must have missed this part in the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Yeah..., obviously they weren't acknowledging God as the source of our rights ....< / sarc >

290 posted on 05/19/2005 1:37:17 PM PDT by freebilly (Go Santa Cruz Baseball! Win CCS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 283 | View Replies]

To: Publius Valerius

The Jesuits are already getting their comeuppance from this Pope but they will outlive him. See how he canned their American magazine editor.
As to your cafeteria Christian charge: Based on what you say, (based on what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, no Christian could fight to defend his country.
I'm not the world's greatest theologian but I would have to say that of all the advice Jesus gave, all the rules he laid down, this one that you chose is probably the most ignored of all.


291 posted on 05/19/2005 1:37:25 PM PDT by jjmcgo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 272 | View Replies]

To: AppyPappy
But watch out. The Porn lovers will defend it to the death. Porn is the most sacred institution in the First Amendment.

No it isn't. Political speech is the most protected. Porn is way down on the list and obscenity isn't protected by the first amendment (Read Roth v. US and Miller v. California.)

292 posted on 05/19/2005 1:37:38 PM PDT by N. Beaujon (http://www.nbeaujon.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: AppyPappy
If a guy drinks a ton of beer, gets drunk and drives home, gets involved in a wreck, are you going to say the beer and the wreck are merely coincidental because he drank water at some time as well?

There's a huge difference.

We can prove a causal relationship between alcohol and poor driving. You take a large group of people and randomly divide them into two groups. Give half of them three beers and the other half three non-alcoholic bev's that taste and smell like beer and let them drive around a track... or drive a simulated car... or use some measure of reflex time and vision. Then look at the results. If the results of the two groups are significantly different, then you've proven a causal relationship. This study (and others like it) has been performed over and over again. There is no longer any doubt that alcohol intake is a cause, not a side effect of, poor driving ability. Nor is there any lingering question that perhaps poor driving ability and alcohol intake both have the same root cause.

As far as I know we've done no similar study with porn... and the "evidence" that porn causes violence presented here would be wholly rejected by anyone with even one semester of college-level statistics.

It could be that doing * and enjoying it tends to cause people to want to relive the moment by watching other people *. Or... it could be that your love of * causes you to both watch other people * and to * yourself. Or it could be that a person believes that most people who do * like to watch * and feels pressure (real or imagined) to watch * by others who like to *.

Or, yes. It's possible that watching * encourages people to actually do * when otherwise they might not have. They're all possibilities. And until proper studies are done, assuming a causal relationship is unfounded.

Replace "*" with whatever you like. Performing music, playing sports, gambling, playing chess... or the obscene (if you prefer).

Say it with me once. Correlation does not imply causation.

293 posted on 05/19/2005 1:37:41 PM PDT by bigLusr (Quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: frogjerk
Show me how biblical law was incorporated into our Constitution. Demonstrate that the bible calls for a constitutional republic to be formed. Explain, if you will, how the declaration of indepence, penned by a Deist, is founded on Christian principles.

Our nation was founded as a bastion of freedom for all religions and creeds. There were many good Christian people who participated in the founding of our country and the overwhelming majority in fact were Christian of one type or another. The fact remains that they created a secular state based on reason.
294 posted on 05/19/2005 1:37:52 PM PDT by Durus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 287 | View Replies]

To: Durus; frogjerk
No I wouldn't!

Yes you would!

No I wouldn't!

Yes you would!


295 posted on 05/19/2005 1:38:39 PM PDT by XR7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 286 | View Replies]

To: cyborg
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.

Actually, you sound like a member of the ACLU. I don't view those things as imposing Christianity on anyone. If you think they do or that they imply that government should, then maybe the ACLU is right, in your view?

YOU want porn in your marriage?

Not everyone is married (or predating).

Fine. I hope you aren't anti-abortion and anti-homosexuality either. All of which are tied to the porn industry.

Without porn there would be no (or significantly less) abortion and homosexuality? In your mind.
296 posted on 05/19/2005 1:40:10 PM PDT by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (Give Them Liberty Or Give Them Death! - Islam Delenda Est! - Rumble thee forth...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 246 | View Replies]

To: XR7
Thank you for your gratuitous meaningless post with a picture of a sex offender. You have raised the bar of this discussion.
297 posted on 05/19/2005 1:41:18 PM PDT by Durus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 295 | View Replies]

To: jimt

"Rational argument hurts"

Porn perpetuating homicidal predators and pedophiles with the result of turning out dead little innocent girls is never rational.


Forever,

Anti-Garbage and

Victims rights advocate


298 posted on 05/19/2005 1:42:44 PM PDT by SunnySide (Ephes2:8 ByGraceYou'veBeenSavedThruFaithAGiftOfGodSoNoOneCanBoast)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 189 | View Replies]

To: Durus
You have raised the bar of this discussion.

By quoting you.

299 posted on 05/19/2005 1:42:50 PM PDT by XR7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 297 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus
I know it. Some wives also share their husband's addiction to alcohol.

False dichotomy. A more accurate analogy would be that some/many wives enjoy a cold beer on a hot day as much as their husbands do. Porn falls into the same category. People (both male and female) can enjoy porn, alcohol and other vices without becoming addicted.

300 posted on 05/19/2005 1:43:52 PM PDT by Modernman ("Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 261-280281-300301-320 ... 641-645 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson