THE DAMAGING EFFECTS OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
by Diana E.H. Russell, Ph.D.
Written September 2004

DO NOT QUOTE WITHOUT OBTAINING MY PERMISSION.

Introduction and Background: I sent this manuscript to my editor at Routledge Publishers in September 2004. Unfortunately, I was very late in meeting my deadline for many reasons, especially my intense involvement in initiating a campaign against the richest landlord in Berkeley (after UC Berkeley) for his 15-year exploitation of minor sexual slaves imported from India -- among other crimes. My editor had just quit her position at Routledge to accept a job at the New York University Press, so my manuscript remained unread while Routledge searched for a new editor. By January of 2005, a new editor had still not been hired, so I wrote to Mary McGinnis, the Vice President of Routledge to ask her what I should do about this. I feared if I revised the manuscript before I had an editor, she might well request that I revise it yet again. Ms. McGinnis told me to go ahead and revise it. Meanwhile, she said she would also like to see my manuscript. Less than a week later, she called me and declared that, "There is no way that Routledge will be associated with a book of this nature." "Why not?" I asked her. "It's the branding issue," she replied. "What do you mean?" I asked her, but she didn't explain. I interpreted her statement to mean that she didn't want Routledge to become known for publishing such a shocking book. It included many sexually explicit child pornography stories written for pedophiles, as well as descriptions of child pornography, including gross cartoons, all of which were legal. I told Ms. McGinnis that I was willing to remove the material that bothered her, but she insisted that she had discussed the issue with members of the staff, and she wasn't willing to reconsider. She resolutely held to her position despite my continued pleas. Since my manuscript was late, I had broken our contract, so I knew she would have this excuse to disregard it. Of course, this wasn't a genuine concern for her, since she had told me that I should go ahead and revise my manuscript. She said that she would help me find another publisher for this book. However, she did not follow through on this promise. I contacted my previous editor at New York University Press to ask if she and this publishing house would be interested in publishing Stolen Innocence. It so happened that New York University Press had published the major social scientific book on child pornography in recently. So she said that there would be no interest in publishing a book that would be in competition with this volume. I considered suing Routledge for breach of contract, since the lateness issue was obviously not the real reason for refusing to give me a chance to revise my manuscript. A respected colleague advised me not to, because she believed this would make it next to impossible to find another publisher, as well as jeopardizing publishers' interest in future projects of mine.

Stolen Innocence: The Damaging Effects of Child Pornography
Chapter 17: Conclusion

Jenkins (2001) is not alone in arguing that, "The actual relationship between child porn and child [sexual] abuse is open to debate, no matter how firmly such a linkage has come to be viewed as a social orthodoxy. The difficulty is that solid data on the question are all but unobtainable..." (pp. 127-128). Linz & Imrich (2001) also maintain that "The assumption that exposure to child pornography by adults leads to child molestation" is questionable ( ).

That scholars like Jenkins, Linz, Imrich, and many others continue to deny that there is a causal relationship between child and adult pornography and child sexual abuse is totally irrational. It is widely recognized by researchers in media violence -- including Linz -- that exposure to violence on TV and in mainstream movies causes violent behavior in children. Pornography is one facet of the media. What possible logic can there be in maintaining that non-pornographic media have a very significant impact on the attitudes and behavior of children and adults, but pornographic media do not, or that this is still an open question?

Aside from the non-pornographic mainstream media, it is widely recognized that racist media/propaganda promotes racism. Therefore what sense does it make to deny that pro-child sexual abuse images (e.g., children portrayed as wanting sex with adult males) would not also promote child sexual abuse by some male viewers? If people were not influenced by what they watch, businesses would not invest large amounts of money to advertise their products. Learning theory alone is all that is needed to understand that both adults and children learn from the pornography they view -- including the distortions and lies that it tells.

Pornography is a form of male propaganda that is designed as masturbatory material for men. It is also designed to denigrate women and children. Consequently, pornography endorses males using children and women sexually as they see fit. Pornography is, in fact, far more potent in influencing behavior than the non-pornographic media because the pleasure obtained from masturbatory ejaculation is such a powerful reinforcer.

Despite the obvious causal relationship between pornography and child sexual abuse, I nevertheless constructed a more elaborate theory to demonstrate the connection. To this end, I explained in detail in Chapter 9 the different causal factors -- and one contributory factor -- that substantiate how adult and juvenile males who view child pornography are significantly more likely to sexually abuse children than those who view erotica or other non-pornographic material.

The fourth contributory factor in my theory explains why children who are shown pornography by a sexual predator are more likely to submit to child sexual abuse than those who have not been shown this material. I also cited research, experts' opinions, and personal testimony that support the three causal and one contributory factors in my theory.

I fervently hope that my theory will end the unnecessary and harmful debate about the existence of a causal relationship between child pornography and child sexual abuse.

Computer-Generated Child Pornography

As mentioned in Chapter 3, the Supreme Court justices struck down the Federal Government's Child Pornography Prevention Act which criminalized computer-generated child pornography on the grounds that, "Virtual child pornography is not intrinsically related to the sexual abuse of children" (SFC, April 17, 2002, p. A1). Although the Federal government's appeal has resulted in the temporary reinstatement of the Child Pornography Prevention Act while Congress attempts to revise the law, it is vitally important that the government succeeds in making a convincing case. It is my hope that this volume will provide the Federal government with the arguments needed to convince the Supreme Court that the viewing of computer-generated child pornography does cause some sexual predators to sexually abuse children.

Other Damaging Effects of Child Pornography

Chapter 10 of this volume undertook the important task of documenting some of the numerous damaging effects of child pornography -- aside from its causal relationship with child sexual abuse. Chapter 13 focused on three particularly harmful extreme forms of child pornography: snuff, torture and sadistic child pornography. While many researchers insist that there are no genuine snuff movies, I believe that some of the cases I cited in Chapter 13 are authentic. In addition, I think it makes sense for the concept of snuff movies to include simulated versions, creating two categories: authentic and simulated snuff movies.

There are several characteristics of child pornography that make it particularly pernicious. For example, the escalation factor: the fact that many pornophiles (individuals who are frequent viewers of pornography) who become habituated to relatively mild depictions of child pornography, are motivated to advance to viewing more extreme forms of it. Another detrimental quality of pornography is that many pornophiles become pornography addicts, making it extremely difficult for them to stop viewing it. Child pornography and adult pornography addicts self-help and therapy groups are needed to try to cure individuals suffering from this pathology.

The desensitization of viewers to child pornography is another very damaging effect. The more child pornography viewers see, the more tolerant they become about its abusive contents. The normalization of child pornography effects viewers in a similar fashion. Both of these processes contribute to the escalation described above.

It is important to recognize that the exposure to child or adult pornography constitutes child sexual abuse. For example, Nancy Smith whose case was quoted in Chapter 11, was exposed to massive amounts of pornography by her father from the age of four years old through her entire childhood. Although she could not remember her father ever imposing sexual acts on her, she suffered greatly from having been forced to watch pornography.

Some children who are not forced to watch pornography by any individual, but who do become inadvertent or voluntary viewers of pornography, are also damaged by this experience. Chapter 6 provided considerable data on children who were disturbed by seeing pornography both on and off the Internet.

An unknown percentage of pedophiles, as well as other viewers of child pornography, do not actively molest children. They typically assume that they are therefore not abusing children in any way. However, Jenkins (2001) points out that "the 'lookers'" seek "pictures of children actually being abused," ... meaning that for them to get what they want, children have to be sexually abused, and have to have pictures taken of them being abused (p. 131; emphasis added).

Vicious Circles

Kelly, et al. (1995) summarizes one kind of vicious circle as follows:

"child pornography is itself a document of abuse...; it is then used by abusers to reinforce their will to abuse; they may in turn show it to children they wish to abuse to secure their co-operation; some of these children may, in turn, be photographed or filmed whilst being abused and/or trained to pose for pictures. The process then begins anew." (p. 34)

Another kind of vicious circle arises from the fact that many male children and a few female children who are sexually abused will become sexual abusers. Therefore the greater the prevalence of child sexual abuse, particularly of male children, the greater the increase in the number of pedophiles and other molesters.

The Content of Child Pornography

It is vitally important to be knowledgeable about the contents of child pornography prior to evaluating its effects and developing policies to combat it. Four chapters in Stolen Innocence focus on the contents of child pornography: Chapter 13 on snuff, torture, and sadistic child porn; Chapter 14 on child porn and sexually misogynist cartoons in mainstream men's magazines; child pornography off the Internet; and written child pornography stories on the Internet.

However, the fact that researchers are as forbidden as everyone else -- with the exception of law enforcement officers, and attorneys who represent or prosecute pedophiles and non-pedophilic child molesters in criminal cases -- from seeing pictorial child pornography, means that these powerful images of child pornography on the Internet cannot serve as a motivator to intensify the struggle to ban all child pornography.

Combating Child Pornography

There is an enormous literature on how to protect children from exposure to child pornography on the Internet, as well as from predators seeking children to molest or abduct. It is not the purpose of Stolen Innocence to summarize and evaluate this literature. I will confine myself to two suggestions that I have not seen mentioned elsewhere.

I understand that there are only three little-known banks in the United States that are still willing to process credit card transactions for Internet pornography. If these three banks (regrettably, I missed an announcement on the media that identified the names and locations of these banks) would close their doors to Internet sites that deal in child pornography, this would wipe out all the pay sites of the child pornography industry on the Internet.* [*Footnote: My thanks to Gary Luefschuetz for this idea.]

After identifying these three banks, organizations and individuals concerned about the destructive impact of child pornography in the United States should organize lobbying efforts and customer boycotts against them until they too refuse to process all credit card transactions for child pornography sold on the Internet.

Another strategy is for mothers to form organizations to combat the child pornography industry all over the United States. Since mothers are the primary individuals concerned about the impact of child pornography on their children as victims of pedophiles and/or as viewers of child or adult pornography, they are the ones likely to be motivated most passionately about this cause. Mothers organizations have done wonders on certain issues like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Moms march in Washington D.C. in (date).

Having demonstrated a causal relationship between exposure to pornography and child sexual abuse, and the devastating psychological damage inflicted on child pornography victims, my hope is that Stolen Innocence will shock readers and policy makers into a greater sense of urgency in combating child pornography on the Internet.

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