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THE DAMAGING EFFECTS OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
by Diana E.H. Russell, Ph.D.
Written September 2004
DO NOT QUOTE WITHOUT OBTAINING MY PERMISSION.
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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 2: A Collage of Descriptions of
Abusive Child
Pornography Pictures
This collage of descriptions of child pornography pictures/sexual abuse are included in this chapter to give readers a sampling of examples of the kinds of material that is the subject matter of this book. The first few examples are differentiated on the basis of the age of the victimized children. Since children of different ages are sometimes included in one example, the category in which these cases are placed is based on the youngest victim(s).
1. Pornography-Related Sexual Abuse of Babies
Kevin
Niedermier, a member of The Child Protection Society, described
| "a series of pictures which I will never forget was entitled BABYRAPE. It was a series of seven pictures depicting a man removing a diaper from an infant girl, inserting his fingers into her vagina and finally having sexual intercourse with her." (www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5021/ November 6, 1996, p. 2). |
Rita Rooney (1983) refers to a magazine entitled Baby Sex, that "shows six-month old infants in sexual acts with adults" (p. 127). She also mentions "audio tapes, complete with descriptive narrative, [that] record the screams of a little girl being raped" (Innocense for sale: A special report on child pornography. (Ladies Home Journal, April, pp. 79-81, 127-128, 130, 132) (p. 127).
2. Pornography-Related Sexual Abuse of Toddlers and Very Young Children
Niedermier
described the contents of a pedophile newsgroup on the Internet that portrayed,
| "Images of grown men sodomizing young boys, [and] a very young girl pinned to a bed while having a bottle inserted into her vagina" (www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5021/ November 6, 1996, p. 2). |
Davies
(1994), a journalist for the U.K. Guardian interviewed a woman about her
early experiences of being filmed while being sexual abused.
She told him that,
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"A
typical event would involve adults (which sometimes included her mother and
father), and children as young as 2 or 3 through to teen age.
The abuse would include anal, oral and vaginal penetration of the
children by the adults and by each other, with objects as well as fingers, hands
and penises, tying up, gagging, blindfolding and whipping.
The men who filmed were also perpetrators, and she was beaten if she was
not compliant, or if ... she gagged and choked on semen."
(Cited by Itzin, 1996, p. 184)
"I would be made to be a perpetrator, and I would have to be involved in sexual abuse with younger children. Oral sex or penetrating their vagina or rectum. And that included abusing my brother. I would also be abused by other older children and by male and female adults. There were babies involved too. They would be naked.... The babies weren't being penetrated.... But fingers would be in vaginas, rectums. I don't know about new babies, or tiny babies, but certainly toddlers would be penetrated.... The penis in our mouths would make us gag and retch, and we had to swallow before anything came up. If we didn't swallow it and mae a mess, we had to lick it up." (Itzin, p. 179) "In
the pornography, there was also violence -- tying up, restraint.
There was pushing thing inside us: instruments, bottles, rods, in our
vaginas and rectums. Fruit,
bananas, cucumbers, things like that, ice cubes.
Being hung upside down, being tethered with a dog collar round our necks
and on all fours. Animals mounting
us in that position. There was also
recording: recording pain, recording sexual excitement....
They were reel to reel tapes."
(Itzin, p. 179)
"A
child porn dealer's catalogue lists the following entry: 'Lolitas: More extracts
with plenty of action from the younger stuff.
See small girl lowered on to giant prick; black girl treated
nasty.'" (Tim Tate, 1987, p.
13)
"A
park grounds-keeper approached a six year-old girl and asked her to 'shake his
pee-pee to get all of the milk out of it.'
He showed her nude photographs and then masturbated in front of the
child." (Badgely, p. 1281) |
3. Pornography-Related Sexual Abuse of Children
A
woman reported that when she was 12 years old, "a 17 year-old watchman
exposed to her, showed her pornography, fondled her sexually and attempted to
rape her. 'I did not tell
anyone,'" she said (Badgely, p. 1279).
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"A sixteen-year-old girl who had been molested by two family friends from age seven to age twelve testified: 'Viewing the pictures in the magazines seemed to click something for him, for he then wanted his own personal record of all that he had taught me. He whipped out his Polaroid camera, which was in his briefcase, and then he proceeded to take pictures of me in various positions, which included using the vibrator.'" (Vol. 1, p. 781) "A sixteen-ear-old girl testified: 'At about age eleven and a half he started using the magazine again. In these magazines there were pictures of one woman masturbating another woman, two men and a woman having sex, oral, anal and vaginal sex. It was with these magazines that we started having me act out positions with him.'" (Vol. 1, pg. 785) |
4.
Teenage Perpetrators
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"My uncle would make me look at pornographic literature and then take photographs of me doing it naked when he was baby-sitting. This is age 4 to 11 that I remember. He'd show me photographs of adults, men and women with whips and leather and children and animals. It would be photographs of oral sex, penetrative sex, both vaginally and anally. Somebody must have given him these, because he was only a teenager. Then he would make me act out some of them. If we were alone, this would be putting things inside myself, or he would put them in and then take the photographs. Sitting in provocative positions, masturbating; in sexually provocative poses and smiling. That was always the big criterion of photographs: smiling." (Itzin, "Porn and the organisation of abuse," in Bibby, 1996, p. 177) "Over a period of time until detected by the child's parents, their five year-old daughter had her 15 year-old uncle as her baby-sitter during her parent's absence. He would read a pornographic magazine and then fondle the child's vagina and anus." (p. 1281) "A 12-year-old boy discovered and read several pornographic magazines in his older brother's bedroom. A few days later, while baby-sitting a neighbour's five year-old son, he started a game of 'dickie' with the child. According to the child's account given to the police, the older boy 'put his dickie in my mouth and I was to suck it and then I was to put my dickie in his mouth and he was to suck on it'." (Badgely, p. 1281) "A family friend, a 15 year-old boy, was asked to babysit an 11 month-old infant boy. When the parents left, the babysitter took a combination of gravol pills and whiskey in hopes of becoming 'high'. He reported later to the police that previously he had read several hard-core pornographic magazines which portrayed sadomasochistic heterosexual acts. While reading, he heard the baby crying upstairs. The baby wasn't hungry and the babysitter decided to give him a bath. The account given the police describes what happened. "I took him into the bathroom and took the diaper off to give him a bath. Before this, I was reading a dirty book. I was feeling horny and I was giving [the infant] a bath and tried to screw him. "The anal intercourse on the infant resulted in tearing of the sphincter muscle leaving the ruptured tissue protruding from the anus." (Badgely, p. 1282) |
5.
Child Perpetrators
| "Two brothers, ages six and eight, were playing in a ravine when they were approached by three boys, two of whom were age 10. The older boys showed the younger children pictures in a pornographic magazine and then asked the brothers to fellate them. The older brother refused but the six year-old sucked the penises of both of the 10 year-old boys." (Badgely, p. 1281) |
6.
Incestuous Abuse
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"Danica (1988) recalls how, at the age of 11, her father called her to the basement and showed her some photographs of her mother naked. Smiling that smile I know. The smile I have learned to make for the camera too. The smile I make when he says, wet your lips, lift your head, smile. (Cited in Itzin, 1996: p. 185) "A Tehama County man has been arrested for allegedly bringing his 10-year-old daughter to Oakland where he allowed her to be drugged and used in pornographic movies...." (?Iconoclast, date, page ). "This is a magazine called 'Lolita,' Special No. 5. It features a girl, 12 years old. She was sexually abused by her natural father from the time she was 7 until she was 12. If you look through [the magazine], you find her inserting bottles and other articles into her vaginal orifice. (Toby Tyler, p. 35) "One witness reported being forced by her father to view pornographic materials during the course of an incestuous relationship." She testified about what happened when her father took her to a hotel: "'Of course he had booked a double room. He had all kinds of things in his briefcase, and he pulled out a magazine or book and told me to read it. He sat on the bed and watched me and his facial expression frightened me. I did not want to read it. I did not want to look at those pictures. I was emotionally tortured and I didn't know what to do. I did not like my body or my father's body and having to look at those pornographic pictures forced me to visually memorize painful incidents with my father.'" (Gov. Comm., Vol. 1, p. 801) "During all those years my grandfather showed me his [pornographic] books and magazines. He made me pose in seductive positions like the women in them. He would show me the pictures and say, "This is what I'm going to do to you, and this is what you must do." Or he'd say, "Do you see how pretty this girl looks? You must sit with your legs like she does." There were pictures of lots of nude women in them -- women in fishnet stockings with no panties on. There were a lot of open crotches and open legs. He always made me sit with my arms on my hips and my legs spread open like in the pictures. I still often sit like that automatically, with my legs up and my hands on my knees." (Lara Newman (pseudonym), Russell) |
7. Children Bought and Sold
"A shocking report" was received by Defense for Children International (DCI) in the United States about
| "the buying and selling of children by photograph for the purpose of pornography production and child trafficking. We are still investigating such reports and we believe that such activity may take place in a variety of nations," he said. (Kenneth Herrmann, professor of social work and member of DCI. 1984, p. ). |
8.
Child Prostitution and Pornography
| "One of the very first commonalities we [a group of formerly prostituted women] discovered was that we were all introduced to prostitution through pornography, and we were all under 18 at the time. Pornography was our textbook. We learned the tricks of the trade by men exposing us to pornography; we tried to mimic what we saw. I can not stress enough what a huge influence we feel this was. These pictures were of real men and women who appeared to be happy consenting adults, engaged in human sexuality." (Testimony at the Public Hearings on an Ordinance to Add Pornography as Discrimination Against Women, Committee on Government Operations, City Council, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 12-13, 1983. Cited by Russell, date, p. ) |
9.
Bestiality
| "There is a magazine called 'Lisa'... [that] shows Lisa engaging in various acts, including oral copulation to the point of ejaculation with her father. If you look at this picture, you will see that Lisa is 7 years old ....Then they come out with a subsequent edition, 'Lisa With Her Dog,' [which] shows Lisa engaging in various sex acts, including oral sex with her dog...." (Toby Tyler, p. 33) |
10.
Pedophiles' Perceptions "Children
who have sexual encounters with adults suffer no immediate damage as a direct
result of the experience. For the
child, the experience usually contains elements of excitement and adventure.
Often there is a sense of pride and a feeling that one is a big boy or
girl because they have engaged in sexual activity with someone who is much
older."
"For
the most part, damage done to children as a result of sexual activity with an
adult is perpetrated upon them more by the society within which they live than
the adult involved in the encounter. Many
adults who suffered little or no affect from a childhood sexual experience have
been convinced by today's media there must be something wrong with them and that
they have been scared for life." ("Kids, sex and pornography," in
Newsgroup: alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.pre-teen, October 1996, quoted in
www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5021/anarchy.htm) 12.
Pseudo-Child Pornography 13.
International Child Slave Trade
14.
Parents Who Sell Their Daughters
15.
Reading a Hustler Article Results in Death
16.
Pornography and Murder
A man testified that,
"In this
scene, actor-director Hardcore is having rough sex with Cloey Adams, who is
pretending to be under age. 'If you're a good girl, I'll take you to McDonald's
later and get you a Happy Meal.' Hardcore
then 'proceeds to piss in her mouth.' Addressing
the camera, Cloey Adams says, 'What do you think of your little princess now
Daddy?' Nor is Hardcore through
with her. 'Turning to the crew, he
calmly says, 'I'll need a speculum and a hose' ... One
of Max's favorite tricks is to stretch a girl's asshole with a speculum, then
piss into her open gape and make her suck out his own piss with a hose.'
(Max Hardcore's video, Hollywood Hardcore 13, described my Martin
Amis in "Rough Trade" in U.S. Talk magazine (March 1, 2001).
(Adult Video News (AVN) review, cited by Simonton, Keeping
intimacy at a safe distance is a dangerous trend.
Media Watch, Summer, 2001, p. 6)* [*Footnote: The Nation
published a piece by pornographer Mark Cromer (February 26, 2001) heralding Max
Hardcore as a hero who works to keep pornography dirty, 'the way it should
be.'.... (Ann Simonton, Media Watch, Summer, 2001, p. 6). Simonton notes that the FCC did nothing to censure Hardcore.]
Some children
are "stolen from families in the United States, Europe, and other nations.
It could well happen that a child missing from Washington today could be
seen in pornographic pictures next year in Germany....
The victims could very well be the sons or daughters of U. S. Senators as
well as the children of the poor." (Herrmann,
date, p. )
Pornographer:
"There's no real problem finding parents who are interested [in selling
their daughters to make pornography]. None
at all....You have more people wanting that easy money than their kids
are worth. Some of these young
girls are ugly." (Campagna and
Poffenberger, 1988, p. 137)
"My son,
Troy Daniel Dunaway, was murdered on August 6, 1981, by the greed and avarice of
the publishers of Hustler Magazine.
My son read the article 'Orgasm of Death,' set up the sexual experiment
depicted therein, followed the explicit instructions of the article, and ended
up dead. He would still be alive today were he not enticed and incited
into this action by Hustler Magazine's 'How To Do' August 1981 article;
an article which was found at his feet and which directly caused his death.
(Vol. 1, p. 797)
"Pornography
wasn't the only negative influence in my life, but its effect on me was
devastating. I lost all sense of decency and respect for humanity and
life" (Gov. Comm. Vol. 1, p. 794). He
admitted that "'The day came when I invited a small neighborhood boy into
my apartment, molested him and then killed him in fear of being caught. Over the next few years I kidnapped, sexually abused and murdered four
other boys" (p. 794).* [*Footnote: Unfortunately, this perpetrator does not
divulge the contents of the pornography he had viewed.
He merely implies that it was relevant to his murders.
In addition, it seems that his first murder had given him the urge to
murder more boys.]
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