A major objective of this volume is to challenge the belief that exposure to child pornography is harmless for adults and children.

Although women have been known to sexually abuse both males and females, males are the overwhelming majority of child pornography consumers and perpetrators of child sexual victimization. Therefore, my three-causal factor theory of child pornography as a cause of child sexual abuse focuses on male perpetrators. The diagram of my causal theory schematized in Figure 9-1 below should prove helpful to the reader in following my theory.

[Figure 9-1 here]

The list below and on the far left of Figure 9-1 includes some of the more frequently cited causes of males' proclivity to sexually victimize children. However, I will not attempt to explain them here (a task I undertook in Russell, 1984, pp. 234-243.)

1. Male sex-role and sexuality socialization

2. Childhood sexual experiences with other children

3. Childhood sexual trauma and/or experiences of sexual abuse by adults

4. Sexualization of children by the media, the fashion industry, child beauty pageants, etc.

5. Exposure to child pornography

The following four quantitative findings of different researchers serve as summary indicators of males' proclivity to sexually victimize children in the United States at this time in history (see Box 2 on the left of Figure 9-1). There are no equivalent data on females presumably because their proclivity to sexually abuse children is rare.

1. 10-15% of males report some likelihood of sexually abusing a child if assured that they would not be caught (Malamuth, personal communication, July 1986).

2. 21% of male undergraduates admitted to some sexual attraction to small children (Briere & Runtz, 1989, p. 7).

3. Adult males' sexual attraction to female adolescents isvery widespread and considered "normal" for heterosexual males [but not considered normal for lesbians, gays, and heterosexual women] (Jenkins, 2001, p. 30; Dietz, 1987-1988, p. 28, fn. 7).

4. "Children [pre-adolescent girls] have some arousal value even for normal males" (Freund, 1981, p. 137).

Males' Exposure to Pornography

The impact on males of their exposure to child pornography only causes them to perpetrate child sexual victimization when there is a co-occurrence of Causal Factors Ia or Ib, II, and III (see on the far right of Figure 9-1). Factor IV is an important Contributing factor to the occurrence of child sexual victimization -- not a causal factor. The three causal factors have to be present in order for child sexual abuse to occur. This does not necessarily mean that they necessarily occur in a logical sequence.

The fact that viewers of both adult and child pornography can become addicted to it is a very significant characteristic of pornography. It means that exposure to it can result in a growing need to repeat the exposure again and again. This in turn increases the impact of the exposure to child pornography on the causal factors to be described shortly. The addiction of viewers to child pornography also increases the demand for this material, which in turn sets up economic incentives and serves to increase the amount of child pornography produced and the number of children abused to produce it.

Jenkins (2001) quotes the following written message by a pedophile board participant describing how quickly he experienced an addiction to child pornography: "hello, loli-lovers! [it is] about 6 weeks before I came to this board [for the] first time and I love it. Surely you know it by yourself, that you want every day more and more and more" (p. 109).

Some obsessed viewers describe themselves as addicted. For example, researchers Ethel Quayle and Max Taylor (2002), who interviewed 13 men convicted of downloading child pornography from the Internet, "made reference to the Internet and addiction when talking about the compulsive elements of downloading" (p. 352). For example: three of the men made the following statements:

"At one point I sort of deleted all the pornography off the machine and I tried not to get back on ... to it. But ... the sense of addiction, compulsion, and obsession was so strong that I ended up, you know, falling back into old habits."

"I couldn't stop looking at these pictures... I was a junkie... a junkie par extraordinaire... I figured that the only way I was going to stop was if I got busted."

"I was obsessed by it, I really was, I will definitely admit that... an addiction ... definitely." (p. 352)

Quale and Taylor (2002) note that these men used the notion of addiction "to make sense of a loss of control, of high rate behavior, and also as a way of distancing [themselves] from ideas of personal agency" (p. 352).

The addiction to pornography is different from addictions to habit-forming substances like alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, and heroin. Nevertheless, it is clear that many of the pedophiles who are avid collectors of child pornography find it exceedingly difficult or impossible to voluntarily stop viewing child pornography and collecting it, suggesting that some child pornography addicts suffer from a double addiction.* [*Footnote: Subscribing to the addiction model of exposure to pornography can be seen as removing the responsibility of ardent child pornography viewers and/or collectors by transforming them into patients who need help. It's one thing not to be able to stop a habit; quite another thing not to be willing to stop it. Research is needed to ascertain the extent to which pedophiles suffer from true addictions in contrast to a lack of motivation to abstain from viewing pornography.]

*Causal Factor Ia. Predisposes Some Males to Sexually Desire Children/to Develop a Desire to Sexually Abuse Them

The reason for including alternative statements about sexual abuse in this and the other causal factors is to incorporate both the victims and perpetrators' perspectives. From the child's viewpoint, "adult-child sexual abuse" is the appropriate term; from the perpetrator's perspective, the term "adult-child sex" or some other equivalent is more fitting.

It is commonly believed that it is impossible for exposure to child pornography to create a desire for sex with a child in males who previously had no such desire. To my knowledge, there are no data to support this belief. It strikes me as dogma to distance males from the notion that they or other so-called "normal" heterosexual males could become sexually aroused by children. People prefer to believe that any man who becomes sexually interested in children must already have been predisposed to this interest.

I doubt that anyone would similarly maintain that males who engage in bestiality must have been previously predisposed to desire sex with animals. It seems far more likely that when males who work with, or own animals, become sexually aroused, but have no available sexual partner, some will act out their arousal by raping an animal. Sexual deprivation, plus the undermining of internal and social inhibitions against such an act -- is all that bestiality requires -- not a predisposition to rape animals.

Causal Factor Ia of my theory posits five ways in which exposure to child pornography causes sexual arousal in some males who were not previously sexually interested in children.

1. By sexually arousing males not previously aroused by children

Whereas some individuals may believe that only males who are sexually aroused by viewing child pornography would search for such web sites, O'Connell (1999) maintains that "All the evidence is that many people [males] at least browse in this area [of child pornography], if not actively downloading" web site pictures (p. 7).

A simple application of the laws of social learning suggests that by pairing sexually arousing or gratifying stimuli with pictures of children, viewers of child pornography can develop arousal responses to depictions of adult-child sex (child sexual victimization).

In a classic experiment, researchers Rachman and Hodgson (1968) demonstrated that male subjects could learn to become sexually aroused by seeing a picture of a woman's boot after repeatedly seeing women's boots in association with sexually arousing slides of nude females. The laws of learning that operated in the acquisition of the boot fetish can also teach males who were not previously sexually aroused by depictions of adult-child sex, to become so.

Masturbation to such portrayals during and/or following the movie reinforces the association between images of child sexual abuse and sexual gratification. This constitutes what R. J. McGuire, J. M. Carlisle and B. G. Young refer to as "masturbatory conditioning" (Cline, 1974, p. 210). These researchers hypothesized that "an individual's arousal pattern can be altered by directly changing his masturbatory fantasies" (cited by Abel, Blanchard & Becker in Rada (1978), p. 192). For example, Gene Abel, Edward Blanchard & Judith Becker (1978) treated violent sexual perpetrators by using masturbatory conditioning to get them to masturbate and ejaculate to nonviolent consensual portrayals of sex (p. 192).

It is presumably equally possible to change males' non-deviant sexual fantasies and behavior to deviant ones such as fantasies of sexually victimizing children and acting out these fantasies. Hence, when male Internet users with no previous sexual interest in children inadvertently find themselves with child pornography on their monitors, or when such males deliberately search out child pornography out of curiosity, they may be surprised to find themselves aroused because of the sexualized pictures of children, and the portrayal of children apparently enjoying posing, behaving sexually provocatively, or being engaged in sex acts. If these male viewers masturbate at the time of viewing these sexual pictures of children, or later, this can presumably be the beginning of what may become a growing interest in sex with children by males who were not previously so disposed.

The pleasurable experience of orgasm is an exceptionally potent reinforcer. The fact that adult and child pornography is widely used by males as ejaculation material is a major factor that differentiates pornography from other mass media. Hence, both adult and child pornography are much more effective at constructing or reconstructing the viewers' patterns of sexual arousal and expression.

Osanka and Johann (1989) describe a study by Schaefer and Colgan (1977) in New Zealand in which they tested four unmarried and six married males between the ages of 21 and 43 "to see whether habituation occurred with repeated exposure to pornography" (p. 174). Since the habituation issue has already been addressed above, the relevance of this experiment relates to what it demonstrates about masturbatory conditioning. Shaefer and Colgan (1977, cited by Osanka and Johann) used a penile gauge to measure sexual arousal. Both the experimental and control groups read six pages from Henry Miller's pornographic book Sexus containing explicit heterosexual scenes.

"Control subjects read nonpornographic material after each session until their penile tumescence decreased to less than 25 percent. [In contrast,] the experimental subjects followed the reading of pornography with ejaculation." (p. 174)

Shaefer and Colgan found that "'responding [arousal] increased over trials when pornography was immediately followed by such gratification'" (p. 174). They concluded that their findings supported "the [masturbatory] conditioning theory of sexual deviation" (p. 174).

Philip Jenkins (2001) hypothesizes that were he to provide an Internet user with the URL of just one authentic child pornography site, it "could lead a person to discover within himself an interest in this kind of sexual activity" (p. 23; emphasis added). Jenkins follows this statement by contending that receiving such an URL could "serve as a kind of visual heroin, dangerously addictive" (p. 23; emphasis added). Elsewhere, he notes that some posts on the web "suggest that individuals were 'converted' after discovering the material" (p. 106; emphasis added). For example, he quotes a "message posted on a child porn board by 'Dad,' in answer to the question 'How did you become a loli-lover?' that is, a pedophile" (p. 23). "Dad" answered as follows:

"I remember one day I done a search for teen girls on the net, I expected to find girls of 18+, ye know the usual. But this one time I found a girl-love site, ... it was wonderful.... If it wasn't for the Internet I would have never known. I think as the Internet grows, more people will find out their sexual desires just as I did." (p. 23; emphasis added)

Because of his views, Jenkins did not risk providing the specific URLs that he drew on in his analysis of child pornography on the Internet (p. 23). Similarly, Negley and Wamboldt (1985) maintain that, "Repeated exposure to sexual scenes with adolescent (or younger) girls could stimulate hidden sexual feelings towards young girls which the man had been keeping at bay" (pp. 4/5; emphasis added).

Linz and Imrich (2001) make the plausible suggestion that:

As previously noted, pseudo-child pornography combines features of adult women with features of young girls by childifying women, that is, by dressing adult women in childish clothes, giving them childish hairstyles, having them stand in child-like poses with child-like expressions on their faces, and surrounding them with children's toys. Presumably, there are some (many?) heterosexual men with no prior interest in child pornography depicting pre-pubescent children, who are aroused by the adult features of the women in pseudo-child pornography. Repeatedly masturbating to these merged portrayals of women and girls may result in these male viewers also becoming aroused by the child-like features of these women.* [*Footnote: The merged woman-child pictorial in Playboy magazine described in Chapter 14, provides a particularly good example of this kind of material (see p. ).] A dangerous cultural trend is evident in the childification of females becoming increasingly mainstream.

2. By sexualizing/sexually objectifying children

Child pornography transforms children into sexual objects designed to appeal to pedophiles and child molesters. As mentioned, a pornographer declared that: "Girls, say between the ages of 8 and 13, are the very salable objects.... young girls without overdevelopment and preferably with little or no pubic hair on their body ...." (Campagna and Poffenberger, 1988, p. 133). And according to Companya and Poffenberger (1988), child pornography is "a medium by which the victim is reduced to an object or animal state* ...." (p. 138). [*Footnote: The term "animal state" seems more appropriate as a description of what pornography reduces women to.] This is similar to what adult pornography does to women. On the other hand, Ray Wyre, a British clinician who works with pedophiles, maintains that child pornography above all "distorts the image of children into a sexual image" (quoted by Tate, 1990, p. 110). In my opinion, the sexual objectification of children automatically sexualizes them.

Child pornographers often direct girls they photograph to get into sexual poses like those displayed by girls in child pornography and/or like the women in adult pornography. They also direct girls to engage in sexual acts like masturbation or sexual intercourse with a peer or an adult. These sexualized pictures of girls evoke a sexual response in some males who previously had no interest in sex with girls. The probability of this outcome is greatly enhanced by the fact that the sexualization of girls requires them to act sexually as if they are mini-adults. In contrast, pseudo-child pornography portrays adult women as if they were young girls -- not in the sexual acts they perform, but in all the props used like clothes and teddy bears, and the text accompanying the pictures. In summary, child pornography and pseudo-child pornography serve to merge the portrayals of adults and children. This fact also increases the likelihood that males who were not previously aroused by the idea of having sex with children, will become so.

O'Connell (2001) notes that "The easy accessibility and transnational distribution of child pornography" sexualizes children for a rapidly growing audience (p. 66). This means there are increasing numbers of males all over the world who develop a sexual interest in children for the first time.

3. By providing images, ideas, and models of adult-child sex for men to imitate

There is a great deal of child pornography both on and off the Internet that purports to show instances of extrafamilial child sexual abuse and incestuous abuse. With regard to incestuous abuse, every conceivable relationship is portrayed in pictorial and written forms -- most especially fathers having sex with their daughters. For example, "A five‑year‑old child told her foster mother, 'We have movies at home. Daddy shows them when mother is gone. The people do not wear clothes, and Daddy and I take our clothes off and do the same thing the people in the movies do'" (Vol. 1, pg. 775).

Child pornography portrayals of extrafamilial child sexual abuse are far more common on the Internet than portrayals of incestuous abuse. An example of imitated abuse was quoted in testimony to the Government Commission on Pornography in 1985. The gang rape of a young girl was committed by six adolescent boys "who used a pornographic magazine's pictorial and editorial outlay to recreate a rape in the woods outside of their housing development" (vol. 1 p. 777).

A woman in Russell's study (1986) told an interviewer that she was 16 years old when (check relationship),

Assuming the perpetrator is being truthful, this case clearly indicates that he was imitating pornography, as does the next example in which an interviewee answered a question on pornography by saying that she had been shown pornography by school acquaintances when she was 15. She said that she had a finger inserted in her vagina and experienced an attempted rape. "They wanted me to be or do what they saw in the tapes or magazines," she explained. (Badgely, p. 1280)

Extrapolating from research on adult pornography, Linz and Imrich suggest "a profile of what may constitute the most 'risky' set" of pornographic portrayals in films and magazines for motivating "an imitation effect among potential child molesters" (?p. 91):

"Portrayals that show child victims becoming involuntarily sexually aroused or otherwise responding positively to sexual aggression" (p. 91). The potential molesters who are exposed to such portrayals "may come to think that the victim does not suffer and may believe that a larger percentage of children would find forced sex pleasurable" (p. 91).

Portrayals that convey a message "that adult‑child sex interaction is 'educational'" (p. 91).

Portrayals that convey the message "that the child was being sexually provocative" (p. 91)

In addition, there are many portrayals of child pornography showing only positive consequences for the perpetrators and the victims. For viewers who were not previously disposed to be sexually interested in young children, child pornography sites peopled by these kinds of positive models facilitate non-sadistic male viewers' identification with the perpetrators and, in some cases, their sexual arousal as well. For males who are sadistic, the child pornography showing negative consequences for the victim is more likely to be sexually arousing.

4. By providing portrayals of children as erotic substitutes for women

As previously mentioned, Freund maintained that his experiment showed that so-called normal heterosexual males have the capacity to use children as surrogate sex objects in the absence of available women. This increases the likelihood that child pornography will evoke sexual arousal in men, including those with no prior interest in sex with children. Some situations are likely to increase heterosexual men's sexual arousal even more; for example if they have lost sexual interest in their partners or if they cannot find a willing adult female partner; if their partners have lost sexual interest in them; if their partners are unavailable to them because they are in hospital giving birth or because of poor physical or mental health; or because they are separated from their partners; or because their partners work long hours away from home. Some men may also become receptive to the appeals of child pornography because of the massive power disparities that it represents.

Lemmy and Tice (2000) credit Struve (2000) with the idea long espoused by many feminists that: "Eroticized dominance is culturally entrenched" (p. 89) and has become a characteristic of males in most contemporary Western societies (p. 88). According to Struve, "Dominance stirs sexual excitement in many men, thereby eroticizing relationships that are based on power and control (p. 9). The sexual victimization of both boys and girls is one of the results of such eroticized dominance (p. 9).

Although male dominance in sexual relationships is the norm in patriarchal societies, growing numbers of males in the United States and in many other countries where the women's liberation movement has successfully challenged male dominance, have felt threatened by the loss of some of their power in the home to which they have always felt entitled. Women's greater economic independence from men -- though far from complete -- has resulted in many women being less subservient, dependent, and sycophantic toward their husbands. Some men who feel their masculinity has been undermined by these historical changes, may be especially receptive to child pornography that portrays sexy young girls fawning over adult men, their bodies, their penises, their ejaculate, and their general sexual prowess.

For example, in a pseudo-child pornography picture in my pornography collection of a very young-looking girl/woman sitting astride a prone man's naked torso as he squeezes one of her small breasts and penetrates her with his penis. The "girl's" mouth is wide open and her head and body are arched back as if she is in ecstasy. The man is described as having a huge penis and as being very virile as they have repeated simultaneous orgasms. The text has the girl/woman saying: "It amazed me that my body could take so much, as huge as he was, but it didn't even hurt. My little cunt just seemed to open right up to it." She also says that she "had never dreamed it could be so sensual, so sexual, so grown up." It does not take much imagination to see how appealing this example of child pornography could be to some men seeking an ego-boost.

5. By creating an appetite for increasingly different or more extreme forms of child pornography

It is important to recognize that pornophiles (males who frequent users of adult pornography) can also become interested and sexually aroused by child pornography. This is the only component of Causal Factor Ia where males' exposure is to adult pornography.

After invalidating the habituation theory (see Chapter 8), Zillmann and Bryant concluded that the findings of their experiment "strongly support the view that continued exposure to generally available, nonviolent pornography that exclusively features heterosexual behavior among consenting adults arouses an interest in and creates a taste for pornography that portrays less commonly practiced sexual activities, including those involving the infliction of pain." (cited by Osanka and Johann, 1989, p. 175)

Unfortunately, Zillmann and Bryant do not reveal whether or not the subjects in their experiment had access to any child pornography. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to suppose that child pornography would be an example of more extreme pornography -- like sadomasochism and bestiality -- that bored subjects would opt to see. The following quotation by Margaret Healy (2002, February 27) supports this conjecture. She states that:

It would be unreasonable to assume that all these new consumers would be sexually aroused by child pornography. Their reactions probably range from feeling repelled by the material to being indifferent to it, to being sexually aroused by it. Given the five ways in which exposure to child pornography predisposes some males not previously so disposed, to develop a sexual interest in children (described above), it seems virtually certain that at least some of them would become aroused by the material.

*Causal Factor Ib. Exposure to Child Pornography Reinforces or Intensifies the Desire of Some Males who are Already Sexually Aroused by Children

1. By repeated masturbatory activity and sexual gratification

When pedophiles and other males who already have a sexual desire for children, are exposed to child pornography with content that corresponds to their specific preferences (e.g., the gender and age of the child), their sexual arousal intensifies, as also does their desire to masturbate to these pictures. As mentioned, the ejaculatory gratification they obtain from masturbation, in turn intensifies their sexual attraction to children. The more pedophiles masturbate to child pornography, the stronger their arousal to this material, and the more it reinforces the association between their fantasies and desire to have sex with children

Calcetas-Santos (2001) notes that there are some pedophiles for whom "the pornography is an end unto itself, leading no further than masturbation" ( p. 58).

Jenkins, 2001, p. 129: Quote: "Pedophiles are not molesters!!! The vast majority of posters in abpep-t abhor the notion of child abuse and molestation. some won't even condone consensual sex between children and adults." !!!!!

Jenkins, 2001, p. 130: "Exponents of the 'look, don't touch' school scorn molesters who believe they cause no harm to their victims...."

Jenkins, 2001, p. 127: Rationalizations: "numerous contributors [to boards] emphasize the innocence of their interest, their hobby. They are 'just looking'; they would not enact their fantasies in a real-world context; and they express vigorous hostility toward anyone who genuinely has sex with a child...."

Jenkins, 2001, p. 129: Fantasizer: Quote: Newbee: "Thanks for these girls, we can let our libidos play with the kleenex or with the imagination while we're with our women, instead of go to the streets or to a girl we know and maybe hurt her or force her to do something that can be dangerous for us."

Distinctions Made By Pedophiles, Jenkins, 2001, p. 135: "fans of nine- and ten-year old subjects are ardent critics of the despised perverts who favor toddlers. The implication is that "loli-fans' are not merely pleasure seekers who exploit children as sex objects; rather, they are sufficiently enlightened to recognize that older children can share sexual pleasure."

Rather than child pornography showing child victims with smiling faces, some of these viewers gravitate to more callous and sadistic images showing children being upset, traumatized or even killed. For example, a web site called russian rape.com tries to entice sadistic viewers to "see the poor young girls swallow what they don't want, but have to do ... see the horror in the eyes of the young girls and see them wild scream (sic) in brutally (sic) rape and pain!" Another web site called rapedasians.com promises "the very best collection of very young Asian girls brutally raped."

Summary

Sexual interest in children is in most, but not all circumstances, a prerequisite for the sexual victimization of children. Factor 1a was devoted to showing seven different ways in which some males who had no prior sexual interest in children, develop this interest as a result of being exposed to child pornography. Factor Ib cites two ways in which sexual arousal to children typically intensifies as a result of exposure to child pornography in some males who already had a prior sexual interest in children.

All or most individuals probably have had or will have desires that are anti-social and/or illegal at some time in their lives. The desire to hit someone with whom one is angry is very common, for example. Clearly, there are many reasons why these desires may not be acted on. This also applies to the desire to sexually abuse a child or children. Since my theory examines the role that exposure to child pornography plays in causing child sexual abuse, the next section focuses on the many ways in which such exposure undermines some mens' internal inhibitions against acting out their desires.

It seems reasonable to suppose that the more intense the desire to have sex with children (to sexually abuse children), the greater will be the motivation of potential molesters to overcome whatever internal and social inhibitions they have.

*Causal Factor II. Child Pornography Undermines Some Males' Internal Inhibitions Against Acting Out Their Desire to Have Sex With Children/to Sexually Abuse Them

Some of the material mentioned in Causal Factor II is relevant to more than one of its components listed below as undermining some males' internal inhibitions against acting out their desire to have sex with children.

1. By sexualizing, sexually objectifying and/or dehumanizing girls

The sexual objectification and/or dehumanization of girls undermines the internal inhibitions of some males against acting out their desire to have sex with them (or to sexually abuse them) just as dehumanizing all members of enemy nations in times of war undermines soldiers' internal inhibitions against acting in a brutal fashion toward these "non-people". However, the dehumanization of children in pornography often goes unrecognized because of its sexual guise.

Ethel Quayle and Max Taylor (2002) quotations of the statements of the following two men who were convicted of downloading child pornography from the Internet, exemplifies the degree to which they dehumanized the children photographed:

"It wasn't a person at all it was... it was just a flat image... it was a nothing" (p. 344).

"... my dad thought exactly the same as me... he says, 'well it's only a bloody picture" (p. 353).

Sometimes it is the pornographic context that sexualizes children, rather than the pictures of them. For example, there are many web sites presumably designed for pedophiles, with photos of young girls in nudist settings. Many of the young girls are frolicking about on beaches in a non-sexualized fashion. The appearance of these photographs on Internet web sites with pornographic titles, transforms the pictures of the girls into sexualized images. This is to say, the formerly non-sexualized pictures become pornographied (to invent a word). The fact that males who are sexually interested in young girls are the major consumers of these web sites confirms this statement.

2. By undermining the prohibition against adult-child sex/abuse

Despite the virtual consensus among social anthropologists that the taboo against incest is a universal phenomenon (they rarely comment on other forms of adult-child sexual abuse), former social worker Rush (Unpublished, 1978) boldly argued that:

Legal ages of consent vary in different countries with most nations having opted for a range from 12 to 16 years old compared to 18 years old in the United States. Hence, from a United States perspective, most nations condone extrafamilial adult-child-sex between adult males and 17-year-old females. Also, although the laws in some countries like India prohibit sex with females below the age of 16, the long tradition of child brides persists -- particularly in rural areas. Nevertheless, adult-child-sex is proscribed in most countries today.

Despite the prohibition in the United States, the high prevalence of child sexual abuse attests to how frequently the incest taboo and the taboo against adult-child-sex in general, is broken (Russell, 1986; Wyatt; Finkelhor). Nevertheless, if there were no incest or adult-child-sex taboos, the prevalence of incestuous and extrafamilial child sexual abuse would undoubtedly be much higher. Very likely, few if any pedophiles would confine themselves to fantasizing about sex with children and there would be much higher prevalence rates for fathers, brothers, and other male relatives sexually abusing their younger female relatives.

Child pornography photographers, whether professional or amateur, frequently instruct the children being used in child pornography to smile. The smile is intended to convey to the viewer that the children are enjoying having sex with adults and/or other children. As O'Connell points out,

This is a major way in which the prohibition against adult-child-sex is undermined. Since child pornography "reinforces pedophiles' belief that kids enjoy it," (Wyre, cited by Begley, p. 48) this material undermines men's internal inhibitions against sexually abusing children. Itzin (1996) cites Davies' (1994) description "of a video of a 'girl with her wrists and ankles chained to an iron bar in the ceiling and a grotesque dildo hanging out of her' (p. 17). The pornographer who was showing the video pointed to the girl's smile as evidence of her consent" (p. 185). The smile also makes it appear that she is enjoying being tortured in this fashion.

Wyre also notes that child pornography showing children "actively participating in the abuse," confirms "to the abuser that ... children can give consent to sexual acts. This means they believe that both their sexual and non-sexual needs are being met without hurting the child." (Wyre in Tate, pp. 284/5). Presumably, Wyre's observations would also apply to men who have developed a desire to sexually abuse children, but who have not yet acted this out.

There are massive numbers of child pornography websites on the Internet that promote adult-child sex/abuse in the form of photographs, videos and written child pornography stories involving adults and children. For example, an incest web site titled "Golden Incest Sites!" lists 50 titles, some of which are followed by brief descriptions of the contents. A few examples follow* [*I have deleted a few examples of incest relationships that do not qualify as instances of adult-child abuse.]

"FamilyTaBoo." "More than 8000 REAL INCEST pics! Mom/Daughters, Mom/Sons, Father/Daughters...."

"Oh... Fuck Me Dad."

"My Father fucks me every night."

INCEST - Mother and Very Young Son.

Mommy really wants her Son! She can teach him more than how to ride a bike..."

"FREE INCEST EXCLUSIVE PICTURES."

"Mom son, father daughter and MORE... Only here! A drunk father fucks his virgin daughter!"

"My Daddy Fuck Me."

Terrible place... where father fuck his daughter. NO BULLSHIT!"

"Mother and Son in Hardcore Action.

MOM suck cock to her son when father at work and continue with ass fucking!!"

(www.incestgold.com/indes.php, June 6, 2002)

Judging from the titles listed on this web site, the pictures, stories, videos, etc., that it makes accessible to interested Internet surfers can serve as highly suggestive models for male viewers and readers who may never before have even thought about their daughters, sons, nieces, nephews and other younger generation relatives in a sexual way. The ubiquity of incest pornography also conveys the popularity of such images, suggesting that large numbers of men must experience such desires. In addition, the web site's removal of the deviant quality of incestuous abuse serves to enhance the likelihood that some mens' internal inhibitions against incest as well as against sexual contact between adults and children, will be undermined.

There are masses of other web sites on the Internet that undermine some men's internal inhibitions in a similar fashion, particularly their inhibitions against sexually abusing young girls.

3. By generating and/or reinforcing males' beliefs in myths about child sexuality and adult-child sex/abuse

Following are some of the myths that are generated and/or reinforced by viewing child pornography. Belief in these myths undermines the internal inhibitions of some males against acting out their desires to sexually abuse children.

According to Wyre (1992, in Itzin, 1996), his clinical work with pedophiles in Britain shows that when adult males view pornography, it creates and reinforces their false belief-systems (myths) about victims of abuse (p. 170). "Child pornography convinces them [pedophiles] that the feelings and desires they have towards children are not wrong...," Wyre maintains (in Tate, p. 110).

Table 9-1

Myths about adult-child-sex abuse

1. There is nothing wrong with being sexually attracted to children.

2. If children object to having sex with adults, they will protest or tell someone.

3. Children who have sex with adults without being forced, are consenting to it.

4. If children behave seductively toward adults, it means "they're asking for it."

5. Children are not harmed by having sex with adults unless it's forced or violent.

6. Children can benefit from having sex with a loving adult.

7. Since children have the capacity for sexual pleasure, there's nothing wrong with adults having sex with them.

7. Children who don't physically resist sexual advances by adults, want to have sex with them.*

[*Footnote: The Freudian myths that little girls go through a stage of wanting to have sex with their fathers, and the same for boys with their mothers, are not included here because these are not myths that appear to be held by individuals who are sexually interested in children. Despite the fact that there is a great deal of child pornography that shows genuine cases of father-daughter sexual encounters and many more that purport to show father-daughter sex as well as sex between every other conceivable combination of relatives, I do not believe that the two Freudian myths mentioned tend to be inferred from child pornography or expressed by the consumers of child pornography.]

With regard to the first myth cited in Table 9-1, Kelly et al. (1995) quote a convicted offender's admission that "I used the pornographic films ... to reinforce my belief that what I was doing wasn't wrong" (p. 34). Jenkins (2001) points out that: "The idea [myth] that a taste for child pornography is neither abnormal not pathological naturally makes it easier to be drawn into the subculture" (p. 119) -- a subculture that supports adults acting out their desires for sex with children.

Males who subscribe to these myths become deniers (deniers) about the nature of child pornography and its destructive effects. Jenkins (2001) provides many examples of denial (although he prefers the term neutralization) used by "the participants on the pedo boards" on the Internet. He refers to these men as engaged in a "massive deployment of every available neutralization technique." For example, he notes that many pedophiles justify their sexual behavior with children by claiming that children who "have consented to the actions," or who directly sought sexual contact with their abusers, are not victims (p. 117). These pedophiles consider such experiences to be "consensual. Even if the child is three or five, she was still asking for it" (p. 117). Jenkins also maintains that, "Linked to this is the denial of injury, since the sexual activity is seen as rewarding and even educational for the child, rather than selfish or exploitative" (p. 117). Kelly's observation that child pornography "enables them [abusers] to construct a different version of reality" is clearly evident (Kelly et al., 1995, p. 34).

However, it would be inaccurate to portray pedophiles as if they share the same beliefs and practices. Jenkins (2001) , p. 115 points out that "Some participants state quite openly that the Internet pedo boards reveal "intense and passionate debate about the morality" of adult-child-sex abuse (p. 115). He notes that

"Some participants state quite openly that they believe what they are doing is wrong; some recognize that they are fulfilling a deviant role, others do not; some proclaim that they are interested only in "innocent" fantasies, while others admit to actual molestation. We thus find an extraordinarily broad spectrum of attitudes and opinions." (pp. 115-116)

In conclusion: The fantasy stories on the Internet that are summarized in Chapter 16, the testimonies of pedophiles in Chapter 7, the descriptions of child pornography in mainstream men's magazines (Chapter 14), and the descriptions of child pornography on the Internet (Chapter 15), provide many examples of the myths in Table 9-1 as well as others that undermine some mens' internal inhibitions against acting out child sexual abuse.

4. By masking child victims' pain and trauma

I have already documented the effects on male viewers of smiling child victims in pornography. Obviously, these child pornography photographs mask the victims' physical and psychological pain and trauma. Linz and Imrich (2001) describe the effect on the male viewers of child pornography involving force -- as follows:

A pedophile called Stewart describes his method of masking victims' pain when he photographed young girls:

Masking the pain and trauma that victims of child pornography suffer undermines the internal inhibitions of some males who already have a desire to sexually abuse children.

A simple experiment could ascertain the precise impact of masking the victims' pain on the self-reported willingness of pedophiles to act out their desires to sexually abuse children by exposing them to child pornography in which the expressions on children's faces vary as follows: 1. the children are smiling; 2. the children have neutral expressions on their faces; 3. the children look very distressed. Hopefully, this experiment will be conducted by researchers in the near future.

Although a pedophile acknowledged to Tate (1990) that he suspected that the pleasure on child victims' faces in child pornography was faked, he nevertheless found that it still had a "validatory effect on his own desires" (p. 111). It is noteworthy that this pedophile only "suspected" that the depiction of the child's pleasurable response was faked rather than realizing it. It would be helpful to know how many other pedophiles share this suspicion, and to find out if this suspicion mitigates the undermining process that typically results from such depictions.

5. By desensitizing the viewers of child pornography

Linz and Imrich (2001) maintain that "child pornography can desensitize the viewer to the pathology of sexual abuse or exploitation of children, so that it can become acceptable to ... the viewer" (p. 87). Congress made the same point when they passed the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 banning computer-generated child pornography because they believed that it "can 'desensitize the viewer to the pathology of sexual abuse or exploitation of children" (cited by Taylor (2001, March 19), p. 51). In addition, Rush (November, 1984) noted long ago that viewing child pornography "serves to desensitize the abuser to the pain and damage he inflicts" (p. 2).

Linz and Imrich (2001) suggest that, "One likely source of desensitization to the degrading and abusive aspects of child pornography may be repeated exposure to 'adult' pornography wherein the models, although over the age of 18 are described and depicted as underage" (p. 94). Exposure to pseudo-child pornography may subsequently desensitize viewers to child pornography "depicting illegal images of children engaged in sexual behavior." (p. 94)

Although Zillmann and Bryant's experiment described earlier in this chapter used adult male subjects, the desensitization that occurred with repeated exposures to the same relatively mild adult pornographic material would probably also occur if the experiment used child pornography. As occurred in these researchers' experiment with adults, this desensitization would presumably create in adult consumers of child pornography, "a taste for" new more severely abusive material.

Hence, the research and observations in this section explain how the desensitization of male viewers of child pornography to its pathology, to the pain and damage that it causes, to the increasingly deviant and more severely abusive forms of child pornography that some desensitized male viewers come to prefer, can undermine the internal inhibitions of some males against acting out their desire to sexually abuse children.

6. By legitimatizing, normalizing, and/or trivializing adult-child sex/abuse

The legitimatizing and normalizing of adults' sexual abuse of children in child pornography are two of the most frequently cited ways in which child pornography undermines some male viewers' internal inhibitions against acting out their desires to abuse children. As Tate (1990) points out:

"All paedophiles need to reassure themselves that what they are doing or want to do is OK. It [child porn] validates their feelings, lowers their inhibitions and makes them feel that their behaviour is pretty normal in the context of this pornography -- they see other people doing it in the videos or the magazines and it reassures them." (Tate, 1990, p. 24)

For example, one man testified: "See, it's okay to do because it's published in magazines." (Attorney Gen's comm: vol. 1, p. 786)

Likewise, Wyre maintains that a pedophile who uses child pornography to normalize his sexually abusive behavior is seeking thereby "to minimize the [negative] impact of what he does" (p. 285).

Tate (1990) also refers to the power of child pornography "to reinforce both the paedophile's attraction to children and his self-justification process" (p. 110). Santos (in Carlos A. Arnaldo, 2001) expresses a similar point by noting that pedophiles "use porn to convince themselves that their behavior is not abnormal, but is shared by others" (p. 59). Mayne (2000) names Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler magazines as "covertly" normalizing adult-child-sex and promoting sex with children (p. 25). Chapter 14 describes many examples -- particularly of cartoons in Penthouse and Hustler that -- in contrast to Mayne, I consider quite blatant legitimizers of incestuous abuse and extrafamilial child sexual abuse. In addition, many of these materials, especially in Hustler, trivialize child sexual abuse by repeatedly making jokes out of this crime. They also legitimize adult-child-sex abuse. Likewise, Santos concurs with Tate that "The production and dissemination of pornographic material are used ... to send a message that children are legitimate sex partners" (pp. 59/60).

7. By providing specific instructions on how to sexually abuse a child

Anxiety about how to go about sexually abusing a child can be a concern for males who have never acted out their desire to have sex with a child before. This can inhibit them from feeling able to perpetrate such an act. However, child pornography on the Internet can provide potential child molesters with instructions on how to do it (Linz and Imrich also make this point. See...). For example, Toby Tyler ( ) testified about a child pornography magazine in which the text described "how to have sex with prepubescent children" (p. 33). The more sexually explicit illegal material presumably demonstrates at what ages it is possible for adult males to penetrate young children anally and vaginally.

Linz and Imrich mention that law enforcement officials have reported that a published issue of the Bulletin of the North American Man Boy Love Association's (NAMBLA) -- which is distributed to all the members of the organization -- "has step‑by‑step 'how to' instructions for locating, seducing, sexually assaulting, and preventing the disclosure of their crime by their child victims." Since the NAMBLA Bulletin "includes semiclad photos of boys," it qualifies as child pornography (Linz and Imrich, p. 92).

According to Tate (1990, p. 173):

"During the boom days of commercial production a disturbingly large number of magazines showing children undergoing abuse combined with torture came on to the market. Common features were illustrated instructions showing 'fathers' clipping padlocks on to the labias of their pre-pubescent 'daughters', with an encouragement to 'keep them all for you'. Others, like the American-produced Child Discipline, instructed its readers on the best way of deriving sexual pleasure from beating very young boys and girls."

Jensen and Dines (1998) viewed and analyzed a scene in the best-selling pseudo-child pornography video titled Cherry Poppers Vol. 10. Dines informed me that the so-called pornography actress in this scene looked extremely young with a slight stature and small breasts (Personal communication, March ?). Jensen and Dines describe the scene as depicting child-adult-sex and offering "realistic detailed instructions on how to initiate a child into sex" (p. 88). They also described it as "a manual for how to perpetrate a sexual assault on a child" (p. 88).

More specifically, a man called Max who appeared to be in his forties, tells the young girl that he will show her what boys enjoy.

"Max proceeds to instruct the girl on how to fondle his penis and perform oral sex on him. He tells her, 'give it a little kiss, don't be afraid, suck it. Just like a sucker, just like a lollipop.' She undressed and continued to perform oral sex on him. Afterwards he lifts her up on the sink and shaves her pubic hair. He penetrates her vagina and anus with his fingers before intercourse. Though her facial expression revealed that she was in a great deal of pain, she told Max, 'This is fun, mister.' She got on her knees and resumed oral sex. Max ejaculated on her face."

Toby Tyler also referred to a child pornography magazine in which the text described "how to have sex with prepubescent children" (p. 33).

Even more ominously, British professor Harold Thimbleby ("Problems in the Global) reports that: "I have found text, film and sound material ... involving instructions for killing minors" (p. , emphasis added). Presumably, pedophiles and other sexual predators who are interested in the very extreme forms of child sexual abuse and murder described by Tate and Thimbleby would find these kinds of instructions useful.

Summary :

I have specified seven components of Causal Factor 2, each of which can undermine the internal inhibitions of potential molesters against acting out their sexual desires toward young children. Several or all of these components are likely to have a greater undermining effect than single components. However, social inhibitions also have to be surmounted before all but the foolhardy or self-destructive potential molesters are likely to act out their desires. The contribution of child pornography to undermining social inhibitions will be addressed in the next section on Causal Factor 3.

*Causal Factor III. Child Pornography Undermines Some Males' Social Inhibitions Against Acting Out Their Desire to Have Sex With Children/to Sexually Abuse Them

1. By diminishing fear of social sanctions

Fear of social sanctions is the most important factor in restraining potential molesters from acting out their desires to sexually abuse children. The more effective potential molesters perceive the social sanctions to be, the less likely they are to become perpetrators. Fear of social sanctions also serves to restrain active child molesters. For example, a pedophile called Duncan told Tate that fear of getting caught "was what stopped me progressing to buggery with the boys." (Child Porn, 1990, p. 120)

Exposure to child pornography consistently portrays the false message that males who perpetrate child sexual abuse are in no danger of being apprehended. For example, I have not seen any pictorial child pornography that shows a sexual predators against children being apprehended by the police or landing up in prison. The same applies to written child pornography stories, fantasies, lists of web sites and videos, as well as child pornography in men's magazines. The outcomes of child sexual abuse are always positive for the perpetrators, and often for the victims too. Hence, exposure to child pornography gives pedophiles and other would-be child molesters a false sense of security.

Child pornography users' distorted minimization of the risks involved in sexually abusing children undermines their social inhibitions against acting out their desires to sexually abuse children.

2. By diminishing fear of disapproval

Pedophiles and child molesters who download child pornography on the Internet will quickly see the enormous number of child pornography web sites on the Internet, the lists of child pornography videos, the chat rooms on which trading of child pornography materials and advice goes on, making it abundantly clear that many others also download this material. As Jenkins states it: "He finds that he is not alone in his deviant interests," (p. 106). "This helps support the notion that the boards [where individuals post messages] are safe space that one can visit at will, where like-minded friends can reliably be found" (p. 108).

Crimmins (1985) testified to the ?Congressional Committee (1985) that "People who may have never acted on such impulses before, are emboldened when they see that there are so many other individuals who have similar interests" (p. 2). Furthermore, Jenkins states that "The more pedophiles and pornographers are attacked by law enforcement agencies, mass media, and anti-pedos, the greater the sense of community against common enemies." [Footnote: Jenkins' inconsistencies re: the sense of danger, paranoia, etc. pp. 110-113.] The knowledge that they have a support group of like-minded colleagues contributes to undermining the social inhibitions of some would-be child molesters against acting out their desires to sexually abuse children.

3. By providing a means of making money

Exposure to child pornography makes it clear to viewers that large numbers of individuals are making money -- sometimes a great deal of it -- from providing the material for these web sites. According to a child pornographer, "the most money is made in child porngraphy because it's hard to get and willing children are hard to come by." Hence, it would not take much imagination for pedophiles and non-pedophiles to infer that they could become businessmen overnight by photographing or videotaping, then marketing, the photos and videos of the children they victimize. The same would apply for those who hire a photographer to take the pictures and videos.

In addition, the perception obtained from frequent exposure to child pornography on the Internet is likely to be that many child pornography producers must be getting away with it.

Hence, it also seems likely that the desire of many individuals to benefit financially from the immense economic opportunities available to child pornographers on the Internet, would undermine the social inhibitions of some pedophiles and nonpedophiles against acting out their sexual interest or desire in children.

Summary

According to my theory, the three causal factors analyzed above induce some men who were not previously sexually aroused by children, to become child molesters. Contributing Factor IV -- the subject of the next section -- is not necessary to my causal theory. However, it is a very significant potential facilitator of child sexual abuse.

*Contributory Factor IV. Pornography Undermines Some Children's Abilities to Avoid, Resist, or Escape Sexual Abuse

There are many examples in which perpetrators use force to accomplish their acts of child sexual abuse. In these cases, the various ways in which viewing pornography can undermine some children's abilities to avoid, resist, or escape sexual abuse, are irrelevant. For example, in the following case, a woman testified that:

"My father was my pimp in pornography. There were three occasions, from ages nine to sixteen, when he forced me to be a pornographic model.... I don't know if the pictures and films are still being distributed." (Vol. 1, p. 781)

In another case, "a mother and father in South Oklahoma City forced their four daughters, ages ten to seventeen, to engage in family sex while pornographic pictures were being filmed" (Vol. 1, p. 780).

1. By arousing children's sexual curiosity and their sexual desire

Showing pornography to boys and girls is a common seductive strategy of pedophiles who intend to arouse children's sexual curiosity and/or sexual desire by so doing. Although this strategy is effective in sexually arousing some young adolescent girls, there are sound reasons to believe that it is significantly less successful for girls than for boys. For example, when researcher Charlene Senn exposed a sample of college females to (1) violent, (2) degrading pornography (portraying sexual conduct that is humiliating, insulting, and/or disrespectful, such as urinating or defecating on a woman, ejaculating in her face), and (3) erotica (sexually suggestive or arousing material that is respectful of all human beings and animals portrayed, she found that female students had negative reactions to the violent and degrading pornography, in contrast to their positive reactions to erotica (Senn in Russell 1993).

Wendy Stock's studies also found that women students typically find exposure to pornography to be a negative experience. It seems exceedingly unlikely that the reaction to exposure of girls would be more positive. However, as with students, there are always exceptions to these general findings. For example, here is an excerpt of Kathleen Brady's testimony to the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice, August 8, 1984, about her father showing her pornography for the first time:

As I sat down on the bed, he spread out the pictures of men and naked women in all sorts of sexual positions with each other. Looking at them, I felt a rush spread through my body.... I felt intense sexual desire, total revulsion, increasing excitement, abandonment of reason, a sense of sin and guilt, the shame of it all, and a resolve to forget it until next time. (See Chapter 11 for Brady's complete testimony.)

With regard to boys, Ann Burgess and Carol Hartman (1987) found in their research on sex rings that "physical sensation and excitement was the dominant pleasure element that kept the boys in the ring" (p. 251). It seem reasonable to infer that sexual arousal to the pornography serves to undermine boys' abilities to avoid, resist, or escape from men seeking to sexually abuse them. Interestingly, the victims in sex rings -- particularly those with many victims -- are virtually always boys.

Pedophiles posing as young teenagers in Internet teenage chat groups often send pornographic pictures to child participants (or sometimes FBI agents posing as boys or girls), typically accompanied by sexually explicit language and pornographic pictures intended to arouse their curiosity and/or sexual interest. Some children respond as the pedophile intended, and agree to meet him. These experiences typically culminate in these children becoming victims of sexual abuse. However, they may be subjected to a much worse fate if their perpetrators choose to abduct or even kill them.

In conclusion, we see how exposure to pornography undermines some children's abilities to avoid, resist, or escape sexual victimization by older males.

2. By legitimatizing and/or normalizing child sexual abuse

Santos (in Carlos A. Arnaldo. 2001) notes that "Paedophiles and child abusers ... use pornography to legitimize their actions" (p. 59). "Using" pornography refers here to showing a child or children pornographic pictures in an effort to convince them that there is nothing wrong with what their would-be perpetrators are trying to get them to do. For example, Calcetas‑Santos (1996, December 9-20) quoted Congress as finding that

Using child pornography in this situation is likely to be more effective than using adult pornography. In the following example, a foster father used pornographpy to legitimize his sexual abuse of his foster daughter.

An incestuous father's attempts to use pornography to normalize and legitimize having sex with his daughter were unusually ardent.

"The incest started at the age of eight. I did not understand any of it and did not feel that it was right. My dad would try to convince me that it was ok. He would find magazines articles and/or pictures that would show fathers and daughters and/or mothers, brothers and sisters having sexual intercourse. (Mostly fathers and daughters.) He would say that if it was published in magazines that it had to be all right because magazines could not publish lies. He would show me these magazines and tell me to look at them or read them and I would turn my head and say no. He would leave them with me and tell me to look later. I was afraid not to look or read them because I did not know what he would do. He would ask me later if I had read them and what they said or if I looked real close at the pictures. He would say, 'See it's okay to do because it's published in magazines.' (Vol. 1, p. 786)

The children and adolescents in child pornography are usually selected for their attractiveness by male standards. They are encouraged or coerced into posing in a sexy adult way and for looking as if they are enjoying posing or engaging in sex. Hence, they serve as positive models for other children being initiated into participating in the production of child pornography.

British researcher Kelly (1996) quotes a child molester who admitted showing

Another example was cited in the 1975 Government Commission on Pornography by a young girl who testified:

Hughes (1999, March) (Pimps and Predators on the) provides another motive for child molesters to send pornography to the children they have targeted for sexual abuse: to convince them "that other children are sexually active" (p. 28). As well as legitimizing adult-child sexual encounters in this way, showing children child pornography also normalizes it.

4. By desensitizing or disinhibiting children

Children typically feel uncomfortable about being naked in front of others, unless they are reared as nudists. Even some children of nudists feel inhibited and reluctant to disrobe -- particularly when first introduced into the nudist scene. Hence, they would naturally also be uncomfortable engaging in sexual poses and being photographed nude.

While many children enjoy sex play with other children, they are typically unwilling to engage in sexual touching with an adult. Their reluctance increases as the sexual contact becomes progressively more violating -- from genital touching to oral anal, and vaginal intercourse.

Santos (in Carlos A. Arnaldo, 2001) notes that: "Child pornography can be used by exploiters to lower children's inhibitions in order to seduce or encourage them to freely participate either in prostitution or pornography." (p. 59) Tate (1992) points out that showing adult pornography to children can be "used in the same way to lower the inhibitions of children" (p. 213).

Whetsell-Mitchell (1995) suggests that "Desentization, as utilized by child sexual abusers, is a process of seduction" (p. 200). In fact, this statement has to be reversed to make sense: seduction is a process of desensitization. Whetsell-Mitchell describes a child molester's step-by-step seduction strategy with a child in which he gradually moves from befriending her/him, then touching her/him, then introducing her/him to a brief look at an X-rated video, then slowly showing more of it "until the child is able to sit and watch the videos without becoming too uncomfortable" (p. 201). Whetsell-Mitchell concludes: "Variations on the grooming [seduction] process are many but the end result is desensitizing the child to engaging in sexual acts with the perpetrator, other children, or other adults" (p. 201).

Whetsell-Mitchell notes that

Pedophiles have found this strategy to be very effective.

Whetsell-Mitchell also observes that, "Adult pornographic materials are frequently used to desensitize adolescents during the grooming process" (p. 201).

5. By silencing children

Tate (Scotland Yard Report) points out that "The paedophile must ensure the secrecy of any sexual activity with a child who has already been seduced" (p. 24).* [*This is equally true for incest perpetrators and most other child molesters.] He notes that "the existence of sexually explicitly photographs can be an effective silencer, and it can also be used to pressure them into continuing a relationship" (p. 24).

Even pictures that are suggestive rather than sexually explicit may be effective. The typical way to make these photographs an effective silencer is to tell the child that her or his parents would probably be very upset to see the photographs. This threat is typically successful because the child fears s/he would be blamed for allowing the photographs to be taken.

Many other researchers and writers have also mentioned the way in which "sexually explicit pictures of children can be used to blackmail the child victim into obedience and silence" (Santos in Arnaldo, 2001, p. 59). For example, Burgess and Hartman (1987) sex rings) contend that "The existence of pornographic photos, videos or electronic images of identifiable children is a significant influence in the silencing and hooking of children." (p. 51; also see Gaspar, Roger, & Peter Bibby. (1996). How rings work, p. 52).

Conclusion

It is important to stress that my theory is limited to the role that exposure to child pornography (and sometimes adult pornography) plays in causing child sexual abuse. There are other ways in which pornography plays a causal role in such abuse. Some of these will be mentioned in the following chapter.

More research is urgently needed on child pornography, including on the causal relationship between exposure to pornography and child sexual abuse. For ethical reasons as well as the need to meet protection of human subjects requirements, some research in this area is impossible. But ingenious researchers should be able to design experiments on some important topics.

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