the nicer kind of pornographers

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jul 19, 2007

A forthcoming study by the Federal Bureau of Prisons will point toward a "startlingly high" correlation between child pornography and the sexual abuse of children, the New York Times reports. In other words, the people who enjoy looking at sexual images involving children are likely to be the same people who molest children. Surprised?

But please don't jump to conclusions. The Times wants you to realize that the study is imperfect, and we may be "tarring some men unfairly." Please realize that there is a "large and diverse group of adults who have at some point downloaded child pornography, and whose behavior is far too variable to be captured by a single survey."

So see the point: We need to distinguish between the nasty people who download porn and then rape children, and the harmless people who just use porn for a bit of innocent entertainment.

"The results could have tremendous implications for community safety and for individual liberties," said Dr. Fred Berlin, founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic. "If people we thought were not dangerous are more so, then we need to know that and we should treat them that way. But if we’re wrong, then their liberties aren’t going to be fairly addressed."

Ah, yes; exactly. We want to protect our children. Sure. But for heaven's sake don't do anything that would jeopardize the civil liberties of child-porn connoisseurs. Right.

(Hmmph. Why do I have that funny feeling that something here sounds familiar. Let's see. Fred Berlin, Fred Berlin, Fred Ber....BINGO!)

Dr. Berlin is Director of the National Institute for the Study, Prevention and Treatment of Sexual Trauma. He was Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Founder of the Sexual Disorders Clinic at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Berlin has written extensively on sexual disorders for numerous distinguished journals, including The American Journal of Psychiatry, The New England Journal of Medicine, and The American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry. He was a consultant to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse from its inception to 2000.

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