Child Pornography: - Center for Problem-Oriented Policing

professions and social classes. Despite the threat to child safety, constitutional guarantees of
free speech often prevent law enforcement from conducting an investigation of these groups'
activities without a specific allegation of wrongdoing. 59 Regardless of free-speech protections,
however, there is presently no case or statute that provides a constitutional protection
for possession of child pornography. 60
Offenders' Use of Child Pornography
Offenders use child pornography for many purposes. Five of the most common include to
• create a permanent record for arousal and gratification. Child pornography serves
as a permanent record of the abuse of a child. 61 It freezes in time the offender's preferred
age of the victim and child's reaction. 62 Offenders use child pornography to aid
in sexual arousal and gratification and fulfill their fantasies. 63 Such pornography can
provide pedophiles with ideas for replicating other sexual activities and may broaden
their sexual interest to children in other age brackets. 64 Child pornography also may
be used to justify or promote further child sex abuse, which may result in the creation
of more child pornography 65 and abuse of additional victims.
• lower children's inhibitions. Sex offenders use child pornography to lower children's
inhibitions to engage in sexual behavior. 66 Offenders often show pornography to
children, especially adult-child sexual depictions, to make adult-child sexual activity
appear "normal." 67 In this way child pornography helps child sex offenders groom
children and persuade them that they would enjoy certain sexual acts. Sex offenders
also use pornography to instruct children how to behave, pose, or re-enact scenes. 68
• validate and confirm the child sex offender's belief systems. Offenders use pornographic
materials to legitimize abusive behaviors and reassure themselves that their
behavior is common and not abnormal. 69 Such validation may be the most important
reason preferential sex offenders are drawn to an Internet-connected computer. 70 They
produce and exchange child pornography to validate and confirm their belief
systems. 71 For instance the smile of a child in pornography is often cited as evidence
of consent 72 or used to suggest that the child was seductive. 73
• blackmail victims and other co-offenders. Offenders use pornography to blackmail
child victims by threatening to show the photographs, videos, or other depictions to
others including parents, friends, or teachers. 74 Offenders use the threat of such exposure
to prevent the child victim from disclosing the abuse. 75 Cases in which usually
older victims recruit or have sex with other children also highlight the special dynamics
of sexual victimization when the child may be both victim and offender. The threat
of blackmail thus becomes more potent because the child may fear punishment by the
criminal-justice system as well. Offenders also encourage other adults involved in
their network to participate in child sexual abuse and pornography. 76 By making others
complicit in the abuse, or by creating and holding evidence of their involvement,
offenders generate a fear of legal consequences that ensures co-offenders will not
report the abuse. 77
• sell for profit or trade. To establish trust and camaraderie among collectors, child
pornography is sold, bartered, or exchanged between individuals or within a tightknit
group. 78 Such exchange of child pornography helps offenders form underground
6 - CHILD PORNOGRAPHY: THE CRIMINAL-JUSTICE-SYSTEM RESPONSE