SCIENTISTS WANT CHILD PORN TO BECOME LEGAL

Scientists are calling for child pornography to be made legal in a bid to cut the number of child sex abuse cases. The controversial finding follows a study into the legalisation of pornography in the Czech Republic which found that child sex crimes fell when child pornography was more easily accessible.

The discovery tallies with similar studies in Denmark and Japan, where child pornography is not illegal, that found incidences of child sex abuse were lower in those countries.

The findings, by Professor Milton Diamond from the University of Hawaii, support the theory that potential sexual offenders use child pornography as a substitute for sex crimes against children. The conclusion of the new study is that ‘artificially-produced’ child pornography should be made available to prevent real children being abused. Pornography was strictly prohibited in the Czech Republic between 1948 and 1989.

The ban was lifted with the country's transition to democracy and, by 1990, the availability and ownership of sexually explicit materials rose dramatically. Even the possession of child pornography was not a criminal offence.

Diamond and his team looked at what actually happened to sex-related crimes as it moved from having a strict ban on sexually explicit materials to the material being decriminalised.

Results from the Czech Republic showed that rape and other sex crimes have not increased following the legalisation and wide availability of pornography. Most significantly, the incidence of child sex abuse has fallen considerably since 1989, when child pornography became readily accessible – a phenomenon also seen in Denmark and Japan.

They also found that the number of cases of indecent exposure and other, less serious, sex crimes fell dramatically in the wake of pornography becoming more readily available.

The researchers say: ‘As with adult pornography appearing to substitute for sexual aggression everywhere it has been investigated, we believe the availability of child porn does similarly.’

The findings are published online today in Springer's journal Archives of Sexual Behaviour. The researchers monitored the number of sex-related crimes from Ministry of Interior records – rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, and child sex abuse in particular – for 15 years during the ban and 18 years after it was lifted.

Most significantly, they found that the number of reported cases of child sex abuse dropped markedly immediately after the ban on sexually explicit materials was lifted in 1989.

In both Denmark and Japan, the situation is similar: child sex abuse was much lower than it was when availability of child pornography was restricted. Other results showed that, overall, there was no increase in reported sex-related crimes generally since the legalisation of pornography.


/The Daily Mail/