WHAT ARE THE U.S. ATTORNEYS DOING FOR VICTIMS OF PORNOGRAPHY?

By Jan LaRue, Chief Counsel

Concerned Women for America 

Each May is “Victims of Pornography Month.” Some will pin on a ribbon, hold a press conference, pass a resolution, and do whatever else they think will help draw attention to the victims. The question is what are the 93 U.S. Attorneys who are responsible for enforcing the federal obscenity laws doing for victims of pornography?  

The President and the Attorney General have made it clear that they want the federal obscenity laws enforced: 

“Until recently, the worst kind of pornography was mainly limited to red-light districts or restricted to adults or confined by geography, isolated by shame. With the Internet, pornography is now instantly available to any child who has a computer. And in the hands of the wrong people, in the hands of incredibly wicked people, the Internet is a tool that lures children into real danger. … We don't accept this kind of degrading. It's unacceptable to America. We don't accept offensive conduct like this in our schools, in the commercial establishments, and we can't accept it in our homes. We cannot allow this to happen to our children. … We're waging an aggressive nationwide effort to prevent the use of the Internet to sexually exploit and endanger children. That's what we're doing.” President George W. Bush, October 23, 2002 

“Obscenity invades our homes persistently through the mail, phone, VCR, cable TV, and now the Internet. This multi-million dollar industry with links to organized crime has strewn its victims from coast-to-coast. Never before has so much obscene material been so easily accessible to minors.” “I am committed fully to dedicating the resources necessary to combat this burgeoning problem.” Attorney General John Ashcroft, June 6 and May 7, 2002

 The U.S. Attorneys’ “Mission Statement” acknowledges their accountability to the local citizens in their district: “Each United States Attorney exercises wide discretion in the use of his/her resources to further the priorities of the local jurisdictions and needs of their communities.” Last June, Morality In Media (MIM) launched a Web site, where the public can file complaints about online obscenity, including porn spam and Web sites offering hard-core pornography. Hard-core porn is the kind the Supreme Court has said can be prosecuted as obscene under Miller v. California, 473 U.S. 15 (1973) and the federal statutes, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1460-1470.

 From June 2002 through March 31, 2003, MIM has forwarded to the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) in the Department of Justice 19,805 complaints from citizens that were filed on the Web site. Copies of the complaints have been sent to all 93 U.S. Attorneys. A report listing the number of complaints that have been sent to each office is posted at: www.obscenitycrimes.org.  The citizens who made these complaints are victims of pornography. They have a right to know:

What are the U.S. Attorneys doing about the complaints? How many investigations are in progress? Who has been indicted? Who’s been convicted? What was the penalty?

 Pornographers living high off the abuse and exploitation of women and the weakness of men claim that victims of pornography exist only in the minds of “right-wing religious zealots.” 

Consider some recent media reports:

•  “A military jury Wednesday gave a 25-year prison sentence to a lieutenant colonel who admitted  killing his wife during an argument about his use of the Internet to view pornography, an Army    spokesman said.” A.P., Oct. 30, 2002. 

•   Seven-year-old Danielle Van Dam, murdered last year in San Diego County, California, by a porn addict, became another victim of the “victimless” crime, as did the kidnapped and murdered 5-year-old Samantha Runnion of Orange County, California. Media have reported that the mother of Samantha’s accused murderer said that she saw porn on his computer.

•    “Father stabs his 12-year-old son in the head for refusing to perform a sex act less than one hour after downloading pornography from the Internet.” A.P., Dec. 12, 2000.

•   “Pedophile with backpack full of pornography assaults child in library.” The Spokane           Spokesman-Review, Dec. 29, 2001.

•  “Two girls, ages 11 and 12 post pictures of themselves nude on the Internet, saying they were  influenced by pornography on the Internet.” The Boston Herald, January 17, 2002.

• “Man charged in Oregon nun’s Murder had just left the only strip joint in Klamath Falls before he attacked the women.” A.P., September 3, 2002.

• “Study shows pedophiles start as young as nine, often exposed to pornography and violence.    Asia Intelligence Wire, September 10, 2002.

•   “A barrage of Internet pornography has turned the downtown library into a hostile work environment for a dozen librarians, according to claims in a new federal lawsuit. The 12 sued the city library system Monday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, alleging they endured an intimidating, hostile and offensive workplace that violated state and federal law. The lawsuit seeks damages of at least $400,000 each, plus workplace changes. … ‘We were living in hell, and they were unwilling to acknowledge the problem,’ said [Wendy] Adamson. … The issue arose soon after Internet access was installed in 1997. Almost immediately, the librarians claimed, the screens began displaying ‘virtually every imaginable kind of human sexual conduct.’” USA Today, March 26, 2003.

•   “A man was arrested for masturbating while on the computer in the children's department at the Cleveland Public Library downtown Wednesday. According to security officers at the library, a security camera caught 23-year-old John Titter with his hands down his pants at the library. … Titter was busted in October 2002, for downloading child pornography at the Mayfield Village Library.” WKYC.com, Cleveland, April 10, 2003.

•  In a Fortune Magazine article, May 10, 1999, “Addicted to Sex: Corporate America’s Dirty Secret,” Patrick Carnes, a nationally recognized expert in sexual addictions is quoted: “Most of my patients are CEOs or doctors or attorneys or priests. We have corporate America's leadership marching through here.” 

 Porn performer “Reagan Starr,” in an interview with Talk Magazine in February 2001, described her experience while filming Rough Sex 2 in horrific terms. She said that, while sex acts were performed on her, she was hit and choked until she couldn't breathe. Other “actresses,” she said, wept because they were hurting so badly. In the same article, a sex-film star notes how threatening the work is to performers’ health. “Nearly everyone has STDs [sexually transmitted diseases],” said Chloe. “If you’re a porno performer,” she continued, “your latest HIV test is your work permit. ... The tests we take test only for AIDS. We’ve contained AIDS in the industry, but what about all the others? You know we’re now up to hepatitis G?”

 Cybersex compulsive is a term coined in a 2000 study, “Online Compulsivity: Getting Tangled in the Web,” to define at least 200,000 American adults who visit Internet sex sites at least 11 hours per week. According to researchers Al Cooper, David Delmonico, and Ron Burg, writing in the journal, Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity: “This is a hidden public health hazard exploding in part because very few are recognizing it as such or taking it seriously.” 

There was virtually no federal enforcement of obscenity in the eight years of Clinton/Reno and only a few prosecutions in the two years since. Victims deserve to have their complaints investigated by those responsible for enforcing the law.

Copyright © 2002 Citizens for Community Values, Inc.
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