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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.politics
Subject: Child molestation and pornography
Message-ID: <676@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-Feb-84 18:05:08 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.676
Posted: Mon Feb  6 18:05:08 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 6-Feb-84 18:51:12 EST
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 25

In today's Globe and Mail there is a report of a "researcher" telling
a church group that they must oppose pornography in order to reduce
child molestation (among other things). To buttress his case, he showed
some pictures that apparently were calculated to shock the audience.

It seems a pity that people should be misled by zealots of this kind.
One of the most dramatic results of Denmark's complete legalization
of pornography was a reduction of 67% in the rate of child molestation.
(Other sex crimes were apparently reduced sharply, but perhaps not
to as large an extent, whereas rape was hardly affected at all). Some
writers have claimed that the reduction in sex crime statistics is the
result of a reduction in reporting sex crimes.  It seems unlikely that
a reduction of 2/3 in child molestation could be attributed to sudden
under-reporting.

I have sent this to net.women and net.politics because it seems to me
to be a political issue, but one that women's groups (in Canada, anyway)
have been making their own.  Women in particular should be fighting for
full legalization of pornography, to reduce the incidence of crimes
against women.  Instead, the official women's groups seem to be arguing
the other way, which I have never understood.
-- 

Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt