Sexual abuse of children has become a public concern only recently in the United States, young girls and boys have been used to satisfy adult sexual desires for most of our history. Castration of boys, fondling, forced genital or anal intercourse, and sale for prostitution were common through much of Western history. “It was not until the sixteenth century that laws were enacted in England to protect girls and boys under the age of ten from rape and sodomy. Knudsen,106)
In the nineteenth century, after the exposure of the “white slave” trade, in which young girls were sold or kidnapped and forced into prostitution, the concept of “age of consent” developed in England, defining the age at which a girl could consent to sexual intercourse initially at ten, then at twelve, and finally, in 1885, at sixteen. “(Knudson,106) Over the past ten years , the availability of literature on sexual assault has increased significantly.
However, clinical data are increasingly suggesting that boys may be at equal risk for sexual victimization, since they are the preffered targets of habitual pedophiles and victims of child sex rings. Law inforcement investigations have verified the pedophiles almost always collect child pornography or child erotica. Pedophiles do not merely view pornography: They save it. It represents their most cherished sexual fantasies.
They typically collect books, magazines, articles, newspapers, negatives, movies, slides, photographs, albums, drawings, audiotapes, personal letters, video tapes and equipment, diaries, clothing, sexual aids, souvenirs, toys, games, lists, paintings, ledgers, and photographic equipment. Better educated and more affluent pedophiles tend to have largewr collections. Pedophiles whose living or working arrangements give them a higher degree of privacy tend to have larger collections.
Because collections are accumulated over a period of time, older pedophiles tend to have larger collections. Pedophiles with the economic means are converting more and more to videotape systems. They are even converting their books, magazines, photographs, and movies to videotape. For less than $1,500, a pedophile can have his own video camera and two video recorders, which give him the capability to produce and duplicate child pornography and erotica with little fear of discovery. (Lanning,236-7)
There are four kinds of collectors: (a) closet, (b) isolated, (c) cottage, and (d) commercial. The closet collector keeps his collection a secret and is not actively involved in molesting children. Materials are usually purchased discreetly through commercial channels. The isolated collector is actively molesting children as well as collecting child pornography or erotica. Fear of discovery overrides his need for active validation and causes him to keep his activity a secret between only himself and his victims.
His collection may include pictures of his victims taken by him as well as material from other sources. The cottage collector shares his collection and sexual activity with other individuals. This is usually done primarily to validate his behavior, and money or profit is not a significant factor. Photographs, videotapes, and war stories are swapped and traded with other child molesters (and sometimes, unknowingly, with undercover investigators). The commercial collector recognizes the monetary value of his collection and sells his duplicates to other collectors.
Although profit is an important motive, these individuals are usually active sexual molesters themselves. (Lanning,237) Child pornography and child erotica are used for the sexual arousal and gratification of pedophiles. Some pedophiles only collect and fantasize about the material without acting out these fantasies, but in some cases the arousal fueled by the pornography is only an introduction to actual sexual activity with children. A second use of child pornography and erotica is to lower children’s control.
A child who is reluctant to engage in sexual activity with an adult or to pose for sexually explicit photos can sometimes be convinced by viewing other children having fun participating in the activity. A third major use of child pornography collections is black mail. Pedophiles use many techniques to black mail ; one of them is through photographs taken of the child. If the child threatens to tell his or her parents or the ploice, the existence of sexually explicit photographs can be an effective silencer.
A fourth use of child pornography and erotica is as a medium of exchange. Some pedophiles exchange photographs of children for access to or phone numbers of other children. Rather than paying cash for access to a child, the pedophile may exchange a small part (usually duplicates) of his collection). The younger the child and the more bizarre the acts, the greater the value of the pornography. The fifth use of the collected materials is profit. Some people involved in the sale and distribution of child pornography are not pedsophiles: they are profiteers.
Legal codes have included child sexual abuse through three different kinds of laws: sexual offense laws, incest prohibitions, and child protection laws. Sexual offense laws proscribe certain sexual activities, such as rape, attemted rape, oral or anal sex, fondling, indecent exposure, and exploitation, whether directed toward adults or children. (Knudson,108) Incest prohibitions are as old as human history and probably developed in reponse to social and economic consequences of inbreeding, reinforced by religious values and beliefs. (Knudson,108)
Child protection laws are of recent origin and are designed to protect children from all kinds of maltreatment by parents, custodians, or other adults. These are comprehensive statutes, which proscribe all forms of sexual activity directed toward children, as well as physical abuse and neglect. Sexual abuse is any act of a sexual nature upon or with a child, and may include forcible actions as well as those involving little or no contact. All three approaches assume that children are unable to consent or cannot prevent sexual activities with adults.
