Legalizing child porn could deter child sex abuse: Study

Washington, Dec 01 (ANI): Researchers from University of Hawaii have suggested that legalizing child pornography could aid in reducing the rates of child sex abuse.

Researcher Milton Diamond and colleagues noted that results from the Czech Republic showed, as seen everywhere else studied (Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sweden, USA), that rape and other sex crimes have not increased following the legalization and wide availability of pornography.

And 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.

The findings support the theory that potential sexual offenders use child pornography as a substitute for sex crimes against children.

However, the authors do not approve of the use of real children in the production or distribution of child pornography, they say that artificially produced materials might serve a purpose.

Diamond and team looked at what actually happened to sex-related crimes in the Czech Republic as it transitioned from having a strict ban on sexually explicit materials to a situation where the material was decriminalized.

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, there was no increase in reported sex-related crimes generally since the legalization of pornography.

Their findings are published online in Springer's journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. (ANI)