More on the Williams Report
adrian, 10 Nov 2005 23:30:47
The second book on the Williams Committee has now arrived.
Pornography & Politics, The Williams Committee in Retrospect, by Prof
A W B Simpson, one of the cttee members.
It's even more liberal than the report itself & gives a lot of background. Most
useful probably is the Foreword by Samuel Silkin, the Attorney-General
at the time, which is a pretty glowing testimonial for the report, including:
"But those who read the report objectively could hardly fail to be
persuaded that, if anything, the Committee was over-cautious in its
conclusion that a link between pornography and sexual or violent crime
could not be either established or refuted. The evidence seemed to
point strongly to a lack of connection and to establish that the
problem is one of taste rather than one of moral welfare."
On the other hand, this book makes it clear that the government that
commissioned the report found it too liberal for their tastes and it
didn't at the time result in any changes in the law.
I won't scan any unless people tell me they might use it. I got no
feedback from posting bits of the report itself and it takes a long
time to do.
AV8R, 10 Nov 2005 23:36:41
If yo could give me that bit, and a few of the most liberal/progressive quotes (along with citations) I'll put them in my response
Av8r
Author wrote:
> The second book on the Williams Committee has now arrived.
> Pornography & Politics, The Williams Committee in Retrospect, by Prof
> A W B Simpson, one of the cttee members.
> It's even more liberal than the report itself & gives a lot of background. Most
> useful probably is the Foreword by Samuel Silkin, the Attorney-General
> at the time, which is a pretty glowing testimonial for the report, including:
> "But those who read the report objectively could hardly fail to be
> persuaded that, if anything, the Committee was over-cautious in its
> conclusion that a link between pornography and sexual or violent crime
> could not be either established or refuted. The evidence seemed to
> point strongly to a lack of connection and to establish that the
> problem is one of taste rather than one of moral welfare."
> On the other hand, this book makes it clear that the government that
> commissioned the report found it too liberal for their tastes and it
> didn't at the time result in any changes in the law.
> I won't scan any unless people tell me they might use it. I got no
> feedback from posting bits of the report itself and it takes a long
> time to do.
clare, 11 Nov 2005 11:00:58
Adrian. I found the scans you did useful. It prompted me to get my own 2nd hand copy through Abe Books.
Author wrote:
> The second book on the Williams Committee has now arrived.
> Pornography & Politics, The Williams Committee in Retrospect, by Prof
> A W B Simpson, one of the cttee members.
> It's even more liberal than the report itself & gives a lot of background. Most
> useful probably is the Foreword by Samuel Silkin, the Attorney-General
> at the time, which is a pretty glowing testimonial for the report, including:
> "But those who read the report objectively could hardly fail to be
> persuaded that, if anything, the Committee was over-cautious in its
> conclusion that a link between pornography and sexual or violent crime
> could not be either established or refuted. The evidence seemed to
> point strongly to a lack of connection and to establish that the
> problem is one of taste rather than one of moral welfare."
> On the other hand, this book makes it clear that the government that
> commissioned the report found it too liberal for their tastes and it
> didn't at the time result in any changes in the law.
> I won't scan any unless people tell me they might use it. I got no
> feedback from posting bits of the report itself and it takes a long
> time to do.
adrian, 11 Nov 2005 12:08:15
Good. Do you think Chapter 5 has anything we should extract? Any other bits?
On 11/11/05, pearl_maude1@hotmail.com wrote:
> Adrian. I found the scans you did useful. It prompted me to get my own 2nd hand copy through Abe Books.