Police: No link between child porn and sexual abuse
NO LINK BETWEEN CHILD PORN AND SEXUAL ABUSE
Life Style Extra, UK: 15 December 2005
http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=HF1520736Z&news_headline=no_lin
k_between_child_porn_and_sex
ual_abuse
[ http://tinyurl.com/e4hjn ]
There is no link between looking at child pornography and sexual abuse
of youngsters, a senior police officer told a conference today.
Studies have found no correlation between those who download graphic
images of youngsters via the internet and child molesters.
Dr Stuart Kirby, Detective Chief Superintendent with Lancashire
Police, told the International Investigative Psychology Conference:
"When you look at all the research that has been done nationally, the
consensus is that there has not proven to be a link between the
viewing of pornography and the committing of hands-on offences.
"In a follow-up study by Lancashire Police, that was found to be
clearly the case."
He added: "Viewing child porn is illegal and there is the issue that
if people did not view it, then people would not take the pictures and
those children would not be abused in that way. We are not making
light of child porn."
The study by Lancashire Constabulary and a PhD student from the
University of Liverpool looked at 18 men with an average age of 41 who
had downloaded child porn. The study labelled 70 per cent as
'enthusiasts' who spent a lot of time online, often lived alone or
with their parents, without any children and had no previous
convictions.
30 per cent were labelled 'paedophiles' who were in long term
relationships, had children but did not live with them, were unskilled
and likely to change their job frequently. None of the 18 fell into
the 'predatory' category.
This British research and others before it contradicts an American
study which stated one third of people who used graphic images were
'actively abusing children.'
Dr Kirby, who has a PhD in Psychology, said: "We have not found that
in our research."
Operation Ore in 2002 was an international crackdown on child
pornography across the world and it implicated 6,000 in the UK.
Dr Kirby said there needed to be more research focusing on educating
potential victims.
Four per cent of the population suffer from 44 per cent of all crimes
and Dr Kirby said there needed to be a better understanding of the
victim and location.
He added: "We have focussed a lot on the offender and we know a lot
about them and have a good understanding of them. But crime is
affected by the dynamics surrounding the victim.
"This is an area that still needs to be explored. We need to make
public services think what rings those warning bells with the victim -
that they might carry on putting themselves at risk. We are in no way
saying the victim plays any role in instigating the offence and the
culpability always lies with the offender.
"But as we learn more about the dynamics of the offence the more we
can do in terms of prevention."
Another study by Dr Kirby focussed on 219 sex offenders which found
only one fifth had re-offended in a 15 year period.
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