NCJ Number
163613
Date Published
1989
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Child pornography is a form of child sexual abuse that can have major and lasting negative impacts on its juvenile victims and their families and requires effective strategies for detection, treatment, and prevention.
Abstract
The three common elements in child pornography cases are children who need attention and affection, parents who are preoccupied, and perpetrators who are attracted to a child's body for sexual purposes. Child sexual abuse is psychologically impairing, ruins self-image, is exploitive, makes children vulnerable to the adult who is stimulated by them, provides misinformation about sex that hinders normal sexual development, and confuses a child's morals. Perpetrators vary in their personality traits, desires, and compulsions. Interviews with incarcerated sex offenders revealed that most pedophiles have problems with adult relationships and did not intend to injure a child physically, sexually, or emotionally. Both perpetrators and victims indicate that adult pornography is linked to child sexual abuse in several ways. Parents and other adults should be alert to the physical, emotional, and social behavior changes that are the first signs of a child's involvement in child pornography. Adults who interview child victims must be aware of their own emotions and remember the sensitive nature of the task. Prevention strategies for children include information, rules, differentiating between secrets and surprise, observant behavior, a policy of no gifts from strangers and no hitchhiking, money for telephone calls, code words, guidelines for latchkey children, avoiding suggesting that self-defense techniques can prevent the problem, and open and effective family communication. Case study, figure, and 3 references