NCJ Number
91994
Date Published
1983
Length
141 pages
Annotation
Publishers, criminal justice practitioners, and a psychiatrist testified on S. 2856, a proposed amendment that eliminates the requirements of legal obscenity from Federal child pornography statutes, removes the commercial limitation provision from 18 U.S.C.2252, and provides that distribution of such materials involving minors will not be restrained if they have literary, artistic, scientific, or educational value.
Abstract
Book publishers argued that the proposed law was overbroad and could result in banning of sex education books for children and other works on human sexuality. Witnesses cited Dr. Fleischhauer-Hardt's 'Show Me,' a controversial sex education book first published in 1975 which was challenged unsuccessfully four times on obscenity charges but now cannot be sold in several states after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of certain child abuse laws in New York v. Ferber (1982). A nonreported opinion from the Massachusetts court saying that 'Show Me' did not meet any of the obscenity standards was entered into the record. A lawyer from the appeals bureau of the District Attorney's Office for New York, who had argued the Ferber case before the Supreme Court, supported New York's statutory language and the proposed amendments. A police officer from the District of Columbia's vice division suggested amending the Sexual Exploitation of Children Law to require only the identity and age of a juvenile prostitute and testimony from other sources that he or she was working for a pimp and raising the age from 16 to 18 in child pornography statutes. A psychiatrist from the Washington School of Psychiatry reviewed his 2-year study of child pornography subjects and criticized 'Show Me.' Witnesses' prepared statements are supplied.