NCJ Number
100047
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 8 Issue: 4 Dated: (1984) Pages: 483-493
Date Published
1984
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study covers the number and characteristics of child pornography models, the effects of such activity on the models, legal efforts to control child pornography, and the social worker's role in addressing the problem.
Abstract
Child pornography uses between 300,000 to 600,000 models under age 16 nationwide. Most are teenage runaways enticed into pornography by money and affection. Some parents and guardians sell their children to pornographers, and pornographers often use their own and neighborhood children. There is no concrete empirical evidence of the short-term or long-term detrimental effects of such sexual abuse, but evidence suggests that the children have difficulty handling the emotional and psychological dimensions of the sexual acts. Although researchers doubt that users of child pornography are encouraged by its depictions to molest children, police note that most child molesters are avid users of child pornography. The effectiveness of laws in controlling child pornography depends on their definitions of pornography and their focus on the abuse of the child model rather than the obscenity of the acts depicted. The social work model that promises to be most effective with children involved in pornography is that of the street worker, who becomes involved in the social milieu of the child victim. Twenty references are listed.