Possession of Child Pornography Becomes Illegal in Slovenia
1 November 2008The mere possession of child pornography has today become an offence in Slovenia, following the adoption of a new penal code. According to the new law, it will be an offence for a person to possess “pornographic or other sexual material depicting minors or their realistic images”. The maximum sentence for possession is up to five years imprisonment, which is the same as for producing the material.
The amendments to Slovenia’s law against child pornography are presumably a result of the here.
Many people claim that simply downloading child pornography from the internet “creates a demand”, however this is an illogical assumption. The problem with applying the supply and demand theory to people who possess but don’t purchase is that they are not creating a demand, because the supplier is not interested in producing images for people who are effectively “stealing” them by downloading them for free, for the same reasons that artists don’t record music for people downloading it from file sharing networks. Supply and demand is an economic theory which applies to commercial sale, not products being used for free. Producers of any material do not want their material to be used freely, so an increased interest in freely available pornography would only harm them. People would be less likely to purchase child pornography if viewing freely available child pornography was legalised, as viewing freely available child pornography would become the safe [and legal] option. Production levels of child pornography would therefore fall because of a lack of commercial demand, meaning that less children would be used in pornography.
Another argument against the possession of child pornography is that the use of child pornography encourages viewers to abuse children, however nobody has been able to show a causal link between the use of child pornography and the commission of contact offences. A Research by O’Carroll, published in 2000, found a correlation between an increase in the availability of child pornography and a decrease in the commission of contact sex offences against children, which suggests that, for some people, child pornography may serve as a substitution for contact offending.
2 Responses to “Possession of Child Pornography Becomes Illegal in Slovenia”
November 11th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
In fact… Abnormal Psychology And Modern Life, 6TH Edition, Coleman, Butcher, Carson (1980) covered the topic (p. 559), saying this:
‘In recent years a good deal of controversy and concern have focused on the permissive cultural climate in our society, a climate which permits “hard-core” X-rated films, erotic paperbacks, and a wide range of other “pornographic” materials to be marketed openly. Four questions are commonly raised here:
1. Does exposure to pornography lead to undesirable alterations in sexual orientation and to sex crimes?
2. Does exposure to pornography trigger antisocial sexual acts, such as pedophilia or rape?
3. Does exposure to pornography tend to divest sex of meaningful love relationships, so that it becomes an end in itself?
4. Does exposure to pornography threaten the family and the moral fiber of our society?
In terms of available evidence, the answer to each of the preceding questions would appear to be “no”. For example, rapists and child molesters have reported less exposure to pornography during their formative years than normally curious young males; nor is there any evidence that exposure to pornographic materials alters an individual’s orientation in the direction of maladaptive sexual patterns, or that it triggers transient antisocial acts such as pedophilia or rape. In fact, after Denmark legalized pornography, there was a significant reduction in sexual crimes, particularly in offenses against children.’
Obviously, the authors use ‘pedophilia’ and ‘child molester’ interchangeably, in keeping with the general air of obfuscation ‘authorities’ are prone to use, but the sense of their meaning is clear: “Pornography” does not appear to have the negative impact suspected by some. The highlight later explains that church groups are primarily the source of rancor against pornography… shocking.
Peace, Love and ya ya, I know… I’m sick for studying text books that don’t support the popular view, right? Fascism, anyone?
^Silver Wolfe~~
March 14th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
If Slovenia wants to be a part of Europe then laws of Europe apply. Fuck pedophiles, I believe in the death penalty for repest offenders. That’s the only way to protect children!