Child Pornography or Felonious Bad Taste?

Posted By Law Offices of Jeffrey C. Grass || 19-Sep-2012

New Study Sheds Light on Problems With Child Porn Prosecutions

Many people are quick to assume that someone charged with a crime is guilty by default. This is especially true when it comes to crimes that have been allegedly committed against children. A new study is now casting doubt on many child porn prosecutions.

The study, published last week in the journal Pediatrics, summarized the findings of pediatric endocrinologists, who evaluated the breast exposure of 547 images of women taken from the monthly centerfolds of Playboy magazine between the years of December 1953 and December 2007. Playboy centerfolds were chosen specifically because the magazine has been meticulous about making sure all of the models featured within its pages are over the age of 18.

At issue was the use of the Tanner scale to evaluate the sexual maturity of men and women. Originally developed in 1969 by Dr. James Tanner, the scale identifies five stages of development based upon sexual characteristics such as pubic hair and breast development.

Although Tanner Stage 5 is considered mature, there was debate about whether all women who reached the age of 18 had reached that level.

What the endocrinologists discovered was that over a quarter of these women were Tanner Stage 4 and had not fully matured. This is significant when it comes to cases involving the possession of child pornography. Prosecutors frequently have no way to independently verify the ages of the people in the allegedly pornographic images. As such, prosecutors have often relied on the Tanner scale to determine whether a particular image constitutes child pornography.

Dr. Arlan Rosenbloom, a pediatric endocrinologist for the University of Florida Gainsville told Reuters Health, "So often these people get convicted on what I refer to as felonious bad taste. They're downloading stuff that isn't very nice, but it isn't illegal."

The study may be welcome vindication for many accused of possessing or distributing child pornography. Still it is a good idea for anyone charged with possession of child pornography to speak with an experienced child pornography defense attorney as soon as possible to protect their rights.

Source: www.reuters.com, "Child porn evidence unreliable: study off Playboy," Ivan Oransky, 3 September 2012