Child porn conviction exposes flaws in the system

Child porn conviction exposes flaws in the system

An Albuquerque man has been sentenced to 15 years in jail, and a lifetime of continual punishment, for having child porn. There is no indication he was the predator who was responsible for actually producing the images (if they actually depict real children rather than cartoon characters The Law interprets as "children"). Just that he had them and attempted to forward them.

Child pornography offends me deeply and is absolutely disgusting. However, this man was previously convicted on charges of an "attempt to commit criminal sexual penetration and criminal sexual contact of a minor". Yet, there is no indication that he made such an attempt during his possession of the child porn. (If he did then the investigators who were watching him for the past year+ are guilty of allowing him to do harm on their watch.) The reality is that study after study, in countries around the globe, show that such images provide an outlet and make a person less likely to actually prey on innocent people (despite punishment industry claims to the contrary).

The fact that he wasn't already registered as a sex offender after his previous convictions shows, once again, that the system doesn't work.

Perhaps he really is a bad guy; I certainly wouldn't trust my children around him. Yet mere possession of anything can never be a real crime. The person who made the photos and videos of children is the real aggressor here. Not some guy way on down the line. Whether there are "consumers" for such will never impact whether the images are made or not, since I highly doubt that's even a major part of the motivation for making them.

It is your job as a parent to know where your kids are, and who is with them. "Laws" will never replace you and you can never shirk your responsibility and expect others to do it for you. This makes me think of the parents who let their kids spend the night with a certain plastic surgery-addicted, and openly odd, celebrity, and were then "shocked" that questionable things may have happened during the sleepovers.

For a deeper look at, and libertarian solutions to, this and many other issues, get my book "Problem? Solved!".

(Examiner has given their writers an opportunity to make more money for the next few weeks by writing more articles, so I'm going to be grasping for topics. Excuse me if quality suffers as I strive for quantity.)