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A
s reported in the last is–
e. one of the persons most
sponsible for the current
furor over child pornog–
raphy is Dr. Judianne
Denseo-Gerber ofNew York City.
About a year ago she began to
beat the drum over the sexual ex–
ploitation of children by staging a
news conference in Times Square.
New York. which in recent years has
become infested with pornographic
bookstores, X-rated movie houses,
massage parlors and the like. She
displayed kiddie porn purchased
just a few yards from where she was
speaking. On St. Valentine's Day.
1977. she traveled to Washington,
D.C., with her collection of dirty
magazines and movies and held an-
other press conference.
·
Her tactics were. frankly. a pub–
licity gimmick to get attent ion. But
she really didn't think she would
have much impact. After all. when
she had gone up and down the land
decrying child abuse by showing
photographs of liule corpses-chil–
dren bashed to death or bitten to
death or burned and boiled to death
at the hands of their parents or cus–
todians-the response was less than
overwhelming.
· In a year, she had accumulated a
few hundred thousand signatures on
a petition for a new cabi net office to
deal exclusively with the concerns of
children. But there was no public
ou trage. no great cry from across the
land for immediate legislation and
programs to deal with the problem.
Jf anything, she upset a lot of people
who thought it wasn't very nice to
display these grotesque examples of
parental cruelty. She had struck too
close to home for comfort.
lnstant Outrage
So Dr. Densen-Gerber was some–
what surprised when a ·nation be–
carne outraged about kiddie porn
overnight.
Within weeks. a cry went out
from one end of the country to the
other for something to be done to
curb this obscenity. Reporters in–
vaded adult bookstores and movie
theaters to report on the presence or
absence of kiddie poro in their com–
munities. Editors edi torialized, TV
commentators commented, police–
men policed the local vendors of
The
PLAIN TRUTH December 1977
smut with fresh fervor. and lawmak–
ers proposed more laws.
Two almost identical bilis were
submitted to the U.S. Congress with
the support of more than 100 spon–
sors. Each proposed 20-year terms
for nearly anyone trafficking in
child pornography. Similar mea–
sures were quickly offered in more
than 20 state legislatures.
The fa te of these bilis is still pend–
ing as of this writing. Action in sorne
cases has been slowed by a debate
over the implications of the pro–
posed laws. Strict interpreters of the
U.S. Constitution cite its First
Amendment, which guarantees:
"Congres s shal l make no
law ... abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press...." They
argue that freedom of expression
extends to peddlers of child pornog–
raphy. Prosecute the producer. the
child recruiter, they say. but what
they produce- what is in print–
must have the full protection of the
Constitution.
Wln Some, Lose Some
Whatever the outcome of the pro–
posed legislation, the immediate ef–
fect of the outcry has been to drive
pornography featuring preadoles–
cents off the shelves. Efforts have
a lso been made to curtail the flesh
markets where young people sell
themselves for sex. On June 1, for
example, the Los Angeles Police
Department started a campaign to
eliminate maJe prostitution along
Hollywood's notorious Selma Ave–
nue (described in the last issue). The
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce
is spurring a campaign- with sorne
measure of success- to close down
pornographic bookstores and movie
houses and lure legitimate business
back to Hollywood.
Score 2 for an outraged public,
O
for the sexploiters.
But the game is far from over.
There is still a flourishing black
market for kiddie porn. "Those who
know" can readily obtain the litera–
ture and movies they desire. Also.
pornography featuring teenagers is
still being sold above the counter at
adul t bookstores. And the cleanup
campaigns in such places as Holly–
wood have not depressed the sex
market- at best they have only dis–
persed it to other areas and made
both the "chicken" (young maJe
prostitute) and "chicken hawk "
(adult solicitor) more discreet. The
net demand for sex is still there and
sois the supply ofyoung bodies.
So score 2 for an outraged public
and 2 for the sexploiters.
Chlldren-"Our Last Slaves"
What will it take to break the dead–
lock? More laws? Stricter enforce–
ment? More cleanup campaigns?
Yes, but these measures are of
limited value. According to authori–
ties dealing with the problem. what
society needs todo is recogni ze that
kiddie porn is but one despicable
aspect of a much larger problem of
child abuse and alienation between
parents and children on a massive
scale.
It
is this abuse and alienation
that create the demand for kiddie
porn and prostitutes by warping the
sexuality of untold thousands in
their formative years.
It
is child
abuse and parental alieoation that
create the supply of children who
run away from homes too violent or
loveless to live in. only to become
victims in an equally violent and
loveless world.
Dr. Peter Decourcy declared in a
report to the American Psychologi–
cal Association : "Children consti–
tute the most oppressed minority
group in this country. It is a minor–
ity group whose members are regu–
larly humiliated. beaten, mutilated,
killed or sexually abused and who
have little effective legal recourse or
police protection."
"Children a re our last slaves," de–
clares Dr. Densen-Gerber. "They
are the property and chattel of their
parents."
The true magnitude of child
abuse has only recently become no–
ticed. According to Douglas Besh–
arov, director o f the National
Center of Child Abuse and Neglect.
over a million children each year
are sexually abused, physically
abused or severely neglected to such
a degree that they suffer permanent
physical or psychological damage.
At least 1.000 of them die. The cul–
prits, in most cases, are parents.
Child abuse is not unique to the
United States. l t exists in most other
countries of the world as well. In
England, there are estimates that
700 children are battered to death
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