Published 14 July 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2876
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b2876

News

Viewing child pornography does not seem to increase risk of abusing children, study concludes

Susan Mayor

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Viewing child pornography does not, in itself, seem to be a major risk factor for committing physical sexual abuse of children in the future, concludes a follow-up study of men who were convicted in a Swiss child pornography investigation but who had no convictions for hands-on sex offences (offences involving physical contact with the victim) against children.

"There is ongoing debate about whether people who view child pornography pose a risk of committing sex offences against children," explained a member of the research group, Frank Urbaniok, a forensic psychiatrist with the Canton of Zurich Department of Justice. "And there have previously been few studies looking at the association between consumption of child pornography and subsequent sex offences."

It is generally assumed that people who download child pornography are paedophiles, said Jérôme Endrass, head of the research department at the Criminal Justice System of Zurich. "In forensic psychiatry we find that . . . [Full text of this article]


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Rapid Responses:

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It isn't "Child porn", it's images of child abuse
Ian D Wacogne
bmj.com, 17 Jul 2009 [Full text]
Shooting elephants
Joan McClusky
bmj.com, 19 Jul 2009 [Full text]
And they know this how?
Penny Mellor
bmj.com, 20 Jul 2009 [Full text]
Research in America disagrees
Sarah E Le Poidevin
bmj.com, 21 Jul 2009 [Full text]
Re: Research in America disagrees
Penny Mellor
bmj.com, 21 Jul 2009 [Full text]
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