<p>One of D’s professors for this semster was arrested yesterday on child pornography charges! :eek: She said the past two classes had been cancelled, she thought he had “piggy flu”. The college has put him on leave. She hoped he at least passes his grade book onto whoever takes over for the rest of the semester, as she has an A so far… The college put him on leave, but as of yesterday had not told the students who will be taking the class for the rest of the term.</p>
<p>I hope everything works out for your daughter and I really hope her slime ball professor is locked away for life.</p>
<p>She just found out that the replacement prof will be the reputed toughest prof in the department - - so much for her careful analysis at ratemyprofessor.com 
He has decided that they will go back and spend more time on a topic that they already covered for two weeks, and she hated it the first time.</p>
<p>Regarding the original prof, the newspaper reports say his arrest was part of a broader sweep (18 arrests in their county). It said he had 2 offending images on his computer. Obviously 1 is too many… but he isn’t one of those guys with thousands. It wasn’t clear whether he actually had anything to do with the creation of those images (obviously that would land him in prison!). D also said he is a very good teacher, and she was enjoying his class.</p>
<p>I’ve read that it’s possible for viruses to upload child porn to one’s computer, so don’t judge the professor yet. …</p>
<p>I suppose a virus could be responsible. He was charged with possession, while all the other defendents were charged with possession and dissemintation. One news article said,</p>
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<p>I suppose it is possible someone else had access to his computer and did it.</p>
<p>I think it is pretty difficult to support someone who likes looking at child porn, but I really wish there were more sympathy expressed for them. Wanting to watch child porn is not like stealing where the person simply wants to profit at the expense of others. People who want to watch child porn often have mental health issues. Some were born with strange attractions; others may have been abused as children. I really don’t think people wake up one day and decided to be attracted to children. We are sympathetic to gay people because their are born that way even though their sexual desires are weird; why isn’t there more sympathy for people wanting to watch child porn? I am not suggesting they shouldn’t be punished; its the lock them up and throw away the key forever attitude that bothers me. I would like to see more punishment coupled with treatment and monitoring. </p>
<p>BTW, I draw a big distinction between someone who want to look at child porn and someone who engaged in child molestation. Molestation is a different story.</p>
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<p>Weirdness is a subjective concept. They may be weird to you; they aren’t to many others. </p>
<p>I really think it’s inappropriate to analogize pedophilia to same-sex attraction, for any reason.</p>
<p>^ I agree.</p>
<p>And this is not about sexual desires, it’s about behavior that is harming others. Acquiring and using child porn is supporting and encouraging the horrific abuse of children and all that goes with that dangerous industry.</p>
<p>inparent - heard this on the news this morning. How awful for your daughter and the college.
This man was charged with possession. His lawyer is saying he will fight it in court but he will probably plea out. Child porn hardly ever goes to a jury trial. The Federal mandatory minimum sentence is 5 years in prison. This crew was arrested by county detectives so probably will be prosecuted by the state.
3 of the eighteen arrested are juveniles and 7 are aged 20-26. The 18 individuals don’t appear to be connected in any way and had been investigated over the past year. Perhaps they were all using the same website.</p>
<p>Northstarmom - the DA states that the child pornography found on the defendant’s computers could not have possible been downloaded by accident or a virus.</p>
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The problem with this logic is that you need to have molestation to get to the pornography. Buying, possessing, looking at child pornography condones and enables child molestation. </p>
<p>Again, folks - I brought this up on another thread - if you have teenage or young adult male sons, TALK to them about child pornography. Tell them about the dangers to the children involved, the ethics of condoning it and also the likelyhood they will be caught, send to prison and be labeled a sex offender for the rest of their life.</p>
<p>It doesn’t seem to me that this should damage the college’s reputation. They put him on leave right away, and apparently no college computer resources were used. And unless something else comes out later, it sounds like his involvement was small scale (if in fact he is guilty).</p>
<p>DonnaL, I absolutely agree that pedophelia and homosexuality are completely exclusive concepts. Pedophiles can come from either “sexual persuasion”.</p>
<p>As JustAMomof4 mentioned, this topic was recently discussed on this thread:
“going to prison… ( 1 2 3 4 5 … Last Page)” …sorry I can’t make it link.</p>
<p>If you read it through, you’ll find opposing views on this subject and hopefully can even be educated (if so interested) in what happens to these men. These cases never go to trial because the law is written such that the offender is quilty if he has child p*** on his computer. Nothing to argue. Prosecutors don’t “bother” to arrest someone with only 1-2 pictures; they know in advance about how many photos are there and forensics analyze after the arrest.</p>
<p>LimeWire is the biggest avenue to find this scum. Just wish our govt would disband the site. Whether you are a kid or an adult, DO NOT attempt to go on this site. Not only is it baaad, the Feds are watching those who watch.</p>
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<p>Except that both are born that way and can’t change it.</p>
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<p>Excellent advice. Just like with drugs, alcohol, and sex, avoiding a subject like this can lead only to ignorance and unnecessary risk-taking. Better to overcome our skittishness and have this discussion than allow our kids to end up like the titular professor.</p>
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<p>Sigh. There are lots of things that one is born with and cannot be changed. But for those who think there is a connection between pedophilia and same-sex attraction, one is predatory and the other is not. They are not in any way analogous.</p>
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<p>Wow, I can’t believe you actually said that. I don’t think being gay is “weird” at all.</p>
<p>But in any case, this isn’t an issue of “weirdness.” It’s weird to wear socks on your ears, but we don’t arrest people for it because it doesn’t cause any harm. Consensual sexual relationships between a man and a woman, two men, or two women don’t cause any harm and is the choice of both parties involved. But sexual relations between an adult and a child DOES cause harm, and a child is not mentally or legally capable of consenting to such a relationship.</p>
<p>I really doubt “a computer virus” put these images on this guy’s computer. I doubt a virus would stop at one or two images. I do think viruses can SOMETIMES put images onto computers, but also that most people claiming that as a defense are full of it.</p>
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Of course it shouldn’t damage the colleges reputation. These are the actions of an individual. Men who are charged with child pornography come from all walks of life - they can be married or single. They have families. Some are professionals - doctors, college professors, and some are blue collar workers.</p>
<p>The article said they found two files. They did not say how many images were in each file, and there could have been thousands.</p>
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<p>I didn’t analogize pedophilia to same sex attraction. Having the desire to look at child porn is not pedophilia within the legal context. Inappropriately touching a child might be pedophilia but looking at pictures of child porn is not. (Looking at such pictures is disgusting but it’s not pedophilia). </p>
<p>I could have made the same analogy to heterosexual attraction. I think heterosexuals are born with that attraction for the most part. I think it is conceivable that some people are born with sexual attraction to children. It is an aberration and should be treated as a mental disorder first and punished second. Unfortunately, our society treats attraction to children as if the person engaged in physical harm to a particular child.</p>
<p>There are biological reasons for different attractions. For example, has anyone noticed that adult porn is of interest to many many men but very few women?</p>
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<p>The law goes after those who harm children or providing incentive for someone else to molest a child (ie providing a market by downloading child porn.) If someone is really dying to wank off to a ten year old, it’s perfectly legal to buy erotic drawings that spewed out of some artist’s damaged psyche (as long as they weren’t drawn “from life”, for obvious reasons) or watch porn with adults dressed up to look like minors.</p>
<p>“Being understanding” of child porn and pedophilic tendencies would only increase the amount of danger for children. If pedophiles are disgusted by their own tendencies and face a society that is disgusted by them, they’re going to be more likely to fight their sick urges and less likely to molest kids.</p>
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<p>Of course the DA’s going to say that. Because if the porn was downloaded by accident none of the defendants legally had the mens rea to be guilty of the crime. The second he says it might have been accidentally downloaded, you have instant reasonable doubt and he loses. And DA’s only care about winning, they don’t care about guilt or innocence, they don’t care about the lives they destroy, they just want their conviction stats up so they can get a promotion or get reelected, I don’t care what you say. If this is anything like drug possession, one of the elements of the crime is KNOWLEDGE. The second he says it might have been accidentally downloaded, you have instant reasonable doubt and he loses. And DA’s only care about winning, they don’t care about guilt or innocence, they don’t care about the lives they destroy, they just want their conviction stats up so they can get a promotion or get reelected, I don’t care what you say. They just want the guilty, at all costs. Period. And any lawyer not going into trial with this mindset is not acting in the best interests of their client. I’m going to assume that this is exactly the case until the DA’s come up with absolute, irrefutable proof. Innocent until proven otherwise.</p>
<p>Naturally, nobody’s creating a market for anything if they’re downloading it for free. There’s no monetary incentive there. Go read an economics textbook. Demand may be infinite at price=0 but supply is also 0. People who BUY child porn that’s a different story (people who buy ADULT porn, that’s none of the government’s or anyone’s business, the government should go back to running itself into the ground).</p>
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<p>The fact of the matter is in this country people accused of sex related crimes have to prove their innocence. The decision to prosecute someone for an alleged sex crime consists of nothing more than answering the question Can the suspect disprove the charges? If the answer is No, charges are brought. </p>
<p>Put yourself in this scenario; You are charged with possession of child porn but you are in fact entirely innocent. You are offered a plea deal that would have you plead guilty and serve a sentence of two years, OR, do go to court knowing the government has av almost 100% conviction rate in these types of cases and as per sentencing guidelines you would get a twelve year prison term upon conviction. What would you do?</p>
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<p>This is what has men so paranoid. Some people have remarked that they can’t believe how much “sympathy” has been expressed on this board for people who look at child porn, but for the most part it’s not the guilty ones we’re sympathetic with, but the innocent ones who are scared into plea-bargaining in order to avoid being completely crucified.</p>
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<p>As someone already stated above: Sigh. Being understanding of someone’s tendencies and providing the support they need to keep them under control is a far cry from being understanding of the actual exploitation of children. I don’t think it’s asking too much for people to set aside their disgust at the thought of child exploitation long enough to recognize that, by understanding the root of the problem and supporting those who might otherwise fall into the child porn trap, we can actually prevent many crimes from occurring in the first place.</p>
<p>It’s analogous to treating drug addiction (i.e., the tendency) in order to prevent actual drug use (i.e., the crime). Understanding the former does not imply condoning the latter.</p>