Amy Adler

The Perverse Law Of Child Pornography

Amy Adler
Associate Professor, New York University School of Law

The Columbia Law Review
March, 2001

Found at < http://eon.law.harvard.edu/ilaw/Speech/Adler_full.html >

[Zipped Word.doc version of this article]

Content of the article

"[...] in this Article I raise questions about the censorship imposed by child pornography laws. I argue that these laws, intended to protect children from sexual exploitation, threaten to reinforce the very problem they attack. The legal tool that we designed to liberate children from sexual abuse threatens to enslave us all, by constructing a world in which we are enthralled - anguished, enticed, bombarded - by the spectacle of the sexual child.

Author's note

Content of the article

Introduction

I. THE CULTURAL CRISIS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
[Introduction to Part I]
A. The discovery and rise of child sexual abuse
B. The discovery of child pornography
1. Public Awareness
2. Law Enforcement
3. Statistics

II. THE LAW OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
[Introduction to part III]
A. Creation Of Child Pornography Law
B. Definition of "Child Pornography"
C. Rationale for Prohibiting Child Pornography

III. TABOO, TRANSGRESSION, AND THE INCREASED SEXUAL ALLURE OF CHILDREN
[Introduction to part III]
A. The Dialectic Between Prohibition And Transgression
B. Sex and Transgression
C. Child Pornography Law and Mainstream Pedophilia

IV. CHILD PORNOGRAPHY LAW AND THE PROLIFERATION OF THE SEXUAL CHILD
[Introduction to part IV]
A. Surveillance and the Pedophilic Gaze
B. Producing the Sexual Child
1. Resignification
2. Discourse and Foucault

Conclusion

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[*The blue figures in square brackets refer to the page numbers]

Author's note

For helpful comments, I am indebted to

	Harry Adler,
	Ed Baker,
	Mary Anne Case,
	Anne Coughlin,
	Michael Dorf,
	Chris Eisgruber,
	Dan Filler,
	Barry Friedman,
	David Garland,
	Abner Greene,
	Janet Halley,
	Marcel Kahan,
	Larry Kramer,
	Jody Kraus,
	Liz Magill,
	Pearson Marx,
	Geoffrey Miller,
	Dot Nelkin,
	Rick Pildes,
	Robert Post,
	David Richards,
	Neil Richards,
	Larry Sager,
	Eva Saks,
	Rip Verkerke, and
	Jonathan Vogel.

I am also grateful to the participants of

workshops at

	Harvard Law School,
	the University of Virginia Law School,
	the Colloquium on Constitutional Theory at the N.Y.U. School of Law, and
	the participants of the Conference on Gender-Based Censorship at the University of Michigan Institute for Research on Women and Gender, where I presented an earlier draft of this Article.

	I thank Keith Buell for his amazing contributions as a research assistant.
	I also thank Gretchen Feltes in the New York University Law Library for outstanding library assistance.
	I dedicate this Article to the memory of my father, Harry R. Adler (1932-1999), who encouraged and inspired me in every way and who would have liked to see the final draft.