The committee believes that it is senseless to take the position that a reading diet of this type of trash is harmless. For it is also habitforming. The report of the Senate Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency stated on this point:

There is a peculiar resemblance to narcotics addiction in exposure of juveniles to pornography. There is the same pattern of progression. Once initiated into a knowledge of the unnatural, the impressionable young mind with the insatiable curiosity characteristic of those reaching for maturity inevitably hunts for something stronger, something with more "jolt," something imparting a greater thrill.

The dealer in pornography is acutely aware of this progressive facet; his array of material to feed this growing hunger is carefully geared to the successive stages. Like the peddler of narcotics, his only interest is to insure that his customers are "hooked"; he knows that once they are "hooked" they will continue to pay and pay.

The problem with respect to our youth is not a single exposure to such publications. It grows from repeated exposure-and from the invitation to exposure resulting from the fact that such publications are readily available and on display in places where children and adolescents are likely to congregate. Insidiously, and out of public indifference, its availability has moved from a dark side street into the most respectable neighborhoods and establishments in the community, implying its tacit acceptance as a part of normal community life.

The subcommittee feels that a great deal of good could be accomplished by the reputable members of those industries that find their channels of communication being used for the overdramatization of sex as well as the distribution of obscene and pornographic materials that reach the hands of our youth. Codes of ethical conduct, such as those relating to comic books, have served to improve the acceptability of such publications. At the same time little has been done to explore the possibilities of similar programs of self-restraint in other publication endeavors, most notably in the production and wholesale distribution of magazines.

The subcommittee plans in the near future to study the feasibility of urging the establishment of such programs where they might be helpful in counteracting the increase in the production and distribution of objectionable materials. This study will also include inquiry into the operation of existing industry codes to ascertain whether their declared high standards are being maintained in passing upon the moral quality of the materials that are currently being approved.

EFFECTS OF OBSCENE LITERATURE ON JUVENILE

BEHAVIOR

The evidence that juvenile delinquency is sharply increasing with each year, that it is more commonly concerned with acts of violence, and that it is appearing in the suburbs as well as in the slums, is unmistakable. In the 9-year period 1949 through 1957 the number of appearances before juvenile courts for delinquency increased 2%1⁄2 times, while the child population increased by only one-fourth. According

to a recent estimate of the Senate Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, one out of every five boys in the 10-through-17 age group has a delinquency record (if the traffic violations heard by some courts are included). During the year 1957 over 600,000 children in this age group appeared in juvenile courts throughout the Nation.

The committee is aware of the fact that there is some disagreement among some psychiatrists as to the effect of publications devoted to distorted sex, terror, sadism, and crime on juvenile delinquency. The Reverend Father Terrence J. Murphy, whose statement at a recently conducted Symposium on the Case for Governmental Control of Obscene Publications at Loyola University Law School appears in the appendix, pointed out the weakness of the position taken by the people who claim that reading filthy material has no effect upon human behavior:

The no-effect-between-reading-and-conduct school not only demands the use of empirical methods, but many of its advocates require empirical-statistical evidence of controlled experiments. They call for evidence produced by experiments which would require thousands of persons to be isolated from all erotic visual material over a number of years. And then their behavior pattern would have to be compared to that of a group of similar psychological makeup, influenced by the same environmental factors, but subjected to controlled exposure to obscenity. This demand by the men who know only one method is completely unrealistic. The practical difficulties of carrying out such experiments in our society are readily evident. If the demands of the empiricalstatistical method were acceded to in other areas, many disciplines would be impoverished. Under such requirements psychiatry, for example, would never have made the progress it has made.

J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, has pointed out that this is no time to hold a scholarly debate concerning the exact cause and effect relationship between obscenity and sex crimes. He stated in a recently published article

I say that we can no longer afford to wait for the answer. What we do know is that in an overwhelmingly large number of cases sex crime is associated with pornography. We know that sex criminals read it, are clearly influenced by it.

I believe pornography is a major cause of sex violence. I believe that if we can eliminate the distribution of such items among impressionable school-age children, we shall greatly reduce our frightening sex crime rate.

We believe that an examination of the type of publications with which we are concerned can only lead to the conclusion that the effect of filth of this type on the immature mind is demoralizing at best and at worst a contributing factor to degradation, crime and perversion. It "educates for evil," undermining the moral foundation of our society and poisoning the minds of our youth. And we are impressed with the fact that those people and organizations who place emphasis upon wholesome family life and a respect for law and order have no question

hat this is the case. Witnesses appearing before our committee were verwhelmingly of the opinion that there is a direct connection between bscene and pornographic literature and juvenile delinquency.

The chief neuropsychiatrist and medical director of the Philadelphia unicipal court, Nicholas G. Frignito, M.D., whose position affords an unusual opportunity to study and evaluate the effects of obscenity and pornography on the conduct of youthful law violators told the ubcommittee

Antisocial, delinquent, and criminal activity frequently results from sexual stimulation by pornography. This abnormal sexual stimulation creates such a demand for expression that gratification by vicarious means follows. Girls run away from their homes and become entangled in prostitution. Boys and young men who have difficulty resisting the undue sexual stimulation become sexually aggressive and generally incorrigible. The more vicious delinquent or psychopathic type may become an exhibitionist, a rapist, a sadist, a fetishist. He may commit such antisocial acts as arson, pyromania, kleptomania, which are often symbolic sexual acts.

The Philadelphia municipal court has case histories in which sexual arousal from smutty books led to criminal behavior from vicious assaults to homicide. Some of these children did not transgress sexually until they read suggestive stories and viewed lewd pictures of licentious magazines. In several instances these children were very young, varying in age from 9 to 14 years. The filthy ideas implanted in their immature minds impelled them to crime.

Sexual stimulation by printed material does not always lead to crime, but it is always an inducement to impurity and in the more suggestible individual leads to aberrant forms of sexual misconduct, incest, voyeurism, and narcissism.

Our prisons, correctional institutions, and mental hospitals are jammed with many of the unfortunates who were prey to pornography. Many may never recover their mental or physical health. Others may never have freedom.

Pornography is an instrument for delinquency, it is an insidious threat to moral, mental, and physical health. It debases the true meaning and function of sex, it leads to excessive eroticism, morbid preoccupation with sex, and it incites to immoral and antisocial activity.

The purveyor of pornography is an immoral, corrupt, degenerate individual who completely disregards the harm he causes to public morality and decency. He is an antisocial, psychopathic criminal. The viciousness of his trade can be equaled to a pestilence.

At the conclusion of his testimony, Dr. Frignito was asked whether he felt that other members of the psychiatric profession would agree with the conclusions he had expressed. He replied that he believed they would agree with his statement because most psychiatrists talk about, write about, and agree that many of our emotionally disturbed people are psychosexually disturbed and that the added factor of widespread pornography makes the problem of controlling their actions much worse.

The executive director of the Philadelphia Youth Study Center analyzed the effects of pornography on youth and stated that there is no question that pictures and stories emphasizing sex exert a strong influence on many adults and youth. The degree of negative impact of this material, he stated, depends on the type of background of the person.

The executive secretary of public affairs of the National Associations of Evangelicals testified that their commission on social action is convinced that pornographic literature does contribute to juvenile delinquency and that it is one of the main factors that triggers emotionally warped individuals into committing many of the sex crimes reported throughout the Nation.

Mr. John Cornelius Hayes, president-elect of the National Council of Catholic Men, and professor of law at Loyola University in Chicago, who conducted a Symposium on the Case for Governmental Control of Obscene Publications in April of 1959, stated before the committee:

The testimony we had at this symposium from persons far more expert than myself agreed that *** there was a connection between this type of material and juvenile delinquency ***

I have contact in the Chicago Police Department, which assures me this also is true. I have a contact in the district attorney's office in the northern district of Illinois which maintains that the investigations of that office and the postal department in Chicago-they all agree that this is so. Certainly one of the best informed groups on the effects of obscenity and pornography on juvenile delinquency are the juvenile court judges who come into direct contact with the juvenile delinquent himself. The following resolution, adopted by the National Council of Juvenile Court Judges, at their 1956 convention in Colorado Springs, dispels any doubt, in their minds, concerning the connection between salacious literature and the increase in juvenile crime. It reads:

Whereas the National Council of Juvenile Court Judges are directly aware of the widespread distribution of certain so-called comic books and horror magazines, and other publications depicting sadism, crime, vulgar sex, and horror scenes in abnormal, salacious, and extreme forms and frequently containing advertisements for the sale of information on sex, vulgar pictures, and dangerous weapons, and

Whereas there is a growing realization that such foul publications, through their distribution to children and youth and their extensive encouragement to read them, contribute to the breakdown of the moral sense in children which today is causing an increase in juvenile delinquency throughout the Nation and is often responsible for adult criminality; and Whereas the publication, sale, and availability of these destructive and deteriorating books and magazines and "comics" have become so prevalent in all parts of the Nation that their presence can no longer be ignored, excused, or permitted by individuals charged with rearing, education, and protection of children and youth; and

Whereas the character of juvenile delinquency has changed as a consequence of the stimulation of these publications, being no longer the thoughtless, mischievous acts of children, but are reflected in acts of violence, armed robbery, rape, torture, and even homicide, which the vicious and vile publications conditioned the minds of our children;

Whereas as judges of the juvenile court in America we daily see the tragic and pitiful consequences of the children appearing before us and are conscious of the menace to our children which results from these antisocial and vicious pictures and reading materials: Therefore, be it

Resolved, That the National Council of Juvenile Court Judges urge that action be taken at local, State and National levels of government to curtail, prohibit, and outlaw the publication, dissemination, and distribution of so-called comics, horror magazines, and other publications depicting aforesaid objectionable features; and be it further

Resolved, That civic consciousness be aroused in all our communities through church, fraternal, civic, and business organizations to secure the voluntary cooperation of merchants, magazine distributors, and associations, to place the value of youth above the financial gain resulting from dealing with and in lewd, harmful, and destructive publications; be it further

Resolved, That the press of America be solicited to aid in the development of public opinion that will help to stimulate and gain support for constructive plans and programs to combat the evil herein denounced.

Witness after witness, appearing before the committee representing women's organizations, church groups, and Government officials, as well as public-spirited citizens from all walks of life attested to their conviction on this point. Religious leaders were unanimous in their position that printed filth definitely contributes to the corruption of our youth.

The subcommittee was very much impressed with the views expressed by these witnesses. It rests its case on the premise that ideas have consequences. If those ideas are good, if they are expressed in the great literature which we cherish, they help to produce honest, responsible, and thoughtful citizens. If they are lewd, vicious, and distorted ideas, the consequences will be evil and the results a pollution of our thought supply.

Federal law

OBSCENITY AND THE LAW

The jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Postal Operations is limited to only one phase of the laws dealing with obscenity. This is the prohibition against sending obscene matter through the mail. The Federal law, in addition, declares it to be a felony:

(1) To import obscene materials;

(2) to deposit obscene materials with a common carrier for transportation in interstate or foreign commerce;

(3) to broadcast obscene language by radio; and

(4) to transport obscene materials in interstate or foreign commerce for sale or distribution.

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