5 impact of the child pornography industry often tends to be overstated. The most significant cost to society from this practice cannot be measured in economic terms; instead, it must be measured in terms of the extent of physical and psychic damage to innocent children brought about by the production and use of child pornography. ORGANIZED CRIME Because of the Subcommittee's historic interest in the activities of organized crime. an effort was made to obtain any information that might show a direct link between organized crime and the distribution of child pornography in the United States. The Subcommittee interviewed former child pornography distributors, federal informants, pedophiles, prosecutors and law enforcement officials from the United States, Canada and Europe. No one produced definitive evidence that traditional organized crime groups, such as La Cosa Nostra, have any appreciable influence on the production or distribution of true pedophile-oriented child pornography. Nor was evidence found of any widespread involvement, much less control, of child pornography distribution by other ethnic crime organizations or criminal groups, such as motorcycle gangs. There is substantial evidence to show that La Cosa Nostra crime families exert considerable influence in the production and 12 distribution of commercial adult pornography. A small portion of this market may include underaged models. usually 16 or 17, and some material appears to show legal-aged models who are dressed and made up to look like minors. While any sexually explicit material involving persons of this age is usually harmful, if not illegal, for purposes of this report child pornography generally refers to material involving children under 13. After extensive inquiries, the Subcommittee has concluded that the distribution of child pornography in the United States is largely carried out by individual pedophiles, who produce this - 6 material and trade it among themselves or order it through the mail from other countries. In the few instances when police have uncovered commercial child pornography operations, they paled in comparison to the sophistication and profits of adult pornography distributors, and were not controlled by traditional organized crime. One such organization was run by Cathy Wilson, who at the time of her arrest in California in 1983 was believed to control about 80 percent of the commercial child pornography trade in the 13 United States. Wilson told Subcommittee investigators in August 1984 that "the Mafia" had not been involved in her operation or that of any other child pornographer with whom she dealt during the 1970s and early 1980s. Richard Trolio, once 14 a business partner of Wilson's who later became a federal Economics probably plays a major part in organized crime's lack of interest in child pornography. The adult sex industry (magazines, videotapes, X-rated movie theaters, nightclubs, massage parlors, "dial-a-porn" and "escort" services, etc.) operates legally in much of the country and grosses several 16 billion dollars annually. Conversely, the commercial child pornography industry has declined substantially in recent 17 years, and has never produced profits resembling those in adult pornography. Perhaps equally discouraging to organized crime is the aggressive enforcement of the 1984 federal child pornography 18 statutes, which carry 10-year prison terms for production. importation or distribution of the material. In comparison, violations involving adult pornography are often treated as misdemeanor obscenity cases, when they are prosecuted at all. PROSECUTIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE On February 6, 1978, Congress enacted Public Law 95-225, the Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation Act of 1977. - 7 This legislation added sections 2251 through 2253 to Title 18 of the United States Code to deal specifically for the first time with the problem of child pornography. Efforts by prosecutors to obtain convictions under these statutes, however, were hampered by a provision in the law that the pornographic material in question had to be produced or distributed for "commercial" purposes in order to warrant prosecution. Since most child pornographers in the United States tend to trade child pornography among themselves rather than sell it, the Department of Justice was forced to rely primarily upon sections 1461-1465, Title 18 of the U.S. Code, the federal obscenity statutes, to prosecute child pornographers. 19 The amendments, Congress moved to close this loophole on May 21, 1984, by amending the child pornography statutes to delete the "commerciality" requirement and a requirement that the disseminated material be legally obscene. which also added civil and criminal forfeiture provisions to the statutes, now appear as sections 2251-2255, Title 18, U.S. Code. The effect of these amendments on the Department of Justice's ability to prosecute child pornography cases has been dramatic: from 1978 to April 1984, the Department obtained 65 convictions; between May 1984, and June 1986, at least 164 convictions were 20 obtained. PEDOPHILIA The terms pedophile and pedophilia have been so widely used in the news media in recent years that their clinical definitions sometimes are overlooked. Many references to "pedophiles" seem to indicate the term is applied to any adult who is sexually attracted to a legal minor. That is not the case, and the distinction is worth noting. Pedophilia, literally "love of a child," as used in this report refers to the condition in which an adult's primary sexual attraction is to prepubescent children -- roughly between six and 21 twelve years of age. While many cases exist in which true pedophiles have been involved with children below and above those age boundaries, the vast majority fall between them. (A less-commonly used term, hebephilia, describes an adult's sexual attraction to adolescents. This more accurately defines the offenders involved in teenage prostitution, for example, than does the often-misused label, pedophile.) Pedophiles normally have little interest in adolescents who are beginning to reach sexual maturity; it is, in fact, the very lack of sexual development, the childish innocence, that arouses most true pedophiles. The term pedophile is often misused when applied to all child sex crime offenders. Experts agree that many children are assaulted simply because they are available and, of course, more easily overpowered than an adult. The true pedophile, as a rule, does not commit violent acts against his victim. Pedophiles often are attracted to children within a specific age range boys from 8 to 10, girls under 9. etc. and there is some evidence to show this preference may develop because it - was the same age at which the molester was also first molested as 22 a child. Many studies have shown a large percentage of convicted child molesters were themselves molested as children. 23 While pedophiles come from virtually all social, racial, ethnic and age groups, therapists and investigators have been |