# Crime novelist John Grisham: America jailing far too many for viewing child porn **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 16, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500 "2014-10-16T16:08:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500/41 "2014-10-17T16:02:58Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > OK, so he may have been really trying to say: “The guy I’m talking about, he may be a _pervert_, but is \*\*not \*\*a _predator_, why treat him like one” but he failed at making his case. Being sexually attracted to 16yo girls is not a Perversion. It’s illegal to act on, yes, and it should be, but it doesnt mean you’re a pervert. Let me put it this way: you are at a bank. You see a bank employee wheel a cart loaded with cash into the vault. Are you a sicko pervert if yu think “Man, I’d like to get my hands on that cash?” No. What’s wrong is when you act on it. 16 yo girls are sexually mature. Some few are even mentally mature. You can even marry one perfectly legally in many states. But you cant have sex with one outside of marriage. If a 21yo man marries a 16 yo girl legally, is he some sort of pervert for consummating the marriage during the honeymoon? Now, being a true pedophile is being a sick pervert. That’s being attracted to a person who is not sexualy mature. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500/42 "2014-10-17T16:37:36Z")
I would think that despite the notion of creating a market, people who have it should only be charged if they created it or paid for it. If you get it for free off some random website, I really don’t think its hurting anyone. Plus, “child porn” as it relates to drawings should be completely legal with no restrictions. Its a fucking drawing Treat it kind of like sex: Prostitution is illegal because you can’t buy or sell sex, but you can have it for free with a consenting party. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500/43 "2014-10-18T03:47:29Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Are you sufficiently conversant with the inside workings of the porn industry, to categorically state that 15 or 16 year old actresses are always victims who are forced into allowing themselves to be brutalized entirely against their will? And that none of them willingly enter into the profession as a means of furthering their own well-being? Just like a lot of other people who get up in the morning and go to a grunt dead-end job and work for a shit boss for shit wages doing demoralizing work at a convenience store counter or a telemarketing cubicle in order to enrich some slimeball who grudgingly gives them minimum wage, less deductions. > > What other options does your glowing free-enterprise system offer to a runaway who is already abused by her family, and cannot legally be hired for any legitimate work? I’m not talking about teenagers, for fuck’s sake, such as Traci Lords. (Not that that’s something so wonderful) I’m talking about _pre-pubescent kids_. I’m also not saying lock these guys up and throw away the key. However, I don’t think they should just be let off with a warning. And if you’re seriously comparing children being in pornos to someone working a crappy minimum wage job, well, then there’s obviously no further point to argue with you. No, I don’t think porn stars are forced into it. Fifteen-year-olds, however, are usually minors, and thus are not _legally_ able to consent. (Seriously, who the hell doesn’t automatically think: pre-puberty types when people mention “child porn?” Not “teenagers who look older”, or an actress who’s just under eighteen) ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500/44 "2014-10-19T02:56:53Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Being sexually attracted to 16yo girls is not a Perversion. It’s illegal to act on, yes, and it should be, but it doesnt mean you’re a pervert. Let me put it this way: you are at a bank. You see a bank employee wheel a cart loaded with cash into the vault. Are you a sicko pervert if yu think “Man, I’d like to get my hands on that cash?” No. What’s wrong is when you act on it. 16 yo girls are sexually mature. Some few are even mentally mature. You can even marry one perfectly legally in many states. But you cant have sex with one outside of marriage. If a 21yo man marries a 16 yo girl legally, is he some sort of pervert for consummating the marriage during the honeymoon? > > Now, being a true pedophile is being a sick pervert. That’s being attracted to a person who is not sexualy mature. Actually, in many states (31 of them according to Wikipedia) 16 is the age of consent (without Romeo & Juliet laws). Canada also has a 16 age of consent law. So it isn’t illegal to act on in many places in North America. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500/45 "2014-10-19T04:17:55Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > (Seriously, who the hell doesn’t automatically think: pre-puberty types when people mention “child porn?” Not “teenagers who look older”, or an actress who’s just under eighteen) Well, the law tends to have trouble distinguishing between them. Which I think is partly Grisham’s point. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500/46 "2014-10-19T04:49:34Z")
> [@astro](#): > > I don’t agree with Grisham’s premise that you can “stumble” across real child porn. Unless you are working the deep end of the shadow internet or some dark site this kind of thing doesn’t pop up and molest your PC like “MILFS WANT TO FUCK NOW” and similar nonsense that hits your PC windshield. You’re not in kiddy porn land unless you deliberately took 3 buses and a taxi to get here. That’s not completely true. Your screen can get splashed (bad analogy) with one of those pages that feature a plethora of vices…including ones you definitely don’t want to click on, but that doesn’t keep the link pic from existing in your history. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500/47 "2014-10-19T21:47:53Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Being sexually attracted to 16yo girls is not a Perversion. I disagree. 60 year-old men being into 16yo girls are definitely perverted in my eyes, and it’s got fuckall to do with what’s EvoDevo-ly programmed. It’s just acceptable perversion because 60yo men are who gets to make the rules. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500/48 "2014-10-19T22:40:44Z")
A few years back I researched the ease of getting teen and pre-teen porn for a novelist friend. Thanks to our Eastern Bloc pals it was still pretty easy; “Lolita” was still a search term that worked on Google. Yeah, maybe you had to go down a couple more layers but you could find what you wanted using a tool available to anyone. It’s probably tougher now. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500/49 "2014-10-19T23:48:33Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > Well, the law tends to have trouble distinguishing between them. Which I think is partly Grisham’s point. If that was what he was trying to say, then I would agree with him. However, I will go on record as stating that I do not believe that actual child porn is merely pictures, that there is indeed a victim, and that those who posess it should somehow be prosecuted. If we’re talking about the “barely legal” stuff, the “Traci Lords” kind of thing, while I find it skeevy, I can get behind what Grisham was saying. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500/50 "2014-10-20T00:02:43Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > That’s not completely true. Your screen can get splashed (bad analogy) with one of those pages that feature a plethora of vices…including ones you definitely don’t want to click on, but that doesn’t keep the link pic from existing in your history. No… that is not true. Anyone using it an excuse for having REAL child porn is full of crap. I’ve surfed the (legal) adult corners of the web and I know exactly the kind of pages you are referring to. The worst you will ever hit with that is 18 year olds that look young. You might have been able to get Traci Lords stuff 6-7 years ago off a public Board or site but that hasn’t been the case for several years now. These days no one with a publically accessible adult site has kiddy porn. Anyone with \*real \*kiddy porn on their drive is looking for it and is putting some effort into finding it. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500/51 "2014-10-20T00:16:14Z")
> [@astro](#): > > I don’t agree with Grisham’s premise that you can “stumble” across real child porn. Unless you are working the deep end of the shadow internet or some dark site this kind of thing doesn’t pop up and molest your PC like “MILFS WANT TO FUCK NOW” and similar nonsense that hits your PC windshield. You’re not in kiddy porn land unless you deliberately took 3 buses and a taxi to get here. I really doubt this. If you have a thumbnail of a 15 year old in your cache because you clicked on a link to a MILF page which had all sorts of mixed thumbnails on it, the headline will read “astro convicted of child porn offences” just the same. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500/52 "2014-10-20T00:19:37Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > Actually, in many states (31 of them according to Wikipedia) 16 is the age of consent (without Romeo & Juliet laws). Canada also has a 16 age of consent law. > > So it isn’t illegal to act on in many places in North America. It’s also not illegal to act on in most other countries- America has one of the higher ages of consent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crime-novelist-john-grisham-america-jailing-far-too-many-for-viewing-child-porn/701500.md?page=2)