One of my editorial cartoonist colleagues got arrested for child pornography (or CSAM, for “child sexual abuse material” as it is also called) this week. As I write this, he is in jail, apparently unable to make bail, awaiting arraignment.
I won’t get into the details of his case, or at least the details we have so far, here. It is, as these things go, a novel set of allegations. I may write about those aspects of the situation in the future.
He has had an exceptionally rewarding life and career. First Black cartoonist to win the Pulitzer in cartooning. Creator of a widely-syndicated and highly-respected comic strip. Author of a bestselling graphic novel. Husband and father of four.
All of that is starting to fall apart. His employers have issued statements distancing themselves from him even as they note that, legally at least, Americans are presumed innocent until proven guilty. It isn’t difficult to predict what will happen next. His life as he knew it before the police arrived at his home bearing a search warrant has come to an end. It is highly unlikely that he will ever be paid to draw cartoons again or, for that matter, to do anything at all. At this point, his best-case scenario is that he doesn’t lose his family, makes bail so he can fight his case and is found not guilty or manages to negotiate a shorter-than-usual prison sentence.
Because you might wonder: we were not friends. Either of us could have called the other with reasonable certainty that the call would be returned. And we did. We talked about business stuff once or twice. We talked at a recent cartooning convention after he delivered a talk about his work.
He has not been charged with physically harming any children. In our culture, however, there is no worse offense to be accused of than anything that relates to pedophilia or child pornography. In prison, those convicted of “child molestation” are targeted for violence by inmates who have committed what they deem to be less serious offenses, like murder. He is in the worst kind of trouble.
It is completely understandable that we have contempt for those who violate and rape children, the most vulnerable members of society. Kids should be protected and cared for, not victimized. Survivors of childhood sexual (and other) trauma carry their wounds around with them the rest of their lives.
Reflecting our desire to protect children, lawmakers have instituted harsh penalties for those who are found guilty of crimes like those of which my colleague stands accused. For first offenders found guilty of CSAM possession, 99% go to prison; the average sentence is eight years. The House of Representatives is about to consider legislation, reportedly supported by President-Elect Donald Trump, that would impose either the death penalty or a mandatory life sentence.
By all accounts, however, harsh sentencing is not having the desired deterrent effect. “Last year, tech companies reported over 45 million online photos and videos of children being sexually abused—more than double what they found the previous year,” The New York Times reported in 2019. “Twenty years ago, the online images were a problem; 10 years ago, an epidemic. Now, the crisis is at a breaking point… Pictures of child sexual abuse have long been produced and shared to satisfy twisted adult obsessions. But it has never been like this: Technology companies reported a record 45 million online photos and videos of the abuse last year.” CSAM had become even more widespread by 2023. AI “deep fake” CSAM, at least some of which is “trained” by scraping the real thing, has exploded all over the Internet.
Perhaps it’s time to start thinking of men (who account for over 99% of those charged with possessing CSAM) who seek out this material not as monsters, but as people desperately in need of help. As Dr. Fred Berlin, director of the Johns Hopkins Sex and Gender Clinic, told the Times: “People don’t choose what arouses them—they discover it. No one grows up wanting to be a pedophile.”
We used to think that victims of what we used to call child molestation tended to become molesters themselves. It happens, but not as much as experts formerly believed. Now the growing scientific consensus is that pedophiles are born that way. “The biological clues attached to pedophilia demonstrate that its roots are prenatal,” James Cantor, director of the Toronto Sexuality Center, said. “These are not genetic; they can be traced to specific periods of development in the womb.” It’s hard-wiring. Unlike other people, many pedophiles’ sexual attraction to young people remains frozen in time from when they too are young, rather than aging along with them.
None of this is to imply that people who consume CSAM are not a threat to flesh-and-blood children. They are. Roughly half of prisoners convicted of CSAM eventually admit that they assaulted at least one kid. And the recidivism rate for sexual offenders is high.
Though it is tempting to say that dangerous people should be locked up or even killed, where is our compassion for the fact that they are themselves victims, of a psychological disorder? That they’re trying to fight off strong sexual urges that they never chose? That it’s almost impossible for them to get the help they need? State of mind of the accused is, or should be, front and center when evaluating whether someone has a criminal mindset and deserves imprisonment or suffers from a disorder that causes urges that could be effectively treated by psychotherapy and/or psychotropic and other drugs.
If you can’t summon sympathy, try focusing on the fact that our current approach is failing miserably.
One reason we’re losing the fight is that the problem is so vast. One out of six men told a 2023 Australian study that they were sexually attracted to children under age 18. Aside from CSAM, “mainstream” media including advertising and social media increasingly sexualizes children at ever-younger ages. For every guy like my colleague, whose life we destroy and toss into prison at taxpayer expense, there are countless more to replace him and countless more disgusting images online and countless more young victims being exploited to provide them.
(Ted Rall (Twitter: @tedrall), the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, co-hosts the left-vs-right DMZ America podcast with fellow cartoonist Scott Stantis and The TMI Show with political analyst Manila Chan. His latest book is the graphic novel 2024: Revisited.)
