Patrick Trueman, President at National Center on Sexual Exploitation, former Chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington D.C. from 1988 to 1993.
A California Judge has taken pity on a defendant for raping a three-year-old girl, pronouncing a sentence on him that is much less than half the state mandatory minimum. The judge thought ten years seemed more reasonable than the 25-year state-legislature-imposed sentence because, as the judge said, “There was no violence or callous disregard for (the child’s) wellbeing.”
Orange County Judge Michael Marc Kelly, telephone number 657-622-5239, is not only out of touch with the state legislature but also with reality. Perhaps this is because, like many public officials today, he has little contact with citizens whom he has sworn to serve.
Rape, regardless of circumstances, is one of the most heinous crimes that can be committed. But the rape of a three-year-old is beyond monstrous. It is an unthinkable taboo except to a very few in society and it deserves a harsh, lengthy punishment.
Judge Kelly, address, 700 Civic Center Drive West, Santa Ana, CA 92791, apparently disagrees.
One wonders what the 20-year-old defendant, Kevin Rojano-Nieto, will be like when he is free to walk the streets again after a decade surrounded by other of society’s worst criminals. Lengthy prison sentences for the worst of criminals are provided so we have less to worry about with those like Rojano-Nieto.
Perhaps a more important question is, what caused the defendant to cross this taboo. One can guess the cause: pornography. Pornography, more than any other factor, distorts perceptions, breaks down inhibitions and creates in the minds of many what Dr. Mary Anne Layden, hD, is a psychotherapist and Director of Education at the Center for Cognitive Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania so aptly calls, “permission-giving beliefs.”
The peer-reviewed research demonstrates how profound this brain-altering drug, pornography, can be on many. The studies show that the consumers of pornography have a higher likelihood of believing a rape victim enjoyed rape;
believing women suffer less from rape; believing a rape victim experienced pleasure and “got what she wanted.” The research also indicates that men gain an acceptance of violence against women and more likelihood of creating sexually violent fantasies to get aroused. I could go on and on but see for yourself at PornHarmsResearch.com.
Still the research, as it is developed today, does not fully explain what there is about pornography that would lead a man would rape a three-year-old child. Many in law enforcement have found an explanation but, admittedly, it needs study. The explanation relates to the known phenomenon of the progression or more properly the deviation of porn consumers from softer to harder material the longer one is a consumer. The brain science of pornography indicates that brains of porn devotees “need” harder and more deviant material to get and stay aroused. What is exciting one day will not be in a few days so the consumer is in constant search of harder porn to get that porn high. The brain always demands what is novel and new. Many will eventually move from images of adults to images of children. This partially explains why child pornography, which was nearly wiped out in America twenty years ago, has become what is likely the top sex crime in the Internet Age.
I have written of the adult to child phenomenon in the past. See End Child Pornography: Enforce Adult Pornography Laws, Public Discourse, The Witherspoon Institute: http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/09/3767/
It will be an opportunity lost if Rojano-Nieto is not thoroughly interviewed to lean what factors caused his crime. Yet, there will almost surely be no effort to do so. If there was, and pornography was the, or even a cause, of the defendant’s outrageous conduct shouldn’t law enforcement, and every parent in America want to know?
