Rapid Evidence Assessment
Background
The Home Office last year commissioned a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) into three questions central to the measures in this section of the CJIB:
- What effects does viewing extreme pornographic material have on those adults who access it?
- In particular is there any evidence that it causes or contributes to sexual or violent offending?
- Is there any evidence that those adults who participate in making extreme pornographic material are harmed by their involvement?
The tender for the REA was awarded to a team led by
- Catherine Itzin, Professor of Violence Abuse and Mental Health at Lincoln University and Senior Policy Official, Department of Health Mental Health Programme
- Ann Taket, Professor of Primary Health Care at London South Bank University, UK, and Professor and Director of Centre for Health through Action on Social Exclusion, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
- Liz Kelly, Roddick Chair of Violence Against Women and Director of Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit, London Metropolitan University.
Their findings were published by the Home Office's successor the Ministry of Justice in a 103 page document a few days before the CJIB's Second Reading earlier this month.
It found no evidence that adults were harmed by appearing in extreme pornography, but did find
"some harmful effects from extreme pornography on some who access it".
The Bill has now passed to Committee stage and expert testimony on these clauses has already been heard by the bill committee.
In committee, Ministry of Justice minister Maria Eagle seemed remarkably cautious, appearing at pains to stress the qualifications to the REA claims. She said it "showed that there was cause to have concern in certain circumstances for what is, no doubt, a smallish number of the population who might be susceptible...." (our italics).
Expert opposition
Two academics, Martin Barker, Professor of Film & Television Studies at the University of Aberystwyth and Clarissa Smith, Senior Lecturer in Media & Cultural Studies at the University of Sunderland, have voiced strong criticisms of the REA document in a statement to the bill committee. This has since been signed by other leading academics in the fields of law, cultural studies, film and media, social sciences, philosophy and sexual psychology, between them responsible for a significant proportion of the UK's scholarly literature on the uses and effects of pornography.
Stay out of the bedroom
.... there are areas in which the State, or the
community, no longer has a role or, if it does have
one, it is a role that is completely different. It is
not for the State to tell people that they cannot
choose a different lifestyle, for example in issues to
do with sexuality.
Tony Blair 5th Sept 2006
QC's conclusion "real concerns"
"In conclusion, I consider that the legislation as proposed gives rise to real concerns as to its compatibility with an individual's rights under Articles 8 and 10 of the Convention."
QC Rabinder Singh's Legal Opinion