Inequitable sentencing for possession of child pornography: A failure to distinguish voyeurs from pederasts

Hastings Law Journal

Volumn 61, Issue 5, 2010, Pages 1281-1306

  Basbaum, Jesse P ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77954619134     PISSN: 00178322     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (228)

1. United States v. Cunningham, No. 1:09CR154, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6097, at *1-2 (N. D. Ohio Jan. 26, 2010).
2. Id. at *, 33.
3. Id. at *2?.
4. Id. at *3-4.
5. Id at *4.
6. Id.
7. Id. at *3.
8. Cunningham was sentenced at the low end of the recommended sentencing range for his offense. The high end was 151 months (over twelve-and-a-half years). Id. at *4.
9. There are several extremely disturbing facets of Cunningham's case. For example, the sentencing court was particularly troubled by the fact that Cunningham videotaped himself masturbating onto the photograph of a toddler.
10. Id. at * 39-40. The videotape shows Cunningham talking to the photo and telling the girl how her father wants Cunningham to rape her.
11. Id.
12. See infra notes 88-90 and accompanying text.
13. U.S. SENTENCING GUIDELINES MANUAL § 2G2.2 (2009).
14. See infra notes 91-100 and accompanying text.
15. As this Note reached its final stages of publication, Professor Carissa Hessick posted an excellent article that includes a critique of various rationales behind strict sentencing for child pornography offenses.
16. See Carissa Byrne Hessick, Disentangling Child Pornography from Child Sex Abuse, 88 WASH. U. L. REV. (forthcoming 2010), available at http://papers.ssrn.com/s0l3/ papers.cfm?abstract-id=1577961. In addition to reviewing relevant empirical studies, Hessick has also proposed several sensible areas for reform.
17. Carissa Byrne Hessick, Disentangling Child Pornography from Child Sex Abuse, 88 WASH. U. L. REV., Id.
18. 458 U.S. 747, 774 (1982).
19. Id. at 752.
20. Id.
21. Id. at 756-57.
22. Id. at 759-61.
23. Id. at 761-62.
24. Id. at 762.
25. Id. at 763-64.
26. 495 U.S. 103, 110-11 (1989).
27. Id. at III.
28. Id. at 108 (distinguishing Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557, 559 (1969) ("[T]he mere private possession of obscene matter cannot constitutionally be made a crime.")).
29. Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coal., 535 U.S. 234, 239-40 (2002).
30. Id. at 240, 256.
31. See id. at 249-50.
32. Id.
33. Id. at 251-52.
34. Id. at 252-53.
35. Id. at 253.
36. Id. (quoting Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557, 566 (1969)).
37. Id. at 253-54. In response to the Ashcroft decision, Congress amended the virtual child pornography statute to specifically prohibit "pandering or solicitation" of virtual child pornography.
38. See United States v. Williams, 128 S. Ct. 1830, 1835 (2008). The Supreme Court found this facet of the statute constitutional, because the provision at issue did not target the underlying material, but only "the collateral speech that introduces such material into the child-pornography distribution network."
39. Id. at 1838-39. Since the provision was designed to apply only when the alleged panderer or solicitor actually believed that the material would depict real children, Ferber did not render the provision unconstitutional.
40. Id. at 1840.
41. See, e.g., Alexandra Gelber, Assistant Deputy Chief, Child Exploitation & Obscenity Section, U.S. Dep't of Justice, Response to " A Reluctant Rebellion" 4 (July 1, 2009), http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/ ReluctantRebellionResponse.pdf.
42. See, e.g., sources cited infra note 104.
43. See, e.g., Ashcroft, 535 U.S. at 253.
44. See, e.g., Anthony R. Beech et al., The Internet and Child Sexual Offending: A Criminological Review, 13 AGGRESSION & VIOLENT BEHAV. 216, 222 (2008).
45. Audrey Rogers, Child Pornography's Forgotten Victims, 28 PACE L. REV. 847, 852-54 (2008).
46. See Mistretta v. United States, 488 U.S. 361, 362 (1988).
47. See id. at 364-66
48. see also STEPHEN A. SALTZBURG & DANIEL J. CAPRA, AMERICAN CRIMINAL PROCEDURE: CASES AND COMMENTARY 1471-79 (7th ed. 2004).
49. Mistretta, 488 U.S. at 363-66.
50. 28 U.S.C. §§ 991, 994, 995(a)(I) (2006);
51. see also Mistretta, 488 U.S. at 367.
52. Frank O. Bowman, III, The Failure of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines: A Structural Analysis, 105 COLUM. L. REV. 1315, 1324-25 (2005).
53. Id. at 1325.
54. Id. at 1326.
55. See Mistretta, 488 U.S. at 367-68 (citing 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)-(c)).
56. 543 U.S. 220, 245 (2005).
57. Id. at 232.
58. Id. at 230-32 (citing Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 490 (2000)).
59. Id. at 245.
60. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 49 (2007).
61. Rita v. United States, 551 U.S. 338, 347-48 (2007).
62. 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2)(A)-(D) (2006).
63. See 551 U.S. at 347, 351.
64. 552 U.S. 38.
65. Id at 47.
66. Id. at 51.
67. 552 U.S. 85, 93 (2007).
68. Id. at 96.
69. Id. at 109.
70. Id. (quoting United States v. Pruitt, 502 F.3d 1154, 1171 (10th Cir. 2007) (McConnell, J., concurring)).
71. Id. at IIo.
72. See infra notes 174-82 and accompanying text.
73. U.S. SENTENCING COMM'N, THE HISTORY OF THE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY GUIDELINES I (2009), available at http://www.ussc.gov/research.htm.
74. See TROY STABENOW, DECONSTRUCTING THE MYTH OF CAREFUL STUDY: A PRIMER ON THE FLAWED PROGRESSION OF THE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY GUIDELINES 2-3 (2009), http://www.fd.org/pdf-lib/child%2oporn%2ojuly%2orevision.pdf.
75. Id. at 3-12.
76. U.S. SENTENCING GUIDELINES MANUAL § 2G2.2(b)(2) (2009).
77. Id. § 2G2.2(b)(4).
78. Id. § 2G2.2(b)(5).
79. Id. § 2G2.2(b)(6).
80. Id § 2G2.2(b)(3)(A)-(F).
81. Id. § 2G2.2(b)(7)(A)-(D).
82. 18 U.S.C.§ 2252(b)(I) (2006).
83. STABENOW, supra note 65, at 3.
84. Id. at 6-7.
85. Id. at 6.
86. Id at 6-7.
87. See Pub. L. No. 102-141, § 632, 105 Stat 834, 876 (1991)
88. STABENOW, supra note 65, at 7-8.
89. 79. STABENOW, supra note 65, at 8.
90. Id. at 8-9.
91. Id. at 9-12, 17-26.
92. See Skye Phillips, Protect Downward Departures: Congress and the Executive's Intrusion into Judicial Independence, 12 J.L. & POL'Y 947, 983-84 (2004);
93. see also id. at 983 n.185 (noting that Feeney later admitted he was only the "messenger" for the Department of Justice).
94. STABENOW, supra note 65, at 21, 24-25. Representative Feeney's amendment, commonly known as the "Feeney Amendment, " effected numerous other controversial changes in the federal sentencing scheme. Most notably, it reduced the ability of judges to invoke downward departures from the guidelines.
95. See id. at 983;
96. see also Steven L. Chanenson, Hoist with Their Own Petard?, 17 FED. SENT'G REP. 20, 23 (2004).
97. See Pub. L. No. 108-21, 117 Stat. 650, 667 (2003);
98. Phillips, supra note 82, at 983, 994.
99. See, e.g., STABENOW, supra note 65, at 21-23.
100. Id. at 20.
101. Chanenson, supra note 83, at 23 (footnotes omitted).
102. See STABENOW, supra note 65, at 27-28.
103. Id. at 29.
104. Id.
105. See id.
106. See, e.g., Neil Malamuth & Mark Huppin, Drawing the Line on Virtual Child Pornography: Bringing the Law in Line with the Research Evidence, 31 N.Y.U. REV. L. & Soc. CHANGE 773, 789 (2007) ("Regrettably, legislative and judicial judgments appear to be regularly based on feeling as much as fact, and notably without consideration of individual difference factors among pedophiles, which may serve to better tailor existing laws to external realities.");
107. Michael M. O'Hear, Editor's Observations, Perpetual Panic, 21 FED. SENT'O REP. 69, 69 (2008);
108. Suzanne Ost, Children at Risk: Legal and Societal Perceptions of the Potential Threat That the Possession of Child Pornography Poses to Society, 29 J.L. & SOC'Y 436, 443-47 (2002).
109. O'Hear, supra note 92, at 69
110. (quoting PHILIP JENKINS, MORAL PANIC: CHANGING CONCEPTS OF THE CHILD MOLESTER IN MODERN AMERICA 6-7 (1998)).
111. Id. (quoting JENKINS, supra note 93, at 7).
112. Anonymous, America's Unjust Sex Laws; Illiberal Politics, ECONOMIST, Aug. 8, 2009, at 9.
113. America's Unjust Sex Laws; Illiberal Politics, ECONOMIST, Id.
114. Ost, supra note 92, at 444.
115. Id. at 443.
116. ANNE HIGONNET, PICTURES OF INNOCENCE: THE HISTORY AND CRISIS OF IDEAL CHILDHOOD 160 (1998).
117. Ost, supra note 92, at 456-58.
118. Beech et al., supra note 37. There are certainly scholars and practitioners who believe that the panic over child pornography is entirely justified. Alexandra Gelber, of the U.S. Department of Justice, has written that "[t]he heart of a child pornography case is not Victorian-era discomfort with sex, but the sexual exploitation of children through the ongoing mass circulation of images of their abuse."
119. Gelber, supra note 34, at I
120. responding to Mark Hansen, A Reluctant Rebellion, A.B.A. J., June 2009, at 54 (Magazine), available at http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/a- reluctant-rebellion/). Similarly, Audrey Rogers has suggested that there is insufficient outrage over the problem of child pornography possession.
121. See Rogers, supra note 38, at 854.
122. Ost, supra note 92, at 447.
123. See Hessick, supra note 13.
124. See, e.g., United States v. Cunningham, No. 1:09CR154, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6097, at *43 (N.D. Ohio Jan. 26, 2010) ("[E]ven a remote possibility of a correlation between viewing child pornography and committing a hands-on offense is deeply troubling to the Court.");
125. Michael L. Bourke & Andres E. Hernandez, The "Burner Study" Redux: A Report of the Incidence of Hands-On Child Victimization by Child Pornography Offenders, 24 J. FAM. VIOLENCE 183, 189 (2009) ("[W]e believe that there exists a complex and reciprocal interaction [between viewing child pornography and contact sexual crimes].").
126. But cf. Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coal., 535 U.S. 234, 253 (2002) (rejecting the contention that virtual child pornography could be criminalized because it "whets the appetites of pedophiles and encourages them to engage in illegal conduct"). Andres Hernandez, whose studies have frequently been invoked by those who contend there is a causal connection between child pornography and child sex abuse, recently issued a position paper that noted the "misuse" of his studies:
127. Although child pornography crimes are clearly abhorrent and show visual evidence of child abuse and exploitation, the strong emotional reactions experienced by individuals enforcing child pornography laws frequently fuel the extreme argument that all of these offenders are dangerous monsters. Some individuals have misused the results of [Hernandez's prior studies] to fuel the argument that the majority of [child pornography] offenders are indeed contact sexual offenders and, therefore, dangerous predators. This simply is not supported by the scientific evidence.
128. Andres E. Hernandez, Psychological and Behavioral Characteristics of Child Pornography Offenders in Treatment 4 (Apr. 2009) (unpublished manuscript, on file with the Hastings Law Journal), available at http://www.iprc.unc.edu/G8/ Hernandezj-position-paper-Global-Symposium.pdf.
129. See Beech et al., supra note 37, at 222-25.
130. L. Webb et al., Characteristics of Internet Child Pornography Offenders: A Comparison with Child Molesters, 19 SEXUAL ABUSE: J. RES. & TREATMENT 449, 451 (2007).
131. See Jerome Endrass et al., The Consumption of Internet Child Pornography and Violent and Sex Offending, 9 BMC PSYCHIATRY, July 14, 2009, http://ww.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-244X-9-43.pdf.
132. Id. Just over half of the subjects had been convicted, but the unconvicted remainder had confessed during court proceedings and had registered (with personal credit cards) at an illegal website.
133. Id.
134. Id.
135. Id.
136. Id.
137. Id. at 49.
138. Id. at 48.
139. Webb et al., supra note 106, at 452, 455 (describing results of a study of British subjects).
140. Id. at 459.
141. Id. at 454-55.459.
142. Id. at 459.
143. Id. at 460. "Sexually risky behaviors, " as defined by the researchers, included (1) sexual convictions, arrests, or charges; (2) "observation of high-risk behaviors" (such as increased internet use or heavy drinking); and (3) "child protection investigations."
144. Id. at 455.
145. Id. at 462.
146. Id. at 463.
147. Michael C. Seto & Angela W. Eke, The Criminal Histories and Later Offending of Child Pornography Offenders, 17 SEXUAL ABUSE: J. RES. & TREATMENT 201, 208 (2005) (describing results of a study of Canadian subjects).
148. Id. at 207.
149. Id. at 208.
150. 124. Endrass et al., supra note 107.
151. See, e.g., CTR. FOR SEX OFFENSE MGMT., FACT SHEET: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX OFFENDERS I (2008), available at http://ww.csom.org/pubs/needtoknow- fs.pdf.
152. Endrass et al., supra note 107.
153. See, e.g., Webb et al., supra note 106.
154. See, e.g., Seto & Eke, supra note 121, at 209.
155. Ian Alexander Elliott et al., Psychological Profiles of Internet Sexual Offenders: Comparisons with Contact Sexual Offenders, 21 SEXUAL ABUSE: J. RES. & TREATMENT 76, 76 (2009).
156. Id at 87.
157. Id.
158. Id.
159. Malamuth & Huppin, supra note 92, at 792 (summarizing self-reporting studies as well as studies measuring physiological indices of penile arousal, by use of a plethysmograph).
160. Id.
161. see John Briere & Marsha Runtz, University Males' Sexual Interest in Children: Predicting Potential Indices of "Pedophilia" in a Nonforensic Sample, 13 CHILD ABUSE & NEGLECT 65, 71 (1989).
162. Malamuth & Huppin, supra note 92, at 792.
163. Id. at 793.
164. Id.
165. Ost, supra note 92, at 449.
166. Id.
167. See supra Part I.
168. See, e.g., supra note 85 and accompanying text.
169. U.S. SENTENCING GUIDELINES MANUAL § 2G2.2 (2009).
170. See, e.g., STABENOW, supra note 65, at 14-15 (noting that in 1996, 97% of child pornography defendants had used a computer, and that the rationales put forth in support of the enhancement no longer apply).
171. U.S. SENTENCING GUIDELINES MANUAL § 2G2.2(b)(3)(B).
172. See, e.g. United States v. Carani, 492 F.3d 867, 873-74 (7th Cir. 2007);
173. United States v. Shaffer, 472 F.3d 1219, 1223-25 (10th Cir. 2007);
174. United States v. Todd, 100 F. App'x 248, 250 (5th Cir. 2004)
175. vacated, 543 U.S. 1108 (2005).
176. 482 F.3d 1008, 1010, 1013 (2007).
177. But see United States v. Geiner, 498 F.3d 1104, IIII (1oth Cir. 2007) ("[A] defendant who distributes child-pornography files by sharing them on a file-sharing network does not necessarily do so in exchange for similar files, particularly when the defendant understands that these files are available even if he chooses not to share his own.").
178. Griffin, 482 F.3d at 1012-13.
179. Id.
180. Id. at 1009.
181. See Michael P. Murtagh, Note, The FCC, the DMCA, and Why Takedown Notices Are Not Enough, 61 HASTINGS L.J. 233, 235-36 & n.6, 245 (2009) (compiling and discussing statistics on the popularity of file-sharing).
182. See id.; see also Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U.S. 913, 919-20 (2005)
183. U.S. GEN. ACCOUNTING OFFICE, FILE-SHARING PROGRAMS: PEER-TO-PEER NETWORKS PROVIDE READY ACCESS TO CHILD PORNOGRAPHY 13 (2003), available at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/ d03537t.pdf (describing government studies finding significant amounts of child pornography on Kazaa, as well as figures from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children indicating that peer-to-peer services are an increasingly popular means of obtaining child pornography).
184. Press Release, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, 55 Charged in Multi-Agency Agency Probe Targeting Use of Peer-to-Peer Networks To Exchange Child Pornography (Aug. 19, 2008), available at http://ww.ice.gov/pi/nr/0808/ 080819losangelesI.htm.
185. The question of whether "making available" is the same as "distribution" has spurred controversy and litigation in the copyright context.
186. See generally Kristy Wiehe, Note, Dollars, Downloads and Digital Distribution: Is "Making Available" a Copyrighted Work a Violation of the Author's Distribution Right?, 15 UCLA ENT. L. REV I 17, 119-20 (2008).
187. See supra note 143.
188. See supra notes 88-90 and accompanying text.
189. U.S. SENTENCING GUIDELINES MANUAL § 2G2.2(b)(7) (2009).
190. See supra PartII.B.
191. STABENOW, supra note 65, at 21.
192. United States v. Ontiveros, No. 07-CR-333, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58774, at *17 (E.D. Wis. July 24, 2008).
193. Jerald J. Block, Issues for DSM-V: Internet Addiction, 165 AM. J. PSYCHIATRY 306, 306 (2008) (arguing that internet addiction is a common disorder and should be included in the DSM-V and noting that it includes a "sexual preoccupation" subtype).
194. See Ethel Quayle et al., Sex Offenders, Internet Child Abuse Images and Emotional Avoidance: The Importance of Values, II AGGRESSION & VIOLENT V. I , 3-5 (2006).
195. Telephone Interview with Troy Stabenow, Assistant Fed. Pub. Defender (Jan. 13, 2010). Stabenow also argues that punishing a defendant based on the number of images he or she has accumulated is akin to punishing a habitual marijuana smoker for every marijuana cigarette he or she has consumed over the past several years.
196. Id.
197. see also United States v. Kuchinski, 469 F.3d 853, 862 (9th Cir. 2006) (noting that most unsophisticated internet users are unfamiliar with the concept of automatically stored temporary internet files).
198. See, e.g.. United States v. Cunningham, No. 1:09CR154, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6097, at *22 (N.D. Ohio Jan. 26, 2010).
199. 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS, Id.
200. Id. at * 22-23.
201. United States v. Hanson, 561 F. Supp. 2d 1004, 1009 (E.D. Wis. 2008).
202. See infra note 171 and accompanying text.
203. See Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 46-49 (2007) (explaining that "a district judge must give serious consideration to the extent of any departure from the Guidelines" and that the "Guidelines should be the starting point and initial benchmark" for a sentencing decision);
204. Rita v. United States, 551 U.S. 338, 347 (2007) ("[A] court of appeals may apply a presumption of reasonableness to a... proper application of the Sentencing Guidelines.").
205. For a recent survey of such cases, see Ian N. Friedman & Kristina W. Supler, Child Pornography Sentencing: The Road Here and the Road Ahead, 21 FED. SENT'G REP. 83, 86-88 (2008).
206. Accord United States v. Grober, 595 F. Supp. 2d 382, 394-97 (D.N.J. 2008);
207. Amir Efrati, Making Punishments Fit the Most Offensive Crimes, WALL ST. J., Oct. 23, 2008, at A14.
208. See U.S. SENT'G COMM'N, SOURCEBOOK OF FEDERAL SENTENCING STATISTICS tbl.28 (2008), available at http://www.ussc.gov/ANNRn/2008/SBtoco8.htm. The 35.7% figure was obtained by adding the totals under the "Downward Departure" column and the "Below Range" column, and then dividing that sum by the total number of sentences imposed under section 2G2.2.
209. Id. tbl.N.
210. See supra Part II.A.
211. Ste Kimbrough v. United States, 552 U.S. 85, 109 (2007);
212. see also supra Part IIA.
213. No. 07-CR-333, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58774, at *I (E.D. Wis. July 24, 2008).
214. Id. at *2.
215. Id. at * 8-10.
216. Id. at *9, 16.
217. Id. at *20.
218. 595 F. Supp. 2d 382, 386 (D.N.J. 2008).
219. Id. at 384. The Code of Hammurabi is an ancient code of laws, created in Babylon in 1760 B.C.E.
220. See THE CODE OF HAMMURABI (L. W. King trans., Kessinger Publ'g 2004).
221. Grober, 595 F. Supp. 2d at 390-94.
222. Id. at 412.
223. Press Release, U.S. Sentencing Comm'n, United States Sentencing Commission To Conduct Regional Public Hearings on Federal Sentencing Policy (Jan. 13, 2009), available at http://www.ussc.gov/PRESS/re12oo90113-01.htm.
224. Id.
225. See Statement of Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney, Before the U.S. Sentencing Comm'n, Regional Hearing on the State of Federal Sentencing at 8-9 (Sept. 10, 2009), http://www.ussc.gov/AGENDAS/20090909/Fitzgerald-testimony.pdf;
226. see also Lynne Marek, Sentences for Possession of Child Porn May Be Too High, Judges Say, NAT'L L.J., Sept. 10, 2009, http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/ PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202433693658.
227. See U.S. SENT'G COMM'N, supra note 64.
228. Id. at 1.