Legalizing child porn lowers abuse rates

Child pornography is one of the most harshly punished of American laws. You can serve a long prison sentence without any criminal intent or harm to a victim. Here is another view:

Could making child pornography legal lead to lower rates of child sex abuse? It could well do, according to a new study by Milton Diamond, from the University of Hawaii, and colleagues.

Results from the Czech Republic showed, as seen everywhere else studied (Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sweden, USA), that rape and other sex crimes have not increased following the legalization and wide availability of pornography. And most significantly, the incidence of child sex abuse has fallen considerably since 1989, when child pornography became readily accessible – a phenomenon also seen in Denmark and Japan.

There are other reasons for banning child porn. But the assumption that it reduces child sex abuse appears to be faulty.