Speculating on Why There is Such a Failure at Deterrence, 6-20-2010

Why won't law enforcement and the pressure groups against illegal images online put in place a real program of deterrence?  Money. Deterrence does not result in arrests, which can be used when Congress starts appropriating tax dollars. Pressure groups can use the arrests of law enforcement for their fun-raising. Careers depend on arrests, but they also depend on getting money for their organizations' budgets.

I am not launching a trip into the land of Orwell or of Kafka. We have seen this relationship between a criminal "crisis" and government jobs. It is called the War on Drugs. I am not sure whether we are not seeing it in The War on Terrorism.

No investigative journalist will delve into who pushes for prison time for people like me. [One thing just noticed was that when googling United States v. Dorvee, there were no newspaper reports of the case. sch 12/10/22] We need more information on how cases like mine are selected and prosecuted. No one will touch any such story - it is politically incorrect to question the good intentions of those who would protect the children of America. It is too icky.

I will say I write here about using the internet for transmitting illegal images, not production. I have no idea how to deter those people.

Deterrence requires the object of the deterrence knowing exactly the results of the behavior being deterred. No one does this with the crimes I committed; therefore do it yourself. Flood the chat rooms. While doing this, put pressure on Yahoo to ban the use of certain names in the adult rooms, those indicating an illegal intention. (I know only the Yahoo chat rooms; this might apply elsewhere.)

sch

[Typing this up, I realized a big gap in my argument. The deterrence I proposed was meant to get anyone holding illegal images to discard them. This will not entirely remove them from the internet, but I think it should diminish the amount of illegal images and the transmittal - which is actually replication - of illegal images. Arrests will not ensue from this diminishment, therefore I do not see them of interest to anyone with an occupational and/or financial interest in maintaining the status quo. What arrests do continue should be of two classes: those very serious about the subject matter and/or those too stupid to be left to their own devices. The dilettantes should pack up their bags and vanish into the ether. I also can use the internet to point you to the genesis of my theory of how deterrence should operate: mutual assured destruction. Not that here is mutuality of destruction here, but that the knowledge of the effects of the opposing party's behavior is such that they will not act. I came to believe that the government idea of deterrence is based on an arrogance of the legal profession - that a conviction regardless of its anonymity amongst the wider world serves as a deterrent because ignorance of the law is no excuse. Of course, only lawyers know and care about what happens in a case. sch 12/10/22.]