{"id":1392981,"date":"2022-03-21T23:44:48","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T03:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1392981"},"modified":"2022-03-21T23:44:51","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T03:44:51","slug":"hamilton-democrats-parrot-national-review-article-favoring-judge-ketanji-brown-jacksons-leniency-on-child-porn-offenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hamilton-democrats-parrot-national-review-article-favoring-judge-ketanji-brown-jacksons-leniency-on-child-porn-offenders\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton: Democrats Parrot National Review Article Favoring Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson\u2019s Leniency on Child Porn Offenders"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhamilton-democrats-parrot-national-review-article-favoring-judge-ketanji-brown-jacksons-leniency-on-child-porn-offenders%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1392981&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) last week <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/crime\/2022\/03\/17\/hawley-bidens-scotus-pick-pattern-letting-child-porn-offenders-off-hook\/\">sparked debate<\/a> after posting the rulings, interviews, articles, and speeches of President Joe Biden\u2019s Supreme Court nominee and accusing her of having a<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>\u201cpattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook\u00a0for their appalling crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the days before Ketanji Brown Jackson\u2019s confirmation hearing, which began on Monday, fact-checkers were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/ap-fact-check-republicans-twist-jacksons-judicial-record\/2022\/03\/19\/2301bb1a-a7b1-11ec-8628-3da4fa8f8714_story.html\">quick to scramble<\/a> to Jackson\u2019s defense, splitting hairs and <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/fact-check-judge-ketanji-brown-jackson-child-porn\/story?id=83565833\">issuing \u201cwhataboutisms\u201d<\/a> without ever successfully <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/nothing-sen-hawley-said-about-brown-jackson-has-been-debunked\">debunking<\/a> Hawley\u2019s findings. Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) in his opening remarks on Monday even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/video\/?518341-1\/confirmation-hearing-supreme-court-nominee-ketanji-brown-jackson-day-1&#038;vod\">quoted<\/a> one such column written by Andrew McCarthy for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2022\/03\/senator-hawleys-disingenuous-attack-against-judge-jacksons-record-on-child-pornography\/\"><em>National Review<\/em><\/a>, using the piece as fodder to back up his opinion that Republicans are attempting to twist Jackson\u2019s record to prevent her confirmation to the highest court in the United States.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cDespite your record, we\u2019ve heard claims that you are \u2018soft on crime.\u2019<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>These baseless charges are unfair. A conservative <em>National Review<\/em> columnist called claims brought by one of my colleagues \u2018meritless to the point of demagoguery,\u201d\u2019 Durbin leveled at the top of the hearing. \u201cThey fly in the face of pledges my colleagues made that they would approach your nomination with civility and respect. And fact-checkers, including the <em>Washington Post<\/em>, ABC News, and CNN have exposed some of these charges as falsehoods.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The disturbing and factually inaccurate trend that has emerged with McCarthy\u2019s column and other so-called fact-checks, however, is that they refuse to address Hawley\u2019s concerns head-on, downplay or misunderstand the severity of possessing child sex abuse images, and ignore vast bodies of research about the harm experienced by children in these images.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of the <em>National Review<\/em> column, McCarthy first establishes his ethos as a prosecutor with nearly 20 years of experience before saying Judge Jackson\u2019s views on child porn possession sentencing are \u201cnot only mainstream\u201d but \u201ccorrect is [his] view.\u201d McCarthy directly refers to Hawley\u2019s concern that Judge Jackson\u00a0 supported \u201celiminating the existing mandatory-minimum sentences for first-time offenders who receive or distribute child pornography.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI do not exactly have a reputation for being soft on crime. For example, I would have no qualms if Congress imposed a sentence of life imprisonment for <strong>real sex offenders<\/strong> who prey on children.<b> <span>But the required five-year sentence we\u2019re talking about is too harsh,\u201d McCarthy wrote, ultimately calling Hawley\u2019s tweets a \u201csmear.\u201d [emphasis added]<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span>At another point in the article, McCarthy seemingly downplays the nature of the crime, comparing a hypothetical \u201c40-year-old miscreant\u201d with a hypothetical \u201cimmature 22-year-old who <strong>drifted into shameful behavior<\/strong>\u201d [emphasis added], and saying a judge has leeway to distinguish between traffickers and \u201cthose who collect because they\u2019re titillated and desensitized\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span>Overall, McCarthy claims Hawley \u201cdistorted\u201d Jacksons\u2019 record on sex offenders, saying that \u201cafter all the throat-clearing,\u201d Hawley is \u201cnot talking about offenders who themselves abuse children, or even those who produce pornography. He is referring to porn consumers.\u201d<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Here\u2019s the Issue\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><b><span>At the heart of McCarthy\u2019s column, which has been regurgitated as some kind of evidence by Democrats even Biden\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AndrewJBates46\/status\/1505838443926065154\">White House deputy press secretary<\/a>\u00a0in favor of Jackson, seems to be the notion that people who possess child sex abuse images are merely looking at pictures and are not \u201creal sex offenders,\u201d though they play a role in demand.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Of course, there is a legal difference between trafficking, creating child sex abuse images, and possessing them. But McCarthy\u2019s piece, in reality, only contains anecdotes and hypothetical scenarios and does little if no digging into actual research about the nature of child porn offenders.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Insinuating that these offenders are not \u201creal sex offenders\u201d but young men who \u201cdrifted into shameful behavior\u201d or are simply \u201ctitillated\u201d by images of abused children is a false oversimplification of an extremely dangerous and damaging crime. It is an argument, when politically weaponized by leftists and corporate media, that could ultimately lead to the silencing of the people affected most by these heinous crimes: the children being abused.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20022698\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/02\/Biden-Nominates-Jackson-to-SCOTUS.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 FEBRUARY 25: U.S. President Joe Biden (L) looks on as Ketanji Brown Jackson, a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, delivers brief remarks as his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court during an event in the Cross Hall of the White House February 25, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2><strong>Digging Into Data<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Hawley is rightly concerned about Jacksons\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HawleyMO\/status\/1504221949941137415\">past rulings<\/a>, regardless of whether or not her judgments are on par with a greater<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ussc.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/pdf\/research-and-publications\/quick-facts\/Child_Pornography_FY18.pdf\"> trend of judges sympathizing with child porn offenders<\/a>\u00a0(like other fact-checkers have <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/fact-check-judge-ketanji-brown-jackson-child-porn\/story?id=83565833\">suggested<\/a>).The senator during Monday\u2019s hearing, as well as in a statement in response to another fact-check, pointed to the \u201cexploding severity of child porn usage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA 2019 New York Times report found 45 million images of child pornography that year, more than double from the previous year, and up from less than a million a decade ago,\u201d Hawley <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawley.senate.gov\/hawley-refutes-fact-check-judge-jacksons-record-lenient-sentencing-pedophiles\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"ncmec2-h3-white\">The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.missingkids.org\/gethelpnow\/cybertipline\/cybertiplinedata\">NCMEC<\/a>) also reported that its Cyber Tipline received 29.3 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2021, a 35 percent increase from 2020. According to the organization, 99 percent of the reports were for regarded incidents of suspected child sex abuse material.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Along with the explosion of online child porn consumption (which McCarthy did acknowledge in his column), academic studies have also shed light on the nature of \u201cnon-contact\u201d child porn crimes, some concluding that offenders who engage with child sex abuse content online are extremely likely to have abused children in real life.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/soc-cj.iastate.edu\/2021\/03\/24\/delisi-study-finds-sexual-offenders-commit-more-crimes-than-their-record-shows\/\">2020 study<\/a> out of Iowa State University, which replicated a previous 2016 study and came to the same conclusion, suggests that sexual offenders of even minor offenses are \u201clikely capable of committing more severe sexual crimes than their official records indicate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf the 216 offenders in DeLisi\u2019s latest study, 73.8 percent admitted to previous sexual abuse, which is consistent with the 2016 study (69 percent). Also, 59 percent of the offenders who were charged with possession or distribution of child pornography, considered a low-risk offense, admitted to previously committing sexual abuse. One offender reported 25 victims,\u201d according to the study.<\/p>\n<p>The study\u2019s author\u00a0Matt DeLisi said the data replication affirms that sexual offenders of even minor offenses are \u201clikely capable of committing numerous sexual crimes that will forever traumatize their victims.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are two broad ways you can react to this population. One is in favor of crime control, victims and public safety, which is the view I and my fellow authors have,\u201d DeLisi said. \u201cThe other view is that it\u2019s not a severe crime because it\u2019s only online behavior and they have no criminal history, so therefore you are being unjustified in viewing them as a higher risk. That is not our view.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The study is similar to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apa.org\/monitor\/2009\/12\/child-abuse\">another study<\/a> executed in 2009 by the\u00a0Federal Bureau Prisons, which relied on offenders\u2019 self-reporting rather than just conviction records.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs part of their intensive therapy, the men filled out assessment measures including a \u201cvictims list,\u201d where they revealed the number, though typically not the identity, of children they had sexually molested in the past,\u201d the American Psychological Association (APA) said of the study. \u201c\u2026At the time of sentencing, 74 percent of the men had no documented hands-on victimization. But by the end of treatment, 85 percent had admitted they had sexually molested a child at least once, with an average of 13.5 victims per offender, the study finds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As far as the \u201cjust pictures\u201d argument, <a href=\"https:\/\/ucalgary.ca\/news\/research-shows-watching-child-pornography-not-victimless-crime\">specialists in the field<\/a>, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/cacjc.org\/viewing-child-pornography-a-victimless-crime\/\">various organizations<\/a>, have rebutted the idea that viewing child porn is a victimless crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot only do these images and videos document victims\u2019 exploitation and abuse, but when these files are shared across the internet, child victims suffer re-victimization each time the image of their sexual abuse is viewed,\u201d according to NCMEC. \u201c<a title=\"https:\/\/protectchildren.ca\/pdfs\/C3P_SurvivorsSurveyExecutiveSummary2017_en.pdf\" href=\"https:\/\/protectchildren.ca\/pdfs\/C3P_SurvivorsSurveyExecutiveSummary2017_en.pdf\">In a recent survey led by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection<\/a>, 67 percent of\u00a0CSAM survivors said the distribution of their images impacts them differently than the hands-on abuse they suffered because the distribution never ends and the images are permanent.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What\u2019s Next<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>McCarthy ended his column by arguing that while there are plenty of reasons to oppose Jackson\u2019s nomination, her child porn offender rulings are not one of them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd she may in fact be too solicitous of criminals. But the implication that she has a soft spot for \u201csex offenders\u201d who \u201cprey on children\u201d because she argued against a severe mandatory-minimum prison sentence for the receipt and distribution of pornographic images is a smear,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Hawley, during the hearing, responded to Durbin\u2019s quoting of McCarthy, saying: \u201cThe chairman quoted someone earlier today who takes that point of view. I\u2019ll just be honest, I can\u2019t say that I agree with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere\u2019s my point \u2014 I think it\u2019s difficult against this backdrop to argue that the sentencing guidelines are too harsh or outmoded or that we should be treating child porn offenders more leniently than the guidelines recommend,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The senator did compliment Jackson during Monday\u2019s hearing on her composure and said she \u201cdeserves the [opportunity] to speak for herself on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not interested in trapping Judge Jackson, I\u2019m not interested in trying to play \u2018gotcha.\u2019 I\u2019m interested in her answers because I found in our time together that she is enormously thoughtful, enormously accomplished, and I suspect has a coherent view and an explanation and a way of thinking about this that I look forward to hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jackson\u2019s hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee are set to take four days and will\u00a0give members the opportunity to question Jackson, a judge, and attorney, about her views and record.\u00a0President Biden chose Jackson to fulfill his promise of putting the first black woman on the Supreme Court. If confirmed, Jackson will fill Justice Stephen Breyer\u2019s seat when he is expected to retire in July.<\/p>\n<p><em>Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on\u00a0<a class=\"x5l\" title=\"This external link will open in a new window\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/katherineeeeee2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) last week sparked debate after posting the rulings, interviews, articles, and speeches of President Joe Biden\u2019s Supreme Court nominee and accusing her of having a\u00a0\u201cpattern of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1392981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1392981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1392981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1392981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1392981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}