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THE DAMAGING EFFECTS OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
by Diana E.H. Russell, Ph.D.
Written September 2004

DO NOT QUOTE WITHOUT OBTAINING MY PERMISSION.

Introduction and Background:

I sent this manuscript to my editor at Routledge Publishers in September 2004. Unfortunately, I was very late in meeting my deadline for many reasons, especially my intense involvement in initiating a campaign against the richest landlord in Berkeley (after UC Berkeley) for his 15-year exploitation of minor sexual slaves imported from India -- among other crimes.

My editor had just quit her position at Routledge to accept a job at the New York University Press, so my manuscript remained unread while Routledge searched for a new editor. By January of 2005, a new editor had still not been hired, so I wrote to Mary McGinnis, the Vice President of Routledge to ask her what I should do about this. I feared if I revised the manuscript before I had an editor, she might well request that I revise it yet again. Ms. McGinnis told me to go ahead and revise it. Meanwhile, she said she would also like to see my manuscript.

Less than a week later, she called me and declared that, "There is no way that Routledge will be associated with a book of this nature." "Why not?" I asked her. "It's the branding issue," she replied.

"What do you mean?" I asked her, but she didn't explain. I interpreted her statement to mean that she didn't want Routledge to become known for publishing such a shocking book. It included many sexually explicit child pornography stories written for pedophiles, as well as descriptions of child pornography, including gross cartoons, all of which were legal.

I told Ms. McGinnis that I was willing to remove the material that bothered her, but she insisted that she had discussed the issue with members of the staff, and she wasn't willing to reconsider. She resolutely held to her position despite my continued pleas. Since my manuscript was late, I had broken our contract, so I knew she would have this excuse to disregard it. Of course, this wasn't a genuine concern for her, since she had told me that I should go ahead and revise my manuscript. She said that she would help me find another publisher for this book. However, she did not follow through on this promise.

I contacted my previous editor at New York University Press to ask if she and this publishing house would be interested in publishing Stolen Innocence. It so happened that New York University Press had published the major social scientific book on child pornography in recently. So she said that there would be no interest in publishing a book that would be in competition with this volume.

I considered suing Routledge for breach of contract, since the lateness issue was obviously not the real reason for refusing to give me a chance to revise my manuscript. A respected colleague advised me not to, because she believed this would make it next to impossible to find another publisher, as well as jeopardizing publishers' interest in future projects of mine.

Stolen Innocence: The Damaging Effects of Child Pornography
Table of Contents

Preface: Child Pornography and Molestation: My Personal Experience

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: A Collage of Descriptions of Child Pornography Pictures

Chapter 3: The Legal History of Child Pornography

Chapter 4: The Prevalence of Child Pornography

Chapter 5: The Economics of Child Pornography

Chapter 6: Childrens' Access to Adult and Child Pornography

Chapter 7: Child Pornographers and Pedophiles: Personal Stories

Chapter 8: Introduction to Russell's Theory on Pornography as a Cause of Child Sexual Abuse

Chapter 9: Russell's Theory of Child Pornography as a Cause of Child Sexual Victimization

Chapter 10: Other Damaging Effects of Pornography on Children

Chapter 11: Testimonies by or About Survivors of Pornography-Related Sexual Abuse

Chapter 12: The Internet: A Child Pornography Utopia for Pedophiles

Chapter 13: Snuff, Torture, and Sadistic Child Pornography

Chapter 14: Child Pornography and Sexually Misogynist Cartoons in Mainstream Men's Magazines

Chapter 15: Child Pornography on the Internet

Chapter 16: Child Pornography Stories on the Internet

Chapter 17: Conclusion

Appendix: Definitions and Terminology

References

Home | About Diana Russell | Pornography As a Cause of Rape (book excerpt) | Publications | Other links |