Journalista & The Beat provide an interesting link this morning to a site that includes a detailed critique of the local lawyers, including an allegation that Handley was not informed by his lawyers that he was pleading guilty to a child obscenity count that could lead to prison time. This strikes me as somewhat unlikely, given that Handley is on record as expressly pleading guilty to the child obscenity statute that has long been the central public issue in the case.
Still, there are several lessons here for retailers and readers of sexually explicit comics material.
Know your environment. Whether one likes it or not, the fact is that child obscenity cases are an easy way for prosecutors to get the sort of publicity that can help them advance in their careers. Relying on the popular belief that current law is clearly unconstitutional is a rather risky proposition. That you personally don’t believe minefields should be legal doesn’t make them any less explosive.
Know your material. If there’s a chance someone could perceive your material as containing sexually explicit images of teenagers or below, you’re potentially at risk. This is particularly true with manga, which has a robust tradition of childlike imagery.
However, the realpolitik of local juries makes even literary comics a risky proposition. For example, I could easily see a local prosecutor arguing that Alan Moore’s Lost Girls is merely a prurient perversion of childhood characters with no redeeming value. Yes, a scholar may argue against this, but the audience that counts is the jury, not the academy.
Know your case. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that Handley did indeed not know the charge or the potential sentence when he copped the plea. If you, god forbid, ever find yourself in a similar position, I strongly recommend that you take a few minutes to read the documents you’re signing.
If you’re unfamiliar with a statute, look it up; if you’re not sure of the potential penalty, look that up too. If something’s not clear, ask, and if you might face jail time, consider paying for a second opinion or at least ask trying to ask the judge for clarification. It’s also wise in such situations to hold back from signing an agreement without an understanding–if at all possible, expressly stated in writing–of the sentence that the prosecutor is going to recommend.
On the flip side, it’s also useful to remember that a prosecutorial press release is designed to make the prosecutor’s side look tough on crime. A public reference to the maximum possible penalty does not mean that this is the sentence the prosecutor will request or the defendant will receive.
Again, my aim in all of this is merely to explain the situation, not to endorse it. There’s a significant gap between what many think ought to be the law and what the legal reality actually is. In the United States freedom of the press is not an absolute–if you read, sell or distribute material that could be seen as containing sexually explicit images of minors, you might want to consider how much you’re personally willing to risk.
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
One more tip: give *adult* material a chance. This is particularly true with manga, which has a robust tradition in Japan of seinen and josei stories about adults, even though American publishers seem to focus on teenagers.
June 19th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Give me a break. Congress changes a few words around in the “Protect Act” to counter the Supreme Court’s recent Ruling and all of a sudden, THAT’S the “Legal Reality”?
The reality is this : Now, it’s be so-called CARTOON minors doing naughty things on PAPER that gets someone time in the Pen…Next, it will be a picture of a woman getting her head chopped off that will lead to 25 years to life for someone who has it.
Do any of you get what I’m saying here? This isn’t about defending the content….this is about defending the right to THINK, DAMMIT!!
you hear me, Jeff?? Mark???
geez….Give someone a blog and all of a sudden they’re an expert lawyer or something..
September 25th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Lets do this easy…is hentai pornography? Is lolicon a subfetish of hentai? Then quite simply lolicon is child pornography, open and shut. thought crimes would be an unpublished text story about a 5 year old being graphicly raped…which unfortunatley is of course legal…the problem with loli is it is a visual depiction of crimes agaist children. And I know I’ll never convince supporters otherwise, people will defend their sexual orientation towards children to the death but at the same time denying they’re pedophiles. If you can give me somthing else to label someone who masturbates to depictions of children as young as toddlers being raped I’d love to hear it.
January 5th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
@ Travis
No, it’s not quite as open and shut as you may like to pretend.
Is hentai pornography? Is it? How do you seperate art/erotica/pornography/obscenity etc? There’s no essentialist quality to pornography that allows it to be objectively discernible as pornography. Like Walter Kendrick says, pornography is not a thing but an argument.
Is lolicon a ‘subfetish’ of hentai? I don’t think it’s necessarily logical to assume such a hierarchy and there’s also no guarantee that manga that otherwise concerns representations of what appear to be minor could not be considered either child pornography or obscenity.
“thought crimes would be an unpublished text story about a 5 year old being graphicly (sic) raped” It’s interesting that that’s the scenario you dreamt up considering that you could have just as easily invented a story about a pubescent figure, who’s technically a child in the legal sense, participating in a consensual sexual activity – That narrative would still have the capacity to be found objectionable.
“…which unfortunatley is of course legal…” Yeah, sniff sniff, how unfortunate. If only the government had the right to punish people for their private musings. Perhaps you should move to Canada and egg Robin Sharpe or something. BTW People in the US have been charged for writing stories in the privacy of their prison cells. These individuals were incarcerated for child sex offences and so they faced further charges for putting pen to paper. I can’t remember their names but I guess you could also find out if you were interested (but I doubt you are considering your condescending attitude suggests you seem to think that you’ve got sufficient insight into the issues at play here).
“the problem with loli is it is a visual depiction of crimes agaist children”. Nope, you could easily produce objectionable materials that were not depicting events that are criminal. Use your imagination.
“I know I’ll never convince supporters otherwise, people will defend their sexual orientation towards children to the death but at the same time denying they’re pedophiles”. If your thinking is generally as muddled and arrogant as it is here then I’d be surprised to hear you had friends, let alone be able to win an argument. Pedophilia is a diagnostic classification with lots of holes and so one could actually put forth such an argument. Add to that problems of self-identification and one has to wonder why you even bother to put forth your non-argument (that despite lack of expertise, you’re able to tell who is or isn’t a pedophile).
“If you can give me somthing (sic) else to label someone who masturbates to depictions of children as young as toddlers being raped I’d love to hear it”. Here we go again with the unsolicited nepio/pedophilia. It’s interesting that you like to conjure such scenarios.
February 18th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Ok first an foremost who’s arrogant here? You spell checked my whole paragraph! (for those of you who don’t know that’s what the many “sic’s” are when he’s quoting me…ya I had no idea what it meant either) Correcting ones spelling and other trivial aspects is a terrible tell tale sign of not being able to debate…well argue I guess in his case.
Ok now let’s jump in! Hentai by definition is “sexually explicit animation or comics”, Pornography by definition is “obscene writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, especially those having little or no artistic merit…put those two together and do the math. In fact, the origin of the word pornography came from writing about harlots(learn something new everyday). Besides the typical culture whore otaku, most would agree with Webster and look at sexually explicit anything as porn; good quote though.
Well since lolicon is a genre of hentai it is only logical to call it a subfetish, but if you don’t like that let’s call it a hentai option? or maybe your hentai preference?; and yes we’re talking about lolicon hentai, not a cartoon or comic with kids that aren’t being graphically raped, you know the stuff handley just got six months hard time for.
For the passerby who isn’t familiar with lolicon or the obsession into Japanese culture from cartoons and might be coerced into believing that he was arrested for comics that merely insinuate prepubescent sex…he wasn’t. When people debate the morality or legality of lolicon they are almost always refering to hentai lolicon which doesn’t just depict sex from behind the characters, no this is graphic genital to genital intercourse, genital to anal, oral to either and of course we can’t forget the animals, between characters depicted to be and often stated to be ages from four to twelve, any older isn’t considered to be lolicon as there is a general rule in this pedophile community that states “if there’s tit’s, it’s not loli”; and any younger actually falls into an even more disturbing sub genre of hentai known as “toddlercon”, appropriately named. Since it’s a depiction, any angle or view is possible…and used.
Ok back to the rebuttal,
the “thought crime” paragraph, your first issue I just covered as if it was a mature pubescent character it wouldn’t be considered lolicon. Now I would love to read about these actual thought crime arrests for someone writing their own story in their own cell, I doubt it though as actual thought crime arrests would make the news. About my condescending attitude, well they are pedophiles which is basically the worst and most dangerous type of criminal/deviant imaginable; and yes I do believe I have sufficient insight to the issues at play, I’ve been following the case since it happened and with lolicon in general I’ve had a few sites shut down and those that weren’t ran with their tales between their legs and moved their servers to the Netherlands, and I’m working on that;)
Your last two points are kind of hard to follow since you’re basically just trying to insult my character to avoid the issues; but I’ll try to cover what little you said with substance. Well about who is or isn’t a pedophile is quite simple, I go by the definition which is “an adult who is sexually attracted to young children”, so with handley and the rest who are let’s say “attracted” to small children, the depictions of, or just the concept of having sex with small children or viewing of these acts; therefore anyone, to put it kindly “enjoying” themselves viewing depictions of small children being raped, by definition these people would be pedophiles, and if you were trying to say it’s a disease then yes I agree with you to a point even if it’s just an addiction as addiction is a type of disease.
Now for the best part; The sentence for chris handley was issued! Very very lenient considering he was originally facing 20 years jail time. He is going away to serve six months hard time followed by 5 years supervision then three years probation this all includes mandated counseling and polygraphs to ensure he’s ready to be a productive part of society instead of the basement dwelling pedophile he was…we’ll see if it works.
February 18th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Wow, Travis: In addition to coming back to this argument really, really late, I’m impressed by how PROUD you are of your ignorance. “Yeah, I didn’t know either,” as though being unaware of something that most people get taught in high school is a badge of honor. Well done, you…I guess.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DumbIsGood
Also, no matter how many unpleasant specifics you bring into it to try and insult our sense of propriety, your entire argument is tainted by the fact that your definitions don’t match up. Your own standards, stated above, are “Ok now let’s jump in! Hentai by definition is ‘sexually explicit animation or comics’, Pornography by definition is ‘obscene writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, especially those having little or no artistic merit’”.
Sexually-explicit and obscene are not at all one and the same, and I’m sure many anime readers would disagree with what appears to be an unstated assumption in your “do the math” dismissal: that hentai is inherently without artistic merit. As in almost any obscenity case, “artistic merit” is a silver-bullet defense. I also take issue with your position that “most would agree with Webster and look at sexually explicit anything as porn.” First of all, as stated above, you’ve simplified your interpretation of Webster to meet your own ends and thereby invalidated the point. Secondly, it’s rarely safe to assume that everyone shares your opinion. “Sexually-explicit” is a very broad term and if we were to start with the understanding that anything and everything sexually explicit as pornography, the entertainment landscape would be altered substantially. It would push Laurel K. Hamilton and Stephen King, as well as any number of textbooks and murder mysteries, into niche publications, and force shows like “CSI” and “Bones” to radically alter the way they describe or depict crime.
For my money, I disagree vehemently that pointing out flaws in your opponent’s presentation show some kind of deficit in your ability to argue. The fact that someone didn’t bother to spellcheck can speak to their thoroughness as well as their critical thinking skills, which can help us to see that often, people who are in such a hurry to run others down and make their point passionately fail to take into account such things as the difference between obscenity and sexual explicitness.
February 27th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
Virgins are allowed to think about sex and watch porn constantly and still remain virgins are they not? I am sure there are many of them around. Just because you like thinking about or watching fictional depictions of something whether it be rape, murder or eating chocolate cake, it does not mean that you are going to do it in real life. I’m sure everyone here will agree to that. Again, this is a FICTIONAL DEPICTION. There were no children whatsoever involved in the making of the drawings.
January 17th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
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January 29th, 2011 at 8:41 pm
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