The Rise of Extreme Porn: Legal and Criminological Perspectives on Extreme Pornography in England and Wales

372 Pages·2017·3.959 MB·English

by  Alexandros K. Antoniou, Dimitris Akrivos (auth.)

The Rise of Extreme Porn
Alexandros K. Antoniou (cid:129) Dimitris Akrivos
The Rise of Extreme
Porn
Legal and Criminological Perspectives
on Extreme Pornography
in England and Wales
AlexandrosK.Antoniou DimitrisAkrivos
SchoolofLawandCriminology CanterburyChristChurchUniversity
UniversityofWestLondon Canterbury,UnitedKingdom
London,UnitedKingdom
ISBN978-3-319-48970-4 ISBN978-3-319-48971-1(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-48971-1
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016958527
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To our families,
fi
with love and in nite gratitude
Acknowledgements
Weoweahugedebtofgratitudetoourfamiliesfortheirloveandnever-
ending patience. It would have been a lonely process without them.
ff
Wewouldespeciallyliketoacknowledgetheexceptionalsupporto ered
byourcharismaticfriendGauriSinha.Wewouldberemissifwedidnot
acknowledge the encouragement from our priceless friends Evangelos
Alexandrakis, Georgia Vassalos and Georgia Taratsa, who stood by
us through the tough times and kept a sense of humour when we had
lost ours.
The completion of the empirical part of this study could not have
been accomplished without the support of the Crown Prosecution
Service (CPS). Indebtedness is expressed to the CPS Principal Research
ffi
O cer Corrine Charles, the CPS Research Project Manager Richard
Milner and the CPS Senior Policy Advisor Esther George for their
generous assistance at the time when this research was conducted. In
addition,specialthanksmustbeextendedtoProfessorClarissaSmithfor
ff
theinsightfulobservationssheo eredduringaninterestingconversation
about this research over lunch.
Last, but not least, Archontoula, Elena and Michael, Yorgos, Philip,
Caroline,Nkechi,Majeks,AlisonandGaryarewarmlythankedfortheir
ff
positive attitude to our e orts.
vii
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Obscenity and Prosecution Practice in the Twenty-First
Century 25
ff
3 The Legislative History of the s 63 O ence 71
4 The Mediatisation of the Extreme Pornography Debate 117
ff
5 Deconstructing the Elements of the s 63 O ence 159
6 Prosecutions, Convictions and Sentencing 201
7 Crown Prosecution Service Case Files Review: Setting the
Scene 229
8 Thresholds of Extreme Pornography 253
9 Conclusions 307
Bibliography 327
Index 361
ix
List of Figures
Fig. 1.1 The general obscenity framework and specific legislation 17
Fig. 2.1 Offences that reached at least one hearing in magistrates’
courts in England and Wales under a number of specified
Acts 61
Fig. 2.2 Defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts for
offencescontrarytoOPA1959,s2(1)(EnglandandWales);
offendersfoundguiltyofoffencescontrarytoOPA1959,s2
(1) at all courts (England and Wales) 63
Fig. 6.1 Defendants found guilty since 26 January 2009 by year 204
Fig. 6.2 Percentage of offenders convicted of offences under s 63 of
the CJIA 2008 (2009–14) 205
Fig. 6.3 Sentence breakdown for possession of EPI under the CJIA
2008, ss 63(1), 63(7)(a) & 67(2) (2009–14) 222
Fig. 6.4 Sentence breakdown for possession of EPI under the CJIA
2008, ss 63(1), 63(7)(b) & 67(2) (2009–14) 223
Fig. 6.5 Sentence breakdown for possession of EPI under the CJIA
2008, ss 63(1), 63(7)(c) & 67(3) (2009–14) 223
Fig. 6.6 Sentence breakdown for possession of EPI under the CJIA
2008, ss 63(1), 63(7)(d) & 67(3) (2009–14) 224
Fig. 6.7 Averagecustodialsentencelength(months)forpossessionof
EPI under the CJIA 2008, s 63(1) and s 63(7)(d), England
& Wales (2009–14) 225
Fig. 9.1 The OPA 1959 and CJIA 2008, s 63 318
xi
List of Tables
Table 3.1 Breakdown of respondents to the 2005
consultation exercise 85
Table 3.2 Change to the classification of EPIs (2005–6) 96
Table 3.3 The re-classification of EPIs (2005–7) 98
Table 3.4 The re-classification of EPIs (2005–8) 107
Table 6.1 Number of offences charged since 26 January 2009 202
Table 6.2 Defendants found guilty of s 63 offences at all
courts in England & Wales by year 203
Table 6.3 Total number of defendants found guilty under s 63
of the CJIA 2008 at all courts in England & Wales
by offence (2009–14) 204
Table 6.4 Offenders sentenced at all courts in England & Wales
(2009–14) and sentence breakdown for possession of EPI
under the CJIA 2008 ss. 63(1), 63(7), 67(2) and 67(3) 221
Table 7.1 An example of case files coding 239
Table 7.2 An overview of the research cases in the sample studied 240
Table 7.3 Offender age 244
Table 7.4 PleasenteredtocountsofpossessionofEPIsunderss63(1)
and63(7) of the CJIA2008 inthe presentsample 245
Table 7.5 Case outcomes in the sample studied 246
Table 7.6 Research cases in which defendants were sentenced
following conviction for possession of EPI under
CJIA 2008, s 63 247
xiii
xiv ListofTables
Table 8.1 Description of images 257
Table 8.2 OPA 1959 and CPS charging practice 301