Possesion of Child Pornography Puts Woman Behind Bars for 8 years

Justified or Too Lenient?

More often than not, when we hear in the news about a sex offender, usually we are told about a man. Very rarely in the news do we hear about women committing sex crimes, especially against children. Although the child pornography was found on 22-year-old Channelview woman, Renee Allene Lofton's computer, that doesn't mean she went out and molested any children. At her sentencing hearing, Lofton told the court that she did not collect over "1,400 pictures and three movies of children being sexually abused" for sexual gratification, but because they brought back memories of her "sexual experiences as an adolescent." Lofton was sentenced to eight years behind bars.

To our knowledge, based on the article and the information given, Lofton did not act out on her "urges," making it difficult to determine whether or not eight years behind bars is a just punishment for possession of pornography. Although I'm glad the government is putting their foot down and being more harsh on sex offenders, including women and not just men, if Lofton indeed did not act out any "urges" after seeing these images, then eight years seems extreme for only having the pornography in her possession, not that I in any way condone this. If however, Lofton did abuse children, then her sentence just might be too lenient. I must say though, because she says it reminds of her "adolescent sexual experiences," assuming by this she means she was sexually abused as a child, by possessing these pictures, she is still living in her past with the abuse and has not received the proper treatment to start the healing process. If what she says is true about her childhood, a mandatory psychotherapy treatment should be added to her sentence. Just putting sex offenders behind bars for a given amount of time then releasing them will not help them and is putting society at a greater risk; it might even make them worse if no medical treatment is administered.



Original article:

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/gen/ap/TX_Child_Porn.html