OBSCENE COMMUNICATION CASES
Our sample of sex offenders includes 16 males, in addition to the six discussed above, who had been convicted on the basis of obscene notes, pictures, gestures, or speech. None was a telephone caller. While some sexual element was involved in every case (otherwise they would not be classed as sex offenders), there is usually no evidence that they got any sexual gratification from the obscenity at the time of the offense—the obscenity was either used as a tool to achieve another purpose or the element of communication was absent or minor.
To be more specific, these 16 cases may be placed in two categories:
1. Those who employ obscene pictures, gestures, or speech as a
means of soliciting others for sexual activity. While they may gain
some pleasure from this modus operandi, their main aim is to get an
immediate sexual partner; it is not “obscenity for its own sake” as is
typical of the “obscene telephoners,” although an occasional telephoner
may also obscenely solicit. In this category, which can be labeled (to
the confusion of the British) “obscene solicitors,” we can see two sub-
groups:
Those who display obscene pictures under the generally erroneous impression that the female will be sexually aroused by them.
Those whose solicitation involves words or gestures regarded as obscene.
We have 11 “obscene solicitors” in our sample, and eight solicited females under age sixteen; in fact, seven solicited girls under twelve. Before one assumes that this is an activity associated specifically with pedophilia, one must realize that a powerful selective factor is involved: obscene solicitations directed toward adult females are almost always adequately handled by the woman herself and the law is less often brought into the matter. Six of the 11 males had been convicted of a sex offense other than that of obscenity.
2. Those who were, in essence, guilty only of possessing obscene
material and who were not, insofar as is known, utilizing it for solicitation. We have three such cases. Two of the men were being investigated for some nonsexual behavior and the obscene material was discovered accidentally. In other words, the police “frisked” them and
found some erotica and used this discovery as a convenient excuse for
arrest and incarceration. The third case was one in which some boys discovered obscene material in a roomer’s suitcase and told their parents, who called the police.
The remaining two cases are miscellaneous: a man who decorated his jail cell with a drawing that the authorities found offensive and because of it prolonged his stay by an additional sentence, and secondly, a man who sent obscene material through the mail to a former girl friend.
Just as with the obscene telephone communication cases, this category of “other obscene communication” cases does not constitute an entity: the obscenity is just one minor symptom of social and psychological disorders that in most cases manifested themselves in more important and dramatic ways. Thus we find that of the 16 men, half were also convicted of more serious sex offenses, chiefly offenses vs. children and exhibition. Note that while exhibition was found in half of the histories of the males who made obscene telephone calls, there was no evidence of pedophilia. Of the remaining eight other obscene communication cases, we find:
Three males who solicited female children and who, in two of the instances, would probably have had overt sexual activity with them had they not been interrupted.
One male with a history of delinquency and crime including a juvenile sex offense.
One intelligent, educated, but highly neurotic man.
One male whose only other known undesirable behavior was vagrancy and drunkenness.
One male whose solicitation was well meant but foolishly crude.
One male who solicited by means of obscene notes left in cars and telephone booths. This male was akin to the “obscene telephoners” in that he obtained sexual pleasure in observing the women as they read his notes and in tensely waiting for women to find them. However, his main aim seems to have been obtaining a sexual relationship. Interestingly enough, in background this man was like the “obscene telephoners”—unbroken home, reasonable family life, an adequate hetero-sexuality, and an incidental homosexual experience.
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