"It would allow that unit to focus on obscene glorifications of sexual violence against women and marginalized members of our community and allow the very effective Child Exploitation component of CEOS at DOJ to continue their focus on child abuse images."
The group Morality in Media, now the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, had put the Department of Justice on its 2013, 2014 and 2015 "Dirty Dozen" lists of the "top contributors to sexual exploitation" for closing the special task force and for not prosecuting obscenity crimes enough.
In a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch in January of 2016, the center noted that "to our knowledge, not one new obscenity case has been initiated against commercial distributors of hardcore, adult pornography in the last seven years."
"Yet, federal law prohibits distribution of obscene adult pornography on the Internet, on cable/satellite TV, on hotel/motel TV, in retail shops through the mail, and by common carrier," they continued.
They pointed to "themes of incest, racism, sexism, and exploitation" found in content from Verizon and InterContinental Hotels Group, including an "emphasis on teen and young girls."
NSCE concluded by asking the Department of Justice to prosecute obscenity crimes more seriously:
"In an age when our society is struggling to deal with serious child and adult sexual exploitation, racially-motivated sexual violence, and epidemic of sexual assault on college and university campuses, thousands of young women and girls are being trafficked for purposes of prostitution, Department of Justice employees must be admonished to not engage in purchase of sex from prostituting persons, and child sexual abuse is 167 times more common than autism in children, adult, hardcore pornography only serves to exacerbate deeply entrenched social ills that have devastating impacts at the individual and societal level. It is long past time for the producers and distributors of this sexually toxic material to face justice."
Matt Hadro was the political editor at Catholic News Agency through October 2021. He previously worked as CNA senior D.C. correspondent and as a press secretary for U.S. Congressman Chris Smith.