Editing Judith Reisman (section)

===Images of children, crime and violence===

In 1983, the [[United States Department of Justice]] (DOJ) was headed by [[social conservatives]], including [[Alfred S. Regnery]] in the [[Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention]] (OJJDP). Reisman had given a talk on a [[Washington, D.C.]] radio program and on [[CNN]]'s ''[[Crossfire (U.S. TV program)|Crossfire]]'' about the "connections between [[sex education]], sex educators, and the [[pornography industry]]" which was heard by a member of the DOJ, and Reisman was asked to discuss her views in person, which "struck a common chord ... especially those opposed to sex education in the schools." She was then invited to apply for a [[Grant (money)|grant]], which was approved without competition for the amount of $798,531 (though later reduced to $734,371), to undertake a "study at [[American University]] to determine whether [[Playboy]], [[Hustler (magazine)|Hustler]] and other more explicit materials are linked to violence by juveniles."<ref name=Trento /><ref name="palmbeach-1984">{{cite news |title=Memo: $798,000 Porn Study Could Be Made for $60,000 |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=[[The Palm Beach Post]] |date=5 March 1984 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VwItAAAAIBAJ&pg=1220,5268385 |access-date=16 November 2010 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name=Margasak>{{cite news |title=New study will determine how adult magazines affect children |author=Larry Margasak ([[Associated Press]]) |newspaper=[[The Gettysburg Times]] |date=3 May 1985 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=w5oyAAAAIBAJ&pg=4320,5493446 |access-date=16 November 2010}}</ref> The allocation came under criticism as the grant was approved despite a staff memo from Pamela Swain, a director of research, evaluation and program development, in which she claimed that the study could be accomplished for $60,000.<ref name="palmbeach-1984"/>

By 1986, Reisman concluded her investigation of "372 issues of ''Playboy'', 184 issues of ''[[Penthouse magazine|Penthouse]]'' and 125 issues of ''Hustler''" that found "2,016 cartoons that included children apparently under the age of 17 and 3,988 other pictures, photographs and drawings that depict [[infant]]s or [[youths]]," the details of which were collected into "a three-volume report running to 1,600 pages" titled "Images of Children, Crime and Violence in Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler."<ref name=nude>{{cite news |title=Nude Women, Mud Pies, And The Deficit |first=James J. |last=Kilpatrick |newspaper=[[The Blade (Toledo)|The Blade]] |date= 26 September 1986 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VRNPAAAAIBAJ&pg=3253,4342177 |access-date=16 November 2010|author-link=James J. Kilpatrick }}</ref> The report drew contemporary criticism in regards to its cost and quality.<ref name=Margasak /><ref>{{cite news |title='Kiddie porn' study called waste of money |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=[[The Telegraph (Nashua)|Nashua Telegraph]] |date=8 May 1985 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QJorAAAAIBAJ&pg=3737,1555440 |access-date=16 November 2010}}</ref> [[Sex crime]] researcher [[Avedon Carol]] commented that the report was a "scientific disaster, riddled with researcher bias and baseless assumptions."<ref name="Carol">Carol, Avedon 1994, Nudes, Prudes and Attitudes: Pornography and Censorship, New Clarion Press, Gloucester. p. 116. [https://books.google.com/books?id=k6iLAAAAIAAJ&q=scientific+disaster][https://books.google.com/books?id=k6iLAAAAIAAJ&q=baseless+assumptions]</ref> The American University (AU), where Reisman's study had been academically based, refused to publish the completed work, citing concerns by an independent academic auditor. [[Criminologist]] Robert Figlio of the [[University of Pennsylvania]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.asanet.org/footnotes/julyaugust08/obit.html#link_2 |title=Footnotes--July–August 2008 Issue--Obituaries |date=July–August 2008 |work=ASA Footnotes |publisher=[[American Sociological Association]] |access-date=28 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205131005/http://www.asanet.org/footnotes/julyaugust08/obit.html#link_2 |archive-date=2010-12-05 |url-status=live }}</ref> stated "The term child used in the aggregate sense in this report is so inclusive and general as to be meaningless."<ref name=nude /> Loretta Haroian stated about the report "vigilantism: paranoid, pseudoscientific hyperbole with a thinly veiled, hidden agenda."<ref name="SPLC"/>

Author Susan Trento chronicled additional complexities surrounding the episode. Initially, Reisman was targeted by some as a proxy to attack Regnery. The nature of Reisman's grant work and the concurrent [[Attorney General's Commission on Pornography]], which would author the [[Meese Report]] in 1986, caused anxiety in the pornography industry. Fears began to come to fruition when [[7-Eleven]] stores stopped selling ''Playboy'' and ''Penthouse'', in part citing Reisman's work. Trento writes that the public relations firm headed by [[Robert Keith Gray]] was hired by ''Playboy'' and ''Penthouse'' "to discredit Meese's Pornography Commission" specifically as well as others that threatened their business, presumably including Reisman.<ref name=Trento /><ref>{{cite book |title=Mr Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream |last=Watts |first=Steven |year=2009 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons|Wiley]] |isbn=978-0-470-52167-0 |page=375 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m5b_eM3twmEC&pg=PA375 |access-date=21 November 2010}}</ref> "Whatever the merits of her research," Trento wrote, when support from the OJJDP was needed most, its leadership backed away from Reisman leaving her project to fail and leaving Reisman feeling "bitter" and "helpless" after "spending years developing an expertise and doing what she thought was an excellent job in the [[public interest]]."<ref name=Trento />

In 2017, Reisman became involved in a group called Investigating YouTube.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://investigatingyoutube.com/ |title=Home &#124; Investigating YouTube |access-date=2017-07-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803211513/http://investigatingyoutube.com/ |archive-date=2017-08-03 |url-status=live }}</ref> Specifically, she voiced her concern about the disturbing content in [[YouTube]] videos targeted at children, [[Elsagate|involving suggestive imagery and violence while using popular children's figures]] such as ''Frozen'''s [[Elsa (Disney)|Elsa]] and [[Spider-Man]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.dropbox.com/s/0i7rnq1hvtshu4e/My%20Movie%201.mp4?dl=0 |title = Dropbox - Link not found}}</ref>