Extending the Labyrinth: Part VII of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
| Date | 01 May 1995 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1995.tb02016.x |
| Published date | 01 May 1995 |
May
19951
Part
VII
of
the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act
1994
society for the passage of this Act. The opposition it has aroused will continue
when injustices resulting from its implementation become more apparent. The
already sullied reputation which the United Kingdom has in relation to its human
rights record,
so
frequently exposed to criticism at Strasbourg, will continue to
deteriorate as this Act will undoubtedly lead to further successful applications.
Extending the Labyrinth: Part
VII
of
Justice and Public Order Act the Criminal
1994
Richard
Stone
*
Defending pornography and pornographers is never an easy task. Nevertheless,
even those who are involved in the production and distribution of sexually or
violently explicit material have a right to expect that their freedom should be
restricted no more than necessary and that such restriction should be tied to the
achievement of clear policy goals.’ Does Part VII of the Criminal Justice and
Public Order Act 1994, which contains a collection of provisions extending the
scope of the existing law on obscenity, pornography and videos, meet such
expectations? The answer suggested here is that it does not, but rather simply
extends the labyrinth of provisions dealing with this area.
There are two main amendments introduced by this part of the Act. First, there
is a lengthy provision in section 84 which extends the scope of the Protection of
Children Act 1978 and introduces the concept of the ‘pseudo-photograph.
’
Secondly, there are various changes made by sections 89 and
90
in the criteria for
the censorship of video recordings. In addition to these substantive changes, there
are several amendments to matters of procedure and sentence. These various
elements of Part VII will be considered in turn and some conclusions as to its
overall effect will then be attempted.
Section
84:
Indecent pseudo-photographs
of
children
The Protection of Children Act 1978 was passed to deal with a perceived problem
of child pornography.2 The aim of the legislation was, as explained by the long
title, ‘to prevent the exploitation of children by making indecent photographs of
them.’3 In other words, the target was not the photographs themselves, which
might or might not be obscene articles under the Obscene Publications Act 1959,
but the process by which the photographs were made. The Act was attempting to
stop the involvement of children under 16 in the production of indecent films or
photographs by the indirect means of making the creation
or
distribution of such
material a criminal offence.
*Professor of Law, Nottingham Trent University.
1
2
eg protection of others from harm, discouragement of anti-social behaviour, promotion
of
equality
between the sexes.
Michael Freeman, who annotated the Act for
Current
Law
Stututes,
was at the time sceptical as to the
magnitude of the problem, suggesting that the Act might simply be ‘an emotive reaction to a moral
panic engendered by a crusade undertaken by well-known moralists and publicity-seeking policemen
assisted by an American psychiatrist.’
Films
are, for the purposes of the Act, treated as photographs:
s
7.
3
0
The
Modem
Law
Review Limited
1995
3
89
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