Interesting Study

I came across press reports of this study a couple of weeks ago and thought it sounded interesting. I won't say too much about it as it's pretty self-explanatory but I'll just post the conclusion summary and the link to the study:

Consuming child pornography alone is not a risk factor for committing hands-on sex offenses – at least not for those subjects who had never committed a hands-on sex offense. The majority of the investigated consumers had no previous convictions for hands-on sex offenses. For those offenders, the prognosis for hands-on sex offenses, as well as for recidivism with child pornography, is favorable.

LINK TO STUDY

As is often quoted on the Vigilant Antis site, Sarah Tofte pointed out that at least 75% of convicted sex offenders don't reoffend again within at least 15 years. This new study has now found evidence that the viewing of child pornography doesn't lead non-abusers to start sexually abusing children.

Of course I'd never advocate any illegal activity and I'm certainly not advocating the collecting of child pornography. What I am saying is that this study clearly repudiates the unsubstantiated opinions of the posters on some other blogs. As someone who is always open to the evidence, I'll be interested to see if they can produce any academic studies that support their position or if they'll just launch into another series of vacuous ad hominem attacks.