Collection Summary

Creator: Dietz, Park Elliott
Title: The Papers of Park Elliott Dietz for the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography
Accession: MSS 86-1
Description: 16 boxes; 6.7 linear feet
Location: SC - Basement
Photograph Collection: View 0 digitized photographs
Digitized Content: 0 objects
Addenda
Use Restrictions: There are no restrictions.

Collection Description & Arrangement

This collection of 16 boxes (6.7 linear feet), contains material dating as far back as 1973, and as recently as 1988, but most of it was produced during the AGCP's tenure in 1985-86, and includes commission memoranda, correspondence, transcripts of testimony, reports prepared for the commission, and various drafts of portions of the final report written by the commissioners themselves. Approximately three-quarters of these papers came to the library unfoldered.

In processing, a distinction has been made between official AGCP materials and Dietz' personal files, most of which related to the commission's work as well. This distinction was at times hard to maintain, but in general the papers in containers 1-10 are either material distributed to all commissioners as part of the AGCP's official business, or correspondence between the commissioners and with outsiders relating to the commission's work. The submissions and testimony from the various public hearings are particularly voluminous, as are the reports concerning the role played by organized crime in the distribution of pornography.

The first four folders in container 11 relate to the reaction generated by the report and the commission's deliberations, primarily from those opposed. The rest of container 11 and the remainder of the collection comprises material collected by Dietz but not necessarily sent to all commissioners or even related to the commission's work. These include correspondence of Dietz and his wife Laura, particularly after the AGCP report had been released, and materials relating to the ongoing campaign against pornography in which Laura Dietz appears to have taken a special interest. The last two folders in container 15 and all of container 16 hold clippings, some specifically relating to the commission or its report, and some more generally related to pornography.

Biographical & Historical Information

Dr. Park Dietz received an A.B. from Cornell University with honors in Psychology and Distinction in All Subjects in 1970. He earned degrees in medicine (M.D.), public health (M.P.H.), and sociology (Ph.D.) from the Johns Hopkins University. While a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar, he served psychiatric residencies at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was Chief Fellow in Forensic Psychiatry. He is board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. As an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School he served as Director of Forensic Psychiatry at the maximum security hospital at Bridgewater operated by the Massachusetts Department of Correction.

Dr. Dietz was Professor of Law, of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry and Medical Director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. At the University of Virginia, he taught courses in Law and Psychiatry, Psychiatry and Criminal Law, and Crimes of Violence, provided training in forensic psychiatry, conducted research on sexual offenses, violence, and threats and directed the Forensic Psychiatry Clinic, which conducted evaluations on behalf of attorneys and courts in criminal and civil cases.

In 1985, while at the University, he was appointed by then-Attorney General Edwin Meese to serve on the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography (AGCP). The commission conducted a year-long study of the effects of pornography in the United States, and made a number of recommendations in its report, published in July 1986. Most of this collection relates to Dietz' tenure on the commission. At the end of the commission's tenure, the Department of Justice gave Dietz a collection of pornographic literature which had been used in the commission's work. He deposited that collection with the Law Library in 1986, and, upon his 1988 departure from the University, donated it to the library, along with the materials comprising this particular collection. These research materials were removed from the collection in 1996.

Acquisition Information

Date Received 1988
Donor Information Upon his 1988 departure from the University, Dietz donated this collection to the library.

Content List

Files of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography:

Box 1:

  • 1985-86; [Commission Memoranda]
  • 1985-86; [Correspondence to Commission]
  • 1985-86; [Correspondence within Commission]
  • 1985-86; [Correspondence: Miscellaneous]
  • 1985-86; [Correspondence from Citizens]
  • 1985-86; [Member Lists, Expenses]
  • 1985; Pre-Washington, D.C.
  • [June 1985] Materials
  • 1986; [Press Conferences]
  • 1985; Press Instructions
  • 1986; [Work Session Agendae]

Box 2:

  • 1985, June; [Washington, D.C. Hearing]
  • 1985, June; Washington, D.C.
  • 1985, June; Washington, D.C., June 17-20
  • 1985, July; Chicago Meeting [Dietz absent]
  • 1985, September; Houston Hearings [3 folders]

Box 3:

  • 1985, October; Los Angeles Hearings [3 folders]

Box 4:

  • 1985, November; Miami Hearings [3 folders]
  • 1986, January; New York City Hearings [2 folders]

Box 5:

  • 1986; [Ancillary Materials for NYC Meeting]
  • 1986, February; Scottsdale Hearings [2 folders]
  • 1986; Child Pornography [2 folders]
  • 1985-86; [Court Decisions]

Box 6:

  • 1986; 1986 Data Collected by Police [3 Folders]
  • 1985; Dial-a-Porn 1979; [FBI Tape Transcript]
  • 1985-87; [Miscellaneous Reports, Testimony]

Box 7:

  • 1980, 1984-86, n.d.; [Pornography Research Papers, Reports] [3 folders]

Boxes 7, 8:

  • 1977-81, 1984-85, n.d.; [Organized Crime] [3 folders]

Box 8:

  • 1984-86; [Prosecutions: Material from M. Cohen] [3 folders]
  • 1986; Social Science Findings [also includes correspondence, clippings] [2 folders]

Box 9:

  • 1985; [Reuben Sturman: Investigative Report and Indictment]
  • 1986; Television/Radio
  • 1985-86; ["Victim's" Testimonials]
  • 1986; Personal Statement for AGCP [Dietz]
  • 1986; Personal Statements [Other Commission members]
  • 1986; [Fred Schauer's Draft Report] [2 folders]
  • 1986; Schauer Draft [Annotated] [2 folders]

Box 10:

  • 1986; [Various Drafts] [4 folders]

Box 11:

  • 1986; AGPC Distribution/Reaction
  • 1986-88; Media Coalition [Critical of Report]
  • 1986; AGPC: Opposition Campaign
  • 1986-87; Playboy, Penthouse Lawsuit]

Dietz' Personal Files Relating Primarily to AGCP Work:

Box 11:

  • 1985; American Sunbathing Association
  • 1985; [Ancillary Materials: Miscellaneous]
  • 1985-88; [Anti-Pornography Groups]
  • 1986-87; [Article Manuscripts]
  • 1985; [Bible Advocate]
  • 1985; [Bradshaw to Dobson: Letters]

Box 12:

  • 1988; [Child Pornography]
  • 1986; Child Pornography: Case of Glen Foster
  • 1986; Child Pornography and Pedophilia Report: U.S. Senate
  • 1986-88; Citizens For Decency Through Law
  • 1986; Clinical Psychology News Interview
  • 1985-86; [Correspondence: Park Dietz to June 1986]
  • 1986-87; [Correspondence: Park Dietz after June 1986]
  • 1986-87; [Correspondence: Laura Dietz]
  • 1987; [Correspondence with Diana Russell]
  • 1987; Correspondence with Dr. L. Smith
  • 1983-85; [Civil Rights Approach Against Pornography]

Box 13:

  • 1985; [Criminal Justice Information]
  • 1973, 1987-88; [Dietz: Non-Pornography Work]
  • 1986; Laura Dietz: Junior League of Richmond
  • 1985-86; Feminists
  • 1982, 1985; [Freedom of Expression Issues]
  • 1984; First Amendment
  • 1986; [Justice Department on Missing Children]
  • 1985-86; Koskoff, H.: Film: "The Porning of America"
  • 1982, 1984; [Magazines: Assorted (3)]
  • 1978, 1982, 1984,
  • n.d.; [Magazines: Bondage]

Box 14:

  • 1978, 1979, 1983; [Magazines: Playboy] [2 folders]
  • 1985-88; [Mail Solicitations]
  • 1985-87; [Michael McManus]
  • 1977-78; [Dottie Meyer in Penthouse]
  • n.d.; [Miscellaneous Notes, etc]
  • 1984-86; National Christian Association
  • 1986; [National Coalition Against Pornography, Inc.]
  • 1986; National Conference of State Legislators, New Orleans [May, 1986]

Box 15:

  • n.d.; [Ongoing Campaign Against Pornography]
  • 1985; Playboy Cartoon Studies]
  • 1985; Presentencing, Mann Act
  • 1985-86, 1988; [Press Releases]
  • 1986; Religious Alliance Against Pornography
  • 1986; Rutledge Hill Press
  • 1979; [Schauer Articles]
  • 1985; [Sex Education] 1986; Speech: Pornography and Health
  • 1986; TV Media
  • 1986-88; [Violence and Sex]
  • 1986-87; [Zewe Case: U.S. Brief]

Boxes 15, 16:

  • 1978-(1986-87)-1988; [Assorted Clippings] [4 folders]

Box 16:

  • 1977-85; Newspaper Clippings/Popular Literature [2 folders]
  • 1986; [Media Reaction to Report] [2 folders]

Associated People

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