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Eric Holder, Department of Justice Top 'Dirty Dozen' for Contributions to Sexual Exploitation

National Center on Sexual Exploitation says Holder did not enforce preexisting laws to protect against exploitation

Eric Holder disembarks from a TAXPAYER-FUNDED airplane. (AP)
January 21, 2015

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation released its "Dirty Dozen" list for 2015 Wednesday.

Businesses and organizations that made the list are targeted for their contributions to sexual exploitation in the United States.

The list includes a diverse selection of groups such as American Apparel, the American Library Association, Hilton Hotels, and BackPage.com, which is one of the top places to buy and sell children and women in the world.

Among the 12 was the Department of Justice, and for the past two years, specifically, outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder for not enforcing federal obscenity laws. The laws, which were enforced in previous administrations and upheld by U.S courts, prohibit the distribution of obscene adult pornography in hotels, retail stores, by cable, and on the Internet.

Dawn Hawkins, the executive director of the center, said that they are lucky to have a new attorney general coming into office whom they hope will prioritize this issue. The DOJ has not initiated a single new case against commercial distributors that have violated the law in the last six years. With the White House’s recent campaign launch against sexual assault, NotAlone.com, it has not done much under the law to protect sexually violated women.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation sites its mission to "defend human dignity" by fighting violence against women, sex trafficking, child sexual abuse, prostitution, and pornography. In publishing the "Dirty Dozen," they hope to further educate the public on the harmful effects of these issues and will help push the groups to have more protective policies.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has already seen success in influencing Facebook to block child pornography on its site, for Google to take down sexually explicit ads, and for Verizon to stop offering child pornography.