COPINE scale

The Copine Scale is a rating system created in Ireland and used in the United Kingdom to categorise the severity of child pornography.^[1] The scale was developed by staff at the COPINE ("Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe") project.^[2] The COPINE Project was founded in 1997, and is based in the Department of Applied Psychology, University College Cork, Ireland.

Use of the COPINE scale

Therapeutic

The COPINE scale was originally developed for therapeutic psychological purposes. More specifically, it is used to distinguish between child erotica and child pornography. In an article by professor Max Taylor, one of the academics working for the COPINE project, it is stated that: "[t]he significance of this distinction is to emphasise the potential sexual qualities of a whole range of kinds of photographs (and other material as well) not all of which may meet obscenity criteria."^[3]

Judicial

In the late 1990s, the COPINE project ("Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe") at the University of Cork, in cooperation with the Paedophile Unit of the London Metropolitan Police, developed a typology to categorize child abuse images for use in both research and law enforcement.^[4] The ten-level typology was based on analysis of images available on websites and internet newsgroups. Other researchers have adopted similar ten-level scales.^[5]

The COPINE Scale

1	Indicative	Non-erotic and non-sexualised pictures showing children in their underwear, swimming costumes from either commercial sources or family albums. Pictures of children playing in normal settings, in which the context or organisation of pictures by the collector indicates inappropriateness.
2	Nudist	Pictures of naked or semi-naked children in appropriate nudist settings, and from legitimate sources.
3	Erotica	Surreptitiously taken photographs of children in play areas or other safe environments showing either underwear or varying degrees of nakedness.
4	Posing	Deliberately posed pictures of children fully clothed, partially clothed or naked (where the amount, context and organisation suggests sexual interest).
5	Erotic Posing	Deliberately posed pictures of fully, partially clothed or naked children in sexualised or provocative poses.
6	Explicit Erotic Posing	Pictures emphasising genital areas, where the child is either naked, partially clothed or fully clothed.
7	Explicit Sexual Activity	Pictures that depict touching, mutual and self-masturbation, oral sex and intercourse by a child, not involving an adult.
8	Assault	Pictures of children being subject to a sexual assault, involving digital touching, involving an adult.
9	Gross Assault	Grossly obscene pictures of sexual assault, involving penetrative sex, masturbation or oral sex, involving an adult.
10	Sadistic/Bestiality	a. Pictures showing a child being tied, bound, beaten, whipped or otherwise subject to something that implies pain. b. Pictures where an animal is involved in some form of sexual behaviour with a child.

The SAP scale

The 2002 case of Regina v. Oliver in the Court of Appeal^[6] established a scale by which indecent images of children could be "graded". The five point scale, established by UK's Sentencing Advisory Panel and adopted in 2002, is known as the SAP scale. It is based COPINE terminology and is often mistakenly referred to as such.^[7]

The SAP Scale

1	Nudity or erotic posing with no sexual activity
2	Sexual activity between children, or solo masturbation by a child
3	Non-penetrative sexual activity between adult(s) and child(ren)
4	Penetrative sexual activity between child(ren) and adult(s)
5	Sadism or bestiality

The SAP document gives a detailed explanation of how the COPINE scale was adapted. It also states that the COPINE scale was intended for therapeutic use and not designed for use in court. COPINE category 1 (indicative) was left off the SAP scale because "images of this nature would not be classed as indecent." The board found COPINE categories 2 & 3 to be disputable as to whether or not they can be classified as indecent.^[7]

See also

• Child pornography
• Child erotica
• Internet pornography
• Tanner scale (physical development scale)

References

1. ^ The legal definition of a child in this context is any person who is under that age of 18.^{[citation needed]}
2. ^ COPINE Project News and Upcoming Events (archived)
3. ^ (Taylor et al., 2001: 97)
4. ^ Quayle, Ethel (September 2008). "The COPINE Project". Irish Probation Journal (Probation Board for Northern Ireland) 5. ISSN 1649639X. 
5. ^ Taylor, M.; Quayle, E., and Holland, G. (2001). "Child Pornography, the Internet and Offending". The Canadian Journal of Policy Research (ISUMA) 2 (2): 94-100. 
6. ^ R v Oliver case summary
7. ^ ^{a b} Vella, Paul, "Understanding Computer Evidence", Evidence Matters, http://www.1gis.co.uk/img/evidence.pdf 

External links

• COPINE Project
• old link COPINE project (archived)
• UK Sentencing Guidelines (This sentencing advice is from 2002 and has been superseded by Sexual Offenses Sentencing Guidelines)