Interview with Kathryn Seigfried-Spellar, University of Alabama

Your research focuses on the relationship between personality and deviant computer use. How did you become interested in this as a topic?

This question is always the first thing people ask me – It’s as if they want to know, “why are you interested in porn?” This question is usually followed by two assumptions: I was sexually abused as a child, or I study pornography because I am interested in S&M. The truth is really not that interesting but stems, again, from those unanswered questions I had during my academic career. I first became interested in researching Internet child pornography in 2003 when I was an intern for the Indianapolis Police Department’s Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana. One of my many tasks was the creation of a weekly “wanted poster,” and I remember coming across an individual who was wanted for possession of child pornography. However, this person had no criminal history of hands-on child sex abuse…

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