Regarding the issue of defining material as pornographic: both within a complex framework or without the use of specialized knowledge

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the difficulties that arise in the work of the experts-psychologists and art historians when conducting a complete psychological and art historical expert examination. The author substantiates the idea that the study of pornography is not the prerogative of purely art historical expertise, as it is now in the expert practice of Ukraine. The question is raised as to the expediency of doing art historical research in cases where the fact of the presence of pornography in photographs or videos from criminal proceedings is beyond doubt and thus does not require special knowledge, in particular, an art expert or an expert psychologist. It is proposed to return art historical research to its status as art historical research, not «pornographic research» So, in the context of the issue, the existing art historical methodology for the research of pornographic products is critically examined, which does not quite meet the criteria of art historical research, but in essence, is more like a methodology in sexology and does not contain criteria for evaluating material objects for their cultural, historical or artistic value. It raises the difficult question that not everything that we might at first glance consider pornographic images can be. Sometimes, upon deeper study, it turns out that these images can be related to world culture, art, and especially modern art, such as ready-made or contemporary art. The article states that in such difficult and controversial cases, it is necessary to involve art experts. In a similar way, psychological experts should be involved in conducting comprehensive psychological and art historical expertise only in the case of establishing that a person looks like a child, that is, when the investigation has no data on the person’s true age. Also, a psychological expert is needed to establish the presence of a sexually explicit image and/or sexually explicit behaviour of a child, meaning that there are no obvious signs of pornography, but the image or behaviour of the child contains sexual subtext.