Pattern Criminal Jury Instructions of the MAILING OBSCENE MATERIAL 18 U.S.C. § 1461

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Currency: Updated July 14, 2023
• Section: Pattern Criminal Jury Instructions
• Notes: When evidence shows that the materials are intended to appeal to the prurient interest of members of a clearly defined deviant sexual group, rather than the average public-at-large, the instruction must be modified accordingly. One suggestion for modification appears in the brackets at the end of subsection (2) of the instructions.

2.59

SUBSTANTIVEOFFENSES

213

2.59

MAILINGOBSCENEMATERIAL

18 U.S.C. § 1461

The defendant is charged with mailing obscene mate-

rial in violation of 18 U.S.C. section 1461. This law makes it

a crime to use the United States mail to send obscene

material. For you to f‌ind the defendant guilty of this crime,

you mustbeconvincedthatthe government hasprovedeach

of the following beyond a reasonable doubt:

First: the defendant knowingly [used the mail] [caused

the mail to be used] to convey or deliver [specify type of al-

leged obscene material];

Second: the defendant knew the general nature of the

content of the [specify type of alleged obscene material] at the

time of mailing;

Third: the [specify type of alleged obscene material]

[were] [was] obscene.

To prove that material is “obscene,” the government

must establish three things:

(1)

that the material appeals predominantly to pruri-

ent interest;

(2)

thatitdepicts or describessexualconductina

patently offensive way; and

(3)

that the material, taken as a whole, lacks serious

literary, artistic, political, or scientif‌ic value.

An appeal to “prurient” interest is an appeal to a morbid,

degrading, or unhealthy interest in sex. The f‌irst test,

therefore, is whether the predominant theme or purpose of

the material is an appeal [to the morbid,degrad- ing, or

unhealthy sexual interest as considered by an aver- age

person in the community as a whole] [to the prurient interest

of members of a def‌ineddeviantsexualgroup].In