Pornography, Sex Crime, and Paraphilia

Abstract

The current paper reviews research findings concerning the association of pornography with sexual violence and paraphilic interests. Little clarity concerning the causal impact of pornography on sexual aggression or child-oriented sexual behavior has been achieved in the scientific literature. Laboratory experimentation demonstrates that violent pornography may contribute to antiwoman aggression, but the artificiality and constraints of the experimental setting severely limit generalization of these findings to real-world situations, and observational studies in natural settings consistently find no association or an inverse association of pornography with sexual aggression. In addition, although pedophiles often use child pornography, the causal impact of child pornography on child sexual offending is not conclusive. The current analysis considers the confluence of predisposing factors and pornography use as issues requiring clinical judgment in the reduction of sexual aggression and management of paraphilic interest in children.

Men’s Objectifying Media Consumption, Objectification of Women, and Attitudes Supportive of Violence Against Women

“…The emphasis on pornography has limited an understanding of the varieties of media that may affect men's attitudes supportive of violence against women or ASV (Seto, Maric, & Barbaree, 2001). The lack of explanation and empirical investigation of psychological mechanisms underlying associations between exposure to objectifying but sexually assault absent media and ASV has led to persistent questions about the validity of this relationship (Allen et al, 1995;Ferguson & Hartley, 2009;Fisher et al, 2013).…”

“…For example, in a review article, Fisher et al (2013) minimized studies finding links between popular pornography exposure and ASV (i.e., Malamuth, Addison, & Koss, 2000;Malamuth et al, 2012) because''no compelling explanation [was] offered to conceptualize a linkage between nonviolent sexual imagery and attitudes and behavior involving sexual violence'' (p.4).Asanotherillustration,intheir reviewarticle,Fergusonand Hartley (2009) stated that because''most pornography is of a nonviolentnature''itmaybe''time torethinkthe relationshipbetween pornography and sexually assaultive behaviors''(p. 327). Given the prevalence of sexual assault, the severity of its consequences, and the impact such researchers' conclusions may have on public and practitioner opinion (Bushman & Anderson, 2001;Martins et al, 2013), it is important to consider at a theoretical level whether there is justification for the hypothesis that rape-absent depictions may still adversely affect men's ASV.…”

“…First, despite the factthatwomen are frequently objectified in mainstream media (i.e., age unrestricted, sexually nonexplicit media), most studies have focused on pornographic media (i.e., age restricted, sexually explicit media) (Allen, Emmers, Gebhardt, & Giery, 1995;Attorney General, 1986;Hald et al, 2010). Second, scholars have questioned why exposure to media that rarely, if ever, depict sexual assault would affect men's attitudes related to sexual assault (Ferguson & Hartley, 2009;Fisher, Kohut, Gioacchino, & Fedoroff, 2013).…”

Kinderpornografie

“…Herausfordernd bleibt weiterhin die Identifikation derjenigen, die ein Risiko für Progression zu Hands-on-Straftaten aufweisen und bei denen eine Behandlungsindikation besteht, gerade wenn die diagnostischen Einschätzungen im strafrechtlichen Kontext erfolgen und die Beurteilungsgrundlage aus Selbstauskünf-ten und gefundenem Bildmaterial besteht. Das Management von sexuell aggressivem Verhalten und paraphilen Interessen bleibt eine Angelegenheit individueller klinischer Beurteilung, die prädisponierende Faktoren wie auch den Gebrauch von pornografischem Material berücksichtigen muss (Fisher et al 2013). Eine entsprechende Disposition im Sinne einer Paraphilie ist der kritische Faktor, der durch Konsum von Missbrauchsabbildungen zu Risikokonstellationen führen kann (Seto et al 2001).…”

Virtual acts, real crimes? a legal-philosophical analysis of virtual cybercrime

“…Research conducted in experimental settings confirms that exposure to sexually violent pornography can lead to "antiwoman attitudes and antiwoman acts" but this research is criticized for its experimental setting (Fisher, Kohut, Di Gioacchino & Fedoroff 2013, p But whether or not research can confirm the feminist assumption that pornography, or at least female-unfriendly pornography, can negatively influence attitudes and behaviours towards women is actually beyond the scope of this chapter. As was indicated in the introduction to this section, I do not wish to argue against (adult) pornography but I want to extend the abovementioned arguments against (adult) pornography to the case of entirely computer-generated child pornography.…”