The Controversy Over Pornography and Sex Crimes: The Criminological Evidence and Beyond

Abstract

Renewed governmental inquiries into the regulation ofsexually explicit materials have revived interest in the relationship (if any) between pornography and sexual offences. In this article we review the criminological studies which have explored this relationship. A vailability ofsexually explicit materials appears to be unrelated to the frequency distributions of reported rape, though evidence points to a decline in child molestation. In the second part of the article we situate the putative link between pornography and sexual deviance within some of the contemporary theories of rape causation and some of the known social correlates of rape victims and offenders. Community, victim, offender and legislative characteristics would appear to be much more convincing explanations of variations in the rates of reported rape than the circulation of pornography and sexist repression attributed to it by certain feminist and Christian writers.

A synthesized (biosocial) theory of rape.

“…One of the most controversial issues surrounding rape in recent years has had to do with whether or not exposing men to pornography increases their rape proneness. Writers have interpreted the existing research quite differently in this regard, some suggesting that the causal connection is well established (e.g., Russell, 1988; Zillmann, 1986) whereas others have interpreted at least the vast majority of the evidence as either ambiguous or indicative of little to no influence (Brannigan & Kapardis, 1986; Donnerstein, Linz, & Penrod, 1987; Reiss, 1986, p. 190).…”

The relationship between nonenforcement of state pronography laws and rates of sex crime arrests

“…Showing feature films that combine sex and aggression to male subjects on 5 consecutive days led to desensitization and disinhibition when the subjects were shown a videotaped rape trial (Linz et al, 1984). However, the effects of violent pornography in laboratory studies are inconsistent and such studies have significant methodological and conceptual limitations (Fisher and Grenier, 1994;Brannigan and Kapardis, 1986).…”