Relationship between pornography and sex crimes

Discuss the issue if pornography causes sex crimes

Two major governmental commissions to get at root of this issue. 1) 1972. The commission of obscenity and pornography (COP) 2) 1986. Meese commission report. Edwin Meese attorney general of the US under Ronald Reagan. On ties to pornography and sex crimes

spurious relationship

no causal relationship. X does not cause Y. Z causes both X and Y.

1972 report

no tie between pornography and sex crimes. Variety different types of research approaching question. Lots of info.

methodological issue #3 with Meese Commission Report

All the researchers centered on one population. The population of survey, the population used in terms of experimental studies. The singular population was college aged males. They do not typify entire generation or entire male population. College aged males tend to be the single most sexually aggressive group out there. They are not generalizable, unique in terms of their perspectives. Bad research.

1972 example two

Denmark liberalizing pornography laws. Porn to be more accessible to public. Study on sex crimes before and after liberalization. Looked at both minor and major sex crimes after liberalization. Minor-flashing exposing yourself to people, peeping. Major- pedophilia, rape. Found that after liberalization minor sex crimes dropped significantly, major sex crimes dropped a little bit but not as much. If pornography was causing sex crimes one would expect the opposite.

1972 example one

Found that sexual offenders by rate viewed pornography less than average person. If porn was causing sex crimes one would expect sex offenders would watch porn more.

discuss the spurious relationship found with the correlational studies of sex crime and porn

Hyper masculinity- a personality constructs. High levels of dominance. Hyper machismo guy attitude Predicts pornography Consumption And sex crimes. Best research that violent porn Will cause heightened reactions beyond nonviolent porn and non-porn violence on attitudinal measures about sex. Shifts are mild. We should be concerned about violent pornography.

methodological issue #4 with Meese Commission Report

Ideologically driven. National organization of women and strong religious right. Don't agree on a lot but do agree on their dislike for pornography. Not about methodology but ideology. Not about finding truth but finding an outcome.

mythical relationship between porn and sex crimes fictional

If pornography was causing sex crimes and vast majority of Americans occasionally use pornography for sexual titillation, then we would all be sex offenders. The commonality of its use suggests there is other things going on. This is a very simplistic view of things. New report suggests that this relationship is fiction. A political, ideological, theological concern but not a practical concern. No empirical evidence for it.

most created legally

Most is ok under 1st amendment freedom of speech. Porn is freedom of expression a Form of communication. Supreme court has held that it cannot be curtailed.

Academic Research lab studies on sex crime and porn

Peer reviewed. Moved from ideology. studies took People into a room to measure their attitude to a variety of different things, their willingness to aggress in sex, their sympathy towards rape victims, belief that rape victims ask for their attack, take their attitudes and expose them to pornography and take their attitudes again to see if there is a shift. To see if porn caused any difference in terms of their attitudes. Violent porn, sex and violence tends to have a greater impact than either nonpornographic violence or nonviolent pornography. Violent pornography the issue because it has a greater impact. Great issue is construct validity, are you measuring what you had intended to measure. Had intended to measure the impact of pornography on violent sex crimes, behavioral, but attitude shifts were being measured. We think things, but we don't carry out what we think. Negative thoughts not manifested. Wanted to measure a behavior but we were measuring attitudes.

the myth of pornography and sex crimes

Pornography is causing sex crime, pornography causing a wave of criminal behavior

1986 Meese Commission on Pornography

Reagans world. Ronal Reagan did not like conclusion of reports. Requested attorney general Edwin Meese go out and readdress issue. Overarching conclusion that pornography causes sex crimes. Exact opposite conclusion that earlier report got. Diametrically imposed. Horrifically flawed methodologically. The methods use for conclusion were questioned.

methodological issue #2 with Meese Commission Report

Used a lot of anecdotal evidence, asking people why you are a sex offender and asking victims why you were victimized. Sex offenders and victims would suggest pornography. The problem was that it was a retrospective reading. You have people trying to understand their own victimization and people who want to justify their behavior and find a reason to why it happened. Anecdotal evidence case study is not good research. Doesn't lead to verifiable conclusions. Meese commission report relied heavily on it. People with agendas against pornography testifying porn was bad.

Discuss the criminality of pornography

Vast majority of pornography in this country produced, distributed and sold legally. Not illegal to sale. Pornographers tied to organized criminal syndicates. Claim true. A lot of organized criminal syndicates tied to pornography, but they are doing it legally. Organized crime is not about being a criminal but organized crime is about making money. bottom line sex sells, ton of money in pornography. Ties to general criminality doesn't exist. No tie to crime.

methodological issue #1 with Meese commission report

When Meese commission report researchers did lab studies exposing people to pornography and seeing what their reactions would be in terms of willingness to commit sex crimes, they only used violent pornography. A mixture of sex and violence. Exposure to violence causes aggression. People were picking up residual aggression.

Where do people see depictions of violent pornography? Where is sex and violence tied together. describe context analysis study.

a group of academics took all major categories of film presentations X rated films (pornographic films), R rated, pg13, and G rated. R rated most commonly has depictions of sex and violence, routinely tied together. Second is PG 13 sex and violence routinely tied together in these films. X rated films are closer to G rated films than PG 13 because sex and violence are not mixed in x rated films. G rated films mix sex and violence. Young boys are mostly impacted by sex and violence in PG films. Policy makers concerned about sex and sex crime should be most concerned about PG and R rated films because it is where most sex and violence are. X rated films just sex. What does violent sexuality look like at a PG level? Ex. Gaston proposing to Belle.

academic research out of lab studies on porn and sex crimes

correlational work out in communities. Measured consumption of pornography and amount of sex crimes. Number of subscriptions to playboy, number of subscriptions to pent house, subscriptions to a variety of television channels. Lots of ways to measure consumption of porn. Then measured sex crimes, police record, victim reports. Subscriptions to playboy increased sex crime increased. But then other researchers took a look at correlational studies. They looked at relationship in terms of other magazines. Increase in Consumption of field and stream (hunting magazine) subscriptions predicted sex crime. Same with hot rod magazine, sports illustrated, boy's life boy scouts and same outcome. Problem with research. Correlation does not mean causation. Because two things are statistically related does not mean they are causally related.

1972 report example three

group survey to general population of Americans. Asked men how many times they occasionally use pornography for sexual excitement. 95%. 85% of women use pornography for sexual excitement.