Author's personal copy - CHRISTOPHER J. FERGUSON

1 This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attachedcopy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial researchand education use, including for instruction at the authors institutionand sharing with uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling orlicensing copies, or posting to personal , institutional or third partywebsites are most cases authors are permitted to post their version of thearticle ( in Word or Tex form) to their personal website orinstitutional repository. authors requiring further informationregarding Elsevier s archiving and manuscript policies areencouraged to visit: 's personal copyThe pleasure is expense damnable?The influence of pornography on rape and sexual assaultChristopher J. Fergusona, , Richard D. HartleybaDepartment of Criminal Justice, Applied Sciences and Criminal Justice, Texas A&M International University, 5201 University Boulevard, Laredo, TX78041, United StatesbUniversity of Texas San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249-1644, United Statesabstractarticle infoArticle history:Received 30 March 2009 Received in revised form 7 April 2009 Accepted 10 April 2009 Available online 18 April 2009 Keywords:PornographySexual assaultRapeViolenceMass mediaThe effects of pornography , whether violent or non-violent, on sexual aggression have been debated fordecades.

2 The current review examines evidence about the influence of pornography on sexual aggression incorrelational and experimental studies and in real world violent crime data. Evidence for a causalrelationship between exposure to pornography and sexual aggression is slim and may, at certain times, havebeen exaggerated by politicians, pressure groups and some social scientists. Some of the debate has focusedon violent pornography , but evidence of any negative effects is inconsistent, and violent pornography iscomparatively rare in the real world. Victimization rates for rape in the United States demonstrate an inverserelationship between pornography consumption and rape rates. Data from other nations have suggestedsimilar relationships. Although these data cannot be used to determine that pornography has a catharticeffect on rape behavior, combined with the weak evidence in support of negative causal hypotheses from thescientific literature, it is concluded that it is time to discard the hypothesis that pornography contributes toincreased sexual assault behavior.

3 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights History of The national commissions on pornography 3242. The causal hypothesis of media violence and its extension to 3253. Experimental research on the effects of exposure to 3254. Correlational studies of pornography 3265. pornography consumption and 3266. Rape myths and 3277. The 1990s crime 3288. 328 The difference between pornography and erotica is lighting. ~Gloria Leonard The pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and theexpense damnable. ~Lord ChesterfieldResearch on the topic of pornography has been controversial forseveral decades, particularly during the 1980s with the MeeseCommission. Researchers, politicians, religious authorities, and fem-inists have argued over the potential deleterious effects of porno-graphy, particularly regarding male assault behavior toward the rhetoric, evidence for negative effects for pornography ,whether violent or non-violent has not always been consistent, andmost industrial nations are currently experiencing a significantdecline in rape and sexual assault rates despite the increasingavailability of pornography .

4 The current article examines the data onpornography and sexual and Violent Behavior 14 (2009) 323 329 Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 956 326 2636; fax: +1 956 326 FERGUSON ).1359-1789/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights lists available atScienceDirectAggression and Violent BehaviorAuthor's personal copy1. History of pornographyThe types of images or media that are considered pornographichave changed considerably over time. For the purposes of the currentarticle, pornography is defined as any media with sexual activity ornudity that is explicit and has sexual arousal as its mainpurpose. In theUnited States there are no explicit rules about which media areconsidered pornographic; standards vary from jurisdiction to jurisdic-tion and guidelines are generally vague. pornography involvingchildren, however, has been consistently labeled as obscene, andpossessionof this typeof pornographyis has set general guidelines on obscene material.

5 For instance,Rothv. United States (1957)ruled that material was obscene when it wouldbe considered objectionable by an average person, using communitystandards, and where the media has only prurient, not artistic v. California (1973)provided further guidelines as to whatmaterials were this ruling, any mediawhich had undueinterest in nudity, sex, or excretory functions and no redeeming socialvalue were considered to be obscene. In the Miller case, the courtspecifically mentioned pornography , ruling most pornography hasFirst Amendment protections because any media that portrays adultsengaged in consensual sexual activity would not be consideredobscene by community standards based on its popular of humans engaging in sexual acts are not anythingnew. Numerous forms of erotic art originating in ancient Greece andRome, and other Asian, African, and European cultures has beenuncovered by archeologists.

6 TheKama Sutrais a well-known Indiantome outlining various sexual acts and practices that is said to dateback to the 2nd or 3rd century (Burton, 1883). pornography , as it isknown today, is said to be the product of Victorian England (Sigel,2002). As pornography became more popular and its productionincreased, laws were enacted in attempts to restrict its availability tothe public. With the advent of photography and motion pictures,access became more widely available. Because of pornography andobscenity laws, however, most pornography was probably producedby amateurs and bought and sold underground. By the 1950s and1960s, Supreme Court cases began to limit censorship only topornography considered hard-core; however, censorship of hard-core pornography would also gradually be challenged. After thefilmDeep Throatwas released in 1972, New York's mayor ordered thetheater where it was being shown closed down.

7 Charges were alsofiled against Harry Reems, one of the actors in thefilm, for conspiracyto distribute obscene material. Reems was convicted of these chargesbut on appeal his conviction was overturned. Under the Miller ruling considerable First Amendment protections wereafforded to pornographicfilms. This allowed the pornographicfilmindustry to rapidly expand and become a very profitable 1980s saw pornography becoming more widely available withthe invention of the VCR and VHS video tapes. This prompted asignificant counterattack to the availability of pornography byreligious conservatives and feminists. They formed an unusual allianceand lobbied for censorship. This was also part of the impetus behindPresident Ronald Reagan convening the Meese The national commissions on pornography effectsThe two national commissions, one in the early 1970s and one inthe early 1980s, attempted to provide the public with more definitiveanswers regarding the link between pornography exposure andaggressive behavior and crime.

8 The 1970 Commission on Obscenityand pornography concluded that there were no anti-social or adverseeffects from exposure to sexually explicit material. Then in the mid-1980s, President Ronald Reagan commissioned another governmentinquiry into the effects of pornography . Attorney General EdwinMeese headed the commission, which some felt was padded withanti- pornography crusaders such as Father Bruce Ritter (who laterwas involved in a scandal involving alleged sexual activity with maleresidents of a Christian shelter) and James Dobson of Focus on theFamily (Wilcox, 1987). The Meese Commission invoked considerablecontroversy before its results were even released (Hertzberg, 1986).Predictably, the Meese Commission concluded that there was a causallink between viewing pornography and sexual violence towardwomen (Attorney General's Commission on pornography , 1986).According to the report, viewing pornography changes perceptionsof typical sexual behavior, trivializes rape, promotes rape myths anddirectly leads to male aggression toward women.

9 Though the MeeseCommission acknowledged that these effects were particularlyprevalent for violent porn, these conclusions were generalized toinclude all pornographic material. The commission recommendedthat obscenity laws be strengthened and that the ability to sell orpurchase pornographic materials be curtailed. Though the MeeseCommission has supporters among academic psychology ( ,1990), several psychological researchers have spoken out against thecommissions conclusions. Two members of the commission, Beckerand Levine, were also critical of the commission's generalfindings(Linsey, 1998).Linz, Donnerstein, and Penrod (1987)questioned the causal linkbetween pornography and male sexual violence proposed by theMeese Commission. Regarding male sexual violence, Linz et al. notedthat research suggests that violent pornography , as well as slasher films, promote rape trivialization and rape myths, but non-violentpornography has not demonstrated increases in male sexual aggres-sion.

10 In fact, as noted byPalys (1986), non-violent pornography tendsto depict few acts of sexualized aggression as well as egalitarian sexualrelationships between males and et al. (1987)suggestthat the effects of pornography on the causation of male sexualaggression toward women are the aftermath of the Meese Commission report, some porno-graphic magazines were removed from convenience store shelves butthe report did little else to thwart the availability of pornography . Bythe 1990s several new concerns would arise because of increasedaccessibility to porn. The greatest change was the distribution ofpornography via the internet. Advent of the internet made porno-graphy easily available, and in a greater quantity, to anyonedetermined to access it. Such increased availability and consumptionraised the issue once again as to pornography 's effect on behavior, andespecially the effect of the availability to those under the age of could now be easily accessed over the internet and in theprivacy of the consumer's home, and often at no charge.