NCJ Number
186987
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: January-February 2001 Pages: 35-53
Editor(s)
Vincent B. Van Hasselt,
Michel Hersen
Date Published
2001
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Despite the public and scientific attention the topic has received, the evidence for a link between pornography and sex offending remains equivocal, and this article critically examines the research literature on the association between pornography and sex offending.
Abstract
Focusing on relevant experimental work, the difficulty of the research is highlighted in a discussion of operational definitions of pornography, the choice of proxy measures for sex offending in experimental research, and the emphasis given sexual assault of adult females over other kinds of criminal sexual behavior such as child molestation, exhibitionism, and voyeurism. The authors also review major theoretical perspectives concerned with conditioning, excitation transfer, feminist, and social learning perspectives, as well as some of the hypotheses that can be derived from them. From the existing evidence, the authors argue that individuals who are already predisposed to sexually offend are the most likely to show an effect of pornography exposure and are the most likely to show the strongest effects. Men who are not predisposed are unlikely to show an effect. If there actually is an effect, it is likely to be transient because these men would not normally seek violent pornography. Finally, the authors present a Darwinian perspective on the possible relationship between pornography use and sexual aggression. 97 references