Pornography's Relationship To Rape and Aggression Toward Women

The Problem

• National Obscenity Enforcement Unit of the U.S. Department of Justice
  • Rape rate has climbed 43% in the last 10 years (reported May 1988)
  • The highest incidence of rape victims are teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19

• Finkelhor (1979); Kanin & Parcell (1977); Koss & Oros (1982)
  "It has been estimated that in the U.S. between one-fifth and one-fourth of the female population is subjected to rape."

• Russell (1984)
  Nearly 45% of women in a San Francisco random sample reported that they were subjected to at least one rape or attempted rape in their lifetime. 82% of the rapes were committed by non-strangers and 2/3 of the victims were assaulted by acquaintances or friends

• Koss (1987)
  84% of college students who were victims of completed rapes knew their assailant and two thirds of them were assaulted by a date.

• Bureau of Justice Statistics (1986)
  The number of forcible rapes and the rates per 100,000 population doubled in the decade of the 60's and then doubles again in the decade of the 70's -- the time of the "sexual revolution" in America.

• Abel, et al (1987)
  "The frequency of self-reported crimes" for the non-incarcerated sex offenders they studied "was vastly greater than the number of crimes for which they had been arrested. The ratio of arrest to commission of the more violent crimes such as rape and child molestation was approximately 1:30."

• Zillmann & Bryant (1982); Zillman, in press
  "Research has shown that as sexual callousness grows in strength, rape is considered a lesser transgression."

• Mosher & Sirkin (1984)
  There is a strong relationship between sexually callous attitudes and histories of forceful, coercive, aggressive sexual conquests.

• Milton (1973)
  He reported that two thirds of a sample of convicted rapists frequently fantasized forcible sadistic acts.

• Storm (1981); Kelly & Byrne (1978)
  Symbolic events that are incorporated in masturbatory fantasies and activities become closely associated with sexual excitement and this association will foster expectations of great rewarding sensations from acting out the callous, coercive actions that initially had symbolic character only. Pornography in this context, provides the material for fantasies that easily come to mind at later time and then constitute the takeoff for personal fantasies that are similar in kind. It thus guides imagery, imagination, fantasies, and expectations. Sequentially, exposure to external aggressive sexual imagery increases the probability of engaging in overt coercive behavior.

• Koss (1987)
  Only 5% of women college students who reported forced sex during the previous year reported the incident to the police.

• Russell (1984)
  Less than 10% of rapes reported in the San Francisco survey had been reported to the police.

• Kanin (1969); Mosher (1971); Koss & Oros (1982)
  "about one-fourth of male college students admitted to having made forcible attempts at intercourse"

• National Crime Survey U.S. Department of Justice
  Forcible rape has increased by 562% (73,240 cases) since 1960; by 11% between 1983 and 1986.

Does Pornography Promote Abuse?

• Gray, Susan (1982)
  "Levels of aggression in already-angered men are increased by exposure to hard-core materials."

• Federal Bureau of Investigation
  Research conducted involving 36 serial murderers revealed that 81% (29/36) reported pornography as one of their highest sexual interests, making pornography one of the most common profile characteristics of serial murderers.

• Dr. William Marshall (1983)
  He found that 86% of rapists admitted regular use of pornography, with 57% admitting actual imitation of pornography scenes in commission of sex crimes.

• Malamuth (1981)
  Responses found to characterize (convicted) rapists were:
  1) general acceptance of rape myths, and
  2) high arousal to rape depictions.

  He studied male college students, asking them, "How likely would you be to rape if you knew you would not be caught?" --35% indicated they would.

• Malamuth and Check (1985)
  After studying 307 students, they concluded that "media depictions (pornography) suggesting that (showing that) rape results in the victim's arousal contributes to men's belief in a similar rape myth -- particularly men with higher inclinations to aggress against women."

• Victor Cline, Ph.D. (Utah Psychologist)
  He identified a common pattern of progression with many pornography users (sex offenders):
  1. addiction to hard core pornography;
  2. escalation in the need for more shocking material;
  3. desensitization toward initially shocking material; and
  4. an increased tendency to "act out" sexual activities

• Zillmann, Dolf (1982)
  Findings show that massive exposure (4 hours forty minutes over six weeks) to standard pornography (people having consensual, nonviolent sex) resulted in
  1. a loss of compassion toward women as rape victims and toward women in general;
  2. a loss of concern about the effects of pornography on others;
  3. a need for more violent and bizarre forms of sex;
  4. a desensitization to violent, non-coercive hard core pornography; and
  5. a trivialization of rape.

• Michigan State Police ( Lt. Darrell H. Pope)
  Studied and recorded the use of pornography in sex crimes. He researched 48,000 sex crimes spanning a 20 year period (1956-1979). (Research was done in 1977, replicated in 1981).

  In 42% of the 48,000 sex crimes investigated, police indicated that pornography was involved -- used just prior to, or during the act of sexual assault -- as stated by the victim or the offender.

• Silbert and Pines (1984)
  A detailed content analysis of 193 cases of rape and of 178 cases of juvenile sexual abuse revealed a clear relationship between violent pornography and sexual abuse.

• Goldstein, Kant and Harman (1973)
  Rapists are 15 times as likely as non-offenders (30% to 2%) to have had exposure to "hard core" pornography during childhood or between 6 to 10 years of age. They also tended to report an earlier age of "peak experience" with pornography."

  It is highly likely, based upon McGaugh's studies on memory, that the early experiences "stood out in the minds" of these children because of the release of the chemical epinephrine during their emotional arousal. This makes these findings even more disturbing.

Pornography's Relationship To Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

The Problem

• The National Coalition For Children's Justice (Ken Wooden)
  Between 1981 and 1985, child sexual abuse rose by 175%. Child molestation cases in the home in 1986 were 216,216.

• National Center of Child Abuse and Neglect, Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Study of National Incidence and Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect (1988) (NIS-2)
  There were 138,000 children abused sexually in 1986, and another 17,000 in danger and at risk of being sexually abused.

• U.S. Department of Justice, Network News, Fall Edition (1985)
  "One in three females and one in ten males will be sexually molested before the age of 18. Four million child molesters reside in this country."

• Abel (1985)
  A study of 411 non-incarcerated sex offenders (sexual deviants or paraphiliacs) showed that sex offenders attempted an average of 581 sex offenses each, completed an average of 533 offenses, and victimized 336 people each over a 12 year period. This included pedophiles (child molesters).

• Abel, et al (1987)
  "The frequency of self reported crimes" (for the non-incarcerated sex offenders they studied) "was vastly greater than the number of crimes for which they had been arrested. The ratio of arrest to commission of the more violent crimes such as rape and child molestation was approximately 1:30.

• Report of the U.S. Congress Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Child Pornography and Pedophilia (1986)
  "No single characteristic of pedophilia is more pervasive than the obsession with child pornography. The fascination of pedophiles with child pornography and child abuse has been documented in many studies and has been established by hundreds of sexually explicit materials involving children.

  "Detective William Dworin of the Los Angeles Police Department estimates that of the 700 child molesters in whose arrest he has participated during the last ten years, more than half had child pornography in their possession. About 80 percent owned either child or adult pornography.

  Child pornography plays a central role in child molestations by pedophiles, serving to justify their conduct, assist them in seducing their victims, and provide a means to blackmail the children they have molested in order to prevent exposure.

• Abel (1986)
  He studied 240 child molesters (pedophiles). They averaged 30 (homosexual or same-sex) to 60 (heterosexual) victims before being caught. The typical child molester will sexually abuse 380 children in a lifetime.

• Carter et al (1984)
  The Los Angeles Police Department reported that most child molesters were themselves molested as children. They tend to seek out victims of the age they were when first molested. One study reported that 57% of molesters studied had been victims of child molestation themselves.

Does Pornography Promote Abuse?

• Dr. William Marshall (1983)
  87% of girl child molesters and 77% of boy child molesters studied admitted to regular use of hard core adult pornography. The obscene material was used by these sex offenders for three reasons:

  (1) to stimulate themselves;

  (2) to destroy the consciences and lower the inhibitions and resistance to sexual activity in their intended child victims; and

  (3) as teaching tools for the child to imitate or model in their real life sexual encounter with the adult.

• John Rabun, Exploited and Missing Children Unit of Louisville, KY
  "The Police/Social work team of the Exploited and Missing Child Unit (EMCU) of Louisville, KY investigated 1,400 cases of children suspected of being victims of sexual exploitation. Over 40 major cases involved the successful prosecution of adults involved with over 12 children each. One case involved 320 children. At the time of the arrest of and/or service of search warrants, all 40 of these adult predators were found with various forms of adult pornography, and in most cases child nudes and/or child pornography were also found.

  "Over four years, the EMCU team learned to expect to always find adult pornography since it was used for:

  (1) the offender's own arousal;

  (2) self-validation of their own sex deviations;

  (3) extortion of child victims or other adults; and

  (4) deliberate and planned lowering of inhibitions of child victims.

• The Badgley Report (1984)
  The report found that almost 60% of both male and female juvenile prostitutes had been asked to be the subject of sexually explicit films or photographs; 12% of the girls and 20% of the boys had actually been used in making pornography; juvenile prostitutes are a high-risk group in regard to being exploited by pornographers.

  Two smaller American studies (Burgess: 755 of youth hustlers had participated in pornography; John Rabun: 37% had participated) emphatically confirm this finding.

• Silbert and Pines (1984)
  A detailed content analysis of 193 cases of rape and of 178 cases of juvenile sexual abuse revealed a clear relationship between violent pornography and sexual abuse.

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder 111-R
  Pedophiles who act on their urges with children commonly develop excuses or rationalizations about their illegal sexual activities toward the children:

  1) that they have "educational value" for the child

  2) that the child derives "sexual pleasure" from them

  3) that the child was "sexually provocative" toward them -- led them on.

  These three rationalizations are "themes that are also common in pedophillic pornography." p.284. In other words, pornography teaches three myths that pedophiles believe, and act on, when they molest children.

• Southern California Child Exploitation Task Force (1988)
  "One of the men we prosecuted had 50,000 photographs of noncommercial child pornography in a storage locker. He admitted molesting several hundred children following his release from a state hospital for a child molestation conviction. He even maintained a ledger listing those molestations. He taught swimming and tennis to youngsters, some of whom became his victims."

Perceptual and Dispositional Consequences of Pornography Consumption

The Problem

• Weaver (1987-in press)
  Pornography makes some men believe that women want to be raped. Exposure to pornography resulted in trivialization of rape (as in Zillmann's studies) as a criminal offense. These effects are most pronounced for sexually explicit materials devoid of violent content.

• Zillmann and Bryant (1988)
  "Adoption of such values can be viewed as the direct result of absorbing the principal message of pornography: great sexual joy and ecstasy are accessible to parties who just met, who are in no way committed to one another, and who will part shortly, never to meet again."

  "The cliché" that only men are attracted to erotica and that only they might become disenchanted with the looks and sexual performance of their opposite gender partners is apparently in need of correction. Granted that women are less strongly drawn to pornography, those who consume it on a regular basis should be at a par with their male counterparts in experiencing perceptual and dispositional changes regarding dissatisfaction with sexual partners."

  "Pornography seems likely to exacerbate (dissatisfaction about sexual matters) by projecting partners and performances that are out of reach for many. A vicious circle of dissatisfaction seems to be the result."

• Zillmann and Bryant (1982, 1984)
  In their investigations both male and female subjects were exposed in 6 consecutive weekly sessions to either nonviolent hard core pornography films or films with innocuous content. Three weeks after such prolonged exposure, males and females who had been exposed to pornography:

  1. Consistently overestimated the popularity of all less common sexual practices (how many people indulge in these practices, and how often). They were tolerant "toward behaviors deemed deviant by others."

• Linz (1985) quoted in Zillmann, 1989 (in press)
  Male subjects were exposed to violent female-victimizing, non-pornographic films such as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Men came to report fewer emotional disturbances from the shock of the evidence when they were exposed to four similar other films -- they got accustomed to the violence and diminished degradation of women. In the subsequent trial this perceptual shift was carried over. "Men who had consumed the series of violent films, compared to men without such exposure, came to judge the victim of violent assault and rape as:

  1. having suffered less;

  2. having been injured less; and

  3. now being less worth altogether.

• Check (1985)
  Consumption of nonviolent hard core pornography -- but not violent hard core pornography -- was found to increase men's self-acknowledged willingness to force compliance with their particular sexual desires in reluctant partners.

• Gutierres, et al (1983).
  Exposure to pornography, compared with exposure to neutral material, led males to perceive their own female mates as sexually less attractive. They had a tendency to report loving their mates less after exposure to the apparently intimidating beautiful nudes.

• Zillmann & Bryant (1988)
  They conducted a "performance contrasting" study of 160 adult males and females (students and non-students) who were exposed to experimental treatment conditions (either hard core pornography or nature films) in one-hour sessions for 6 consecutive weeks. The hard core pornography included a wide range of heterosexual activities including fellatio, cunnilingus, coition, and anal intercourse. None of the programs contained depictions of sexual violence, bondage and discipline, homosexuality, or bestiality.

  They found that pornography consumption affected both females and males uniformly on all measured aspects of happiness and satisfaction.

  • Exposure to hard core pornography diminished satisfaction with the physical appearance of the respondents' sexual partner.
  • It reduced satisfaction with his/her affection.
  • It reduced satisfaction with his/her sexual behavior as such. It reduced satisfaction with his/her sexual inquisitiveness in particular.
  • It reduced satisfaction with the respondents' present intimate relationship altogether.
  • It reduced the importance of "faithfulness."
  • It reduced the importance of "good family relations."
  • It ENHANCED the importance of sex without emotional involvement.