Let me get this out there right upfront: I do not want to take your porn away. I am against the exploitation and objectification of women, but I am also against censorship and Puritanical bullshit, and porn tangles all of those issues up in such a way as to make me feel uncharacteristically dispassionate about the whole mess. My official position on porn: Whatever.
So if I saw a compelling argument that porn is good for society, I would probably not go out of my way to nitpick it. But Milton Diamond‘s article at the Scientist, in which he discusses data that shows more porn is correlated with lower sexual assault rates, is not that argument. “[I]n every region investigated,” he writes, “researchers have found that as pornography has increased in availability, sex crimes have either decreased or not increased … Surprisingly few studies have linked the availability of porn in any society with antisocial behaviors or sex crimes. Among those studies none have found a causal relationship and very few have even found one positive correlation.”
Interesting. And if you’ve been going around saying that increased availability of porn causes an increase in sex crimes (or at least, that it did through the 1990s; Diamond doesn’t cite more recent findings on this subject), maybe you should stop. But speaking of the difference between correlation and causation, isn’t it kind of a big leap from that to “More porn equals less rape”?
via Stopping rape with smut – Broadsheet – Salon.com.
For the past several decades, a debate has raged as to whether or not pornography yields deleterious effects at the individual and/or societal levels (e.g., increased negative views toward women; increased rate of sexual crimes against women). In many instances, those who have sought to link pornography to countless ills have been ideologically motivated, as the aggregate scientific evidence hardly supports such conclusions. See chapter 6 of my book The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption (p. 228-235) for some relevant references on pornography.
In today’s post, I’d like to briefly report on two recent studies that shed light on the matter. In a paper published in 2009 in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Milton Diamond reviewed a very broad number of studies that have explored the supposed ill effects of pornography. Subsequent to his extensive review, Diamond concludes (p. 312):
“Indeed, the data reported and reviewed suggests that the thesis is myth and, if anything, there is an inverse causal relationship between an increase in pornography and sex crimes. Further, considering the findings of studies of community standards and wide spread usage of SEM [sexually explicit material], it is obvious that in local communities as nationally and internationally, porn is available, widely used and felt appropriate for voluntary adult consumption. If there is a consensus against pornography it is in regard to any SEM that involves children or minors in its production or consumption. Lastly we see that objections to erotic materials are often made on the basis of supposed actual, social or moral harm to women. No such cause and effect has been demonstrated with any negative consequence.”
via Pornography: Beneficial or Detrimental? | Psychology Today.
