NCJ Number
105543
Journal
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology Volume: 19 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1986) Pages: 259-284
Date Published
1986
Length
26 pages
Annotation
Renewed governmental inquiries into the regulation of sexually explicit materials have revived interest in the relationship (if any) between pornography and sexual offenses.
Abstract
In this article, we review the the criminological studies which have explored this relationship. Availability of sexually explicit materials appears to be unrelated to the frequency distributions of reported rape, though evidence points to a decline in child molestation. In the second part of the article, we situate the putative link between pornography and sexual deviance within some of the contemporary theories of rape causation and some of the known social correlates of rape victim and offenders. Community, victim, offender, and legislative characteristics would appear to be much more convincing explanations of variations in the rates of reported rape than the circulation of pornography and sexist repression attributed to it by certain feminist and Christian writers. (Author abstract)