NCJ Number
105054
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 29 Issue: 2 Dated: (April 1987) Pages: 133-152
Date Published
1987
Length
20 pages
Annotation
A mail questionnaire survey was designed to meet the need for a Canadian community standard for pornography by obtaining a cross section of judgments from residents in two Ontario cities between 1985 and 1986.
Abstract
The questionnaire (the Community Standard Index) consisted of measures of the perceived quality of community life, authoritarianism (conservatism), perceived effects, offensiveness, personal use of pornography, tolerance to sexual cues in various media, demographics, and religiosity. Analysis of 226 (of 1,000 mailed) responses indicates that both samples had moderately low levels of tolerance toward pornography, as predicted. The stability of these results from year to year and across both communities suggests the index is consistently stable and may prove useful in other communities. In addition, freedom of choice, self-reported use of pornography, degree of perceived sexual proclivity, and overall tolerance to sexual cues in home-video cassettes accounted for more variance in index scores than did demographic or religiosity variables. 45 references.