NCJ Number
109630
Journal
Critical Studies in Mass Communication Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1987) Pages: 262-283
Date Published
1987
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This study reviews some crucial experimental studies of the behavioral impact of exposure to violent or aggressive pornography and assesses their validity and relevance as a basis for censoring pornography in the aftermath of the Meese Commission's report.
Abstract
The relevant research is deficient on a number of grounds. Methodologically, many research designs confound the effects of the pornographic stimuli with the subjects' anger. The theoretical models habitually do not explain the research results; and to the extent that they do, the models do not constitute a basis for censorship policies. The evidence of aggression is ambiguous and subject to contradictory interpretations. Means in factorial designs are reported incompletely; scales are constructed incredibly, particularly the Likelihood to Rape Scale; and the experimental procedures are questionably related to everyday realities. Although censorship policies might have a sound basis on moral and ideological grounds, this particular strain of research does not produce a scientific basis for such policies. 2 figures, 6 notes, and 84 references. (Author abstract modified)