Comm 309 Week 5 Notes Lecture 9 Pornography and Sexual Violence Attorney General s Commission on Pornography examined research Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography commissioned to do research Surgeon General s Report on Pornography and Public Health examined research Justice Potter Stewart 1964 I know it when I see it Obscenity and Pornography obscenity is NOT the same thing as porn porn may not be obscene obscenity is NOT protected speech pornography is many states have regulations on obscene material 3 criteria for proclaiming material obscene 1 the material appeals to a prurient interest in sex 2 the material is patently offensive or beyond community could be a state city or county standards 3 the material lacks serious literary artistic political or scientific value o all 3 of these must exist to be proclaimed obscene this is decided by a jury we rarely see obscenity cases now because of the Internet one of the most infamous obscenity cases was at the Cincinnati Museum of Art about a piece of art by Robert Mapplethorpe depicting homosexual activities for obvious reasons there are no experimental studies on the impact of pornography on children or adolescents however the government CAN restrict children s access to sexually explicit materials child pornography is people under 18 that are protected Research Reports Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography o 1970 conducted their own research studies o they didn t see the material as harmful o they recommended sex education in middle school and high schools o funding of research into the effects of pornography o they called for the restriction of children s access to porn o they recommended against any restrictions for adults they should have free access because of their first amendment right o they did not see obscenity or porn as an important social problem o they concluded that there were no harmful effects and no evidence that exposure to such material was harmful to individuals o the US Senate rejected the findings of the report Nixon was president Meese Commission Report 1986 o found that there were casual links between porn and violence o argued that porn led to violence against women and children o they encouraged the complete elimination or abolition of sexually explicit materials o advocated stricter enforcement of existing obscenity laws and the expansion of definitions of obscenity to make more types of porn illegal o there were many obscenity cases in this time o these findings were not fully endorsed by all members of the Commission o it had a profound impact on jurisdiction Surgeon General Report 1986 o concluded that prolonged use of porn increases beliefs that less common sexual practices are more common attitudinal effects o sexually violent material has more consistent and marked effects than nonviolent erotic pornography Research Types R or X rated material with implied or actual sexual contact but no violence or coercion Erotica most research would indicate no antisocial effects Sexualized Violence Against Women R rated videos that are less sexually explicit but far more violent than X rated ones risks primarily for males who are already predisposed to sexual aggression certain types of porn violent porn show stronger associations than porn use generally contrary to the Sparks book most recent meta analysis strongly support these above conclusions Violent Pornography X Rated o known antisocial effects o probable antisocial effects Pornography Effects Caveats large individual differences in effects Violent Pornography three kinds of effects that could occur 1 effects on sexual arousal o research with rapists pretty good predictor to sexual arousal o research with nonsexual offenders 2 effects on rape related attitudes o less sensitivity toward rape victims o rape myth acceptance o proclivity to rape exposure to this material and attitudes about women seems to be a o these attitudes predict reported likelihood to rape and use of force 3 effects on aggressive behavior lab o related to lab aggression against women o can predict self reported sexual aggression Sexually Violent Media and Sexual Aggression Study effects of online material among the 10 15 year old participants surveyed self reports of intentional exposure to X rated violent material are associated with significantly higher odds of reporting perpetration of sexually aggressive behavior sexually aggressive behavior appears to be the result of a confluence of factors Malamuth Study Naturalistic study asked participants to see one of the three films on campus o 2 control films o the Getaway and the Swept Away portray myths about rape with justification and positive consequences attitudes scales administered a week later graph on d2l R Rated Media sex violence combinations more graphic violence violence occurs in a sexual context of males or females who are killed in films o prime time TV male 94 and females 6 o random R rated males 79 and females 21 o R rated sex violent films males 56 and females 44 other findings o 33 of all deaths in R rated sex violence occur within sexual context o 22 33 of females killed within sexual context o another study found sexual females are less likely to survive and had significantly longer death scenes as compared to those female characters who did not engage in sexual behaviors Long and Short Term Effects Long term o changes in mood desensitization o changes in perceptions and attitudes o changes in evaluations of real victims short term o arousal changes o evaluations of violence graph on d2l Conclusions research indicates that exposure to depictions of violence against women juxtaposed with sexual content results in callousness towards female victims and violence effect can occur without explicit sexual content message about violence against women that is important in production antisocial effects consenting sex no matter how explicit did not facilitate antisocial outcomes effects in these studies are strongest for men who already are predisposed to sexual violence in some way