Pornography and rape: theory and practice? Evidence from crime data in four countries where pornography is easily available

We have looked at the empirical evidence of the well-known feminist dictum: "pornography is the theory--rape is the practice" (Morgan, 1980). While earlier research, notably that generated by the U.S. Commission on Obscenity and Pornography (1970) had found no evidence of a causal link between pornography and rape, a new generation of behavioral scientists have, for more than a decade, made considerable effort to prove such a connection, especially as far as "aggressive pornography" is concerned. The first part of the article examines and discusses the findings of this new research. A number of laboratory experiments have been conducted, much akin to the types of experiments developed by researchers of the effects of nonsexual media violence. As in the latter, a certain degree of increased "aggressiveness" has been found under certain circumstances, but to extrapolate from such laboratory effects to the commission of rape in real life is dubious. Studies of rapists' and nonrapists' immediate sexual reactions to presentations of pornography showed generally greater arousal to non-violent scenes, and no difference can be found in this regard between convicted rapists, nonsexual criminals and noncriminal males. In the second part of the paper an attempt was made to study the necessary precondition for a substantial causal relationship between the availability of pornography, including aggressive pornography, and rape--namely, that obviously increased availability of such material was followed by an increase in cases of reported rape. The development of rape and attempted rape during the period 1964-1984 was studied in four countries: the U.S.A., Denmark, Sweden and West Germany. In all four countries there is clear and undisputed evidence that during this period the availability of various forms of pictorial pornography including violent/dominant varieties (in the form of picture magazines, and films/videos used at home or shown in arcades or cinemas) has developed from extreme scarcity to relative abundance. If (violent) pornography causes rape, this exceptional development in the availability of (violent) pornography should definitely somehow influence the rape statistics. Since, however, the rape figures could not simply be expected to remain steady during the period in question (when it is well known that most other crimes increased considerably), the development of rape rates was compared with that of non-sexual violent offences and nonviolent sexual offences (in so far as available statistics permitted). The results showed that in none of the countries did rape increase more than nonsexual violent crimes. This finding in itself would seem sufficient to discard the hypothesis that pornography causes rape.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

College Women and Sexual Assault: The Role of Sex-related Alcohol Expectancies

This study examined the relationship between alcohol, sex-related alcohol expectancies, and sexual assaults among women college students. Participants completed measures of sexual behaviors, sexual victimization experiences, sex related alcohol expectancies, and drinking habits. Based on participants’ responses women were categorized as having experienced no assault, unwanted sexual contact, sexual coercion, attempted rape, and rape. It was observed across groups that relative to controls, women reporting attempted rape and rape consumed higher levels of alcohol. Within group comparisons revealed that relative to controls, victimized women endorsed higher levels of sex-related alcohol expectancies. In the prediction of severity of sexual victimization, regression analyses revealed an interaction between alcohol consumption and expectancy of vulnerability to sexual coercion. At higher levels of alcohol consumption women endorsing high vulnerability to sexual coercion experienced more severe victimatization. Implications of the findings are discussed. This work was conducted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree by the first author under the direction of the third author.     

Alcohol Consumption and Females’ Recognition in Response to Date Rape Risk: The Role of Sex-Related Alcohol Expectancies

This study examined the pharmacological and psychological effects of alcohol on women’s recognition of and response to dating sexual aggression. Female participants completed measures of prior sexual victimization experiences, sex related alcohol expectancies, general alcohol expectancies, and drinking habits. Using a 2 (alcohol) × 2 (expectancy) balanced placebo research design, women were exposed to an audiotape date rape vignette and asked to press a button when the man’s sexual advances had gone to far. Upon pressing the button, the tape was stopped and participants were instructed to imagine themselves in the same situation and generate a response describing what they would say and/or do at that point. Results indicated that although alcohol and expectancy were not related to risk perception, individuals who consumed alcohol displayed significantly less resistant role play refusals. A significant interaction between expectancy set and pre-existing sex-related alcohol expectancies was observed indicating participants believing alcohol affects sexual behavior generated less resistant refusal responses when they expected to receive alcohol. Moreover, for those who expected to receive alcohol, stronger pre-existing sex-related alcohol expectancies predicted less resistant refusal responses over above the effects of blood alcohol level and general alcohol expectancies. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Effects of offender motivation, victim gender, and participant gender on perceptions of rape victims and offenders

The primary purpose of the present study was to examine whether knowledge of the motivation of an offender can influence participant perceptions of victim and perpetrator responsibility for a sexual assault. In addition, the synergistic influence of victim gender and participant gender with offender motivation was explored. Participants were 171 men and women from a small Northeastern college exposed to a stimulus in which a rapist's motivation was varied as either sexual or violent. Participants were more certain that the stimulus described a rape, recommended a longer prison sentence for the offender, and assigned less blame to the victim when exposed to an offender motivated by violence as opposed to an offender motivated by sex. Offender motivation also interacted with participant gender and victim gender on participants' perceptions of victim blame and offender responsibility. The results suggest that an offender's motivation for rape can influence perceptions of the offender's and victim's responsibility for the assault.     

Alcohol and rape: An “economics-of-crime” perspective

Using a panel of state-level data over the years 1982–2000, this study explores the potential relationship between alcohol policy, alcohol consumption, and rape by considering a number of theoretical and methodological issues. First, the potential relationship is examined in the context of an economics-of-crime model, controlling for various deterrence and opportunity cost variables. Second, unlike most studies, consumption of liquor and wine are considered as well as consumption of beer. A third focus is on the potential endogeneity of alcohol consumption. A fourth consideration dictates the focus on rape-rates rather than other violent crime rates. Several studies have discovered a tendency for relatively high alcohol consumption by both offenders and victims. Since rape victims are virtually all female, and at least some alcohol policy variables appear to have differential impacts on females and heavy-drinking males, an examination of policy impacts for rape-rates, unlike other types of violent crime, can suggest the nature of the alcohol-consumption–violence relationship. The empirical results support an “alcohol-increases-potential-victims-vulnerability” hypothesis. In the context of the economic theory of crime, this lowers the expected cost of rape to potential offenders and raises rape-rates. Tests for endogeneity of alcohol consumption and resulting simultaneous equation estimates reinforce this implication because they suggest that potential victims respond to relatively high rape-rates by reducing alcohol consumption.     

Rape prevention with college men: evaluating risk status

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a theoretically based rape prevention intervention with college men who were at high or low risk to perpetrate sexually coercive behavior. Participants (N = 146) are randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Outcomes include rape myth acceptance, victim empathy, attraction to sexual aggression, sex-related alcohol expectancies, and behavioral indicators, measured across three time points. Positive effects are found for rape myth acceptance, victim empathy, attraction to sexual aggression, and behavioral intentions to rape. Only rape myth acceptance and victim empathy effects sustain at the 5-week follow-up. High-risk men are generally unaffected by the intervention although low-risk men produced larger effects than the entire sample. Results suggest rape prevention studies must assess risk status moderation effects to maximize prevention for high-risk men. More research is needed to develop effective rape prevention with men who are at high risk to rape.     

Violent Crime in the United States of America: A Time-Series Analysis Between 1960–2000

This paper empirically assesses the effects of socio-economic and demographic variables on violent crime in the United States. Using national-level time-series data over the period 1960–2000, an unrestricted vector autoregressive (VAR) model was estimated for overall violent crime, murder, rape and assault. The results indicate that there is no long-run relationship among the examined variables, but significant short-run relationships hold. Imprisonment growth, income inequality, alcohol consumption, and racial composition of the male youth population are shown to influence the short-run behaviour of violent crime.     

Associations between expectancies of alcohol and drug use, severity of partner violence, and posttraumatic stress among women

Women who experience recurrent intimate partner violence (IPV) may use alcohol or drugs because they expect that these substances will help them cope with the negative physical and psychological sequelae of IPV. However, expectancies for alcohol and drug use have not been explored among this population of women. We used the Relaxation and Tension-Reduction Scale, Arousal and Aggression Scale, and Social Assertion Scale of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire and modified its items to assess both alcohol and drug expectancies of 212 community-based, IPV-exposed women. Results of bivariate correlations showed that greater alcohol and drug expectancies were significantly correlated with greater alcohol problems and greater posttraumatic stress total and symptom severity scores. Results of a multivariate regression model showed that after controlling for demographic characteristics and history of childhood trauma, Relaxation and Tension- Reduction expectancies were associated with number of days of alcohol use, alcohol problems, physical and sexual IPV severity scores, and posttraumatic stress total and reexperiencing symptom severity scores. Expectancies do not significantly moderate the relationships between IPV, posttraumatic stress, and problematic alcohol and drug use. Given the strong relationships of expectancies with IPV severity, posttraumatic stress, and alcohol problems, expectancies may serve as targets for interventions to reduce alcohol use and problems and improve health-related outcomes in IPV-exposed women.     

The effect of gender on violent and nonviolent recidivism: A meta-analysis

A large body of literature has been dedicated to understanding re-offending after release from prison - a phenomenon known as recidivism. A meta-analysis was conducted using fifty- seven published studies on actuarial predictors of both violent and nonviolent recidivism in men and women. The current analysis resulted in 127 effect sizes between violent recidivists and non-recidivists, and sixty-eight effect sizes between violent recidivists with nonviolent recidivists. Several variables (drug/alcohol use, age, and marriage) were predictive of recidivism. Gender differences were also observed. In men, increased violent criminal history was associated with increased violent recidivism. This effect was not true for women. In fact, longer sentences were predictive of violent re-offending in women and not men. Despite limited data on women, pursuing the predictors of recidivism in men and women independently demonstrated that gender differences exist, and supported the need for more data concerning the predictors of recidivism in women.     

Cyber pornography in India and its implication on cyber café operators

Cyber pornography plays an accessory role in negative social issues such as child abuse, violence against women, rape, inequality, relationship and family breakdown, youth crime, promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases. Cyberspace and the pornographic matter transmitted through it have created challenges for India’s antiquated laws. The lack of jurisdictional boundaries and the sheer volume of traffic that the Internet can handle, as well as the potential for anonymity have resulted in a complete lack of control over what appears on the Web at the click of a mouse button. Before there was no liability of a cyber café owner but with the introduction of the Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008, the responsibilities of Cyber Café owners have only increased. This paper deals with the Cyber pornography, its legal implications and the liability of cyber café owner under the Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008.     

Rape Shield Laws and Sexual Behavior Evidence: Effects of Consent Level and Women’s Sexual History on Rape Allegations

Rape shield laws, which limit the introduction of sexual history evidence in rape trials, challenge the view that women with extensive sexual histories more frequently fabricate charges of rape than other women. The present study examined the relationship between women's actual sexual history and their reporting rape in hypothetical scenarios. Female participants (college students and a community sample, which included women working as prostitutes and topless dancers, and women living in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center) imagined themselves in dating scenarios that described either a legally definable act of rape or consensual sexual intercourse. Additionally, within the rape scenarios, level of consensual intimate contact (i.e., foreplay) preceding rape was examined to determine its influence on rape reporting. Women were less likely to say that they would take legal action in response to the rape scenarios if they had extensive sexual histories, or if they had consented to an extensive amount of intimate contact before the rape. In response to the consensual sexual intercourse scenarios, women with more extensive sexual histories were not more likely to say that they would report rape, even when the scenario provided them with a motive for seeking revenge against their dating partner.     

Risk Factors for Male Sexual Aggression on College Campuses

Risk factors for college male sexual aggression that were both theoretically and empirically based were tested using multivariate regression analyses. These included substance abuse patterns, pornography consumption, negative gender-based attitudes, and child sexual abuse experiences. Regression analyses indicated that some gender attitudes, pornography use, and alcohol abuse were significant predictors of perpetration of sexual violence. Although a number of men were sexually abused as children, this risk factor did not predict sexual aggression as an adult. Many men reported alcohol-related sexual coercion and held many rape-supportive attitudes and beliefs. These practices by college men contribute to the prorape cultures found on many campuses. Strategies are needed to identify and intervene with high-risk men to prevent sexual victimization of women in college.     

Examining the role of pornography and rape supportive cognitions in lone and multiple perpetrator rape proclivity

ABSTRACT

Since a substantial proportion of sexual offenders are not apprehended, researchers have introduced methods to test the propensity to sexually offend among the general public. Proclivity measures assess self-reported sexual interest in lone and multiple perpetrator sexual offending or rape (MPR), and can examine students and community members who indicate a proclivity to sexually offend. This study examines the role of pornography use and rape supportive cognitions to influence proclivity. Anonymous online data was collected from 295 male university students to assess the role of rape supportive cognitions and pornography use in predicting lone and MPR proclivity. Only rape supportive cognitions predicted scores on lone and MPR proclivity measures.     

Rape myth acceptance in men who completed the prostitution offender program of British Columbia

In an effort to characterize the attitudes and characteristics of men who solicit sex, this study investigated rape myth acceptance as assessed by a modification of Burt's Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. The participants were all men who took part in the Prostitution Offender Program of British Columbia after being arrested for attempting to solicit sex from an undercover police officer. Relationships between endorsement of rape myths, other attitudes, sexual behavior, and demographic variables were examined. Results reveal that age, education, use of pornography, ideal frequency of intercourse, and believing that purchasing sex is a problem are all negatively correlated with rape myth acceptance. Positive correlations were found between rape myth acceptance and sexual conservatism, sexual violence/coercion, and social desirability. Results are discussed in terms of the association between rape myth acceptance and the violence frequently perpetrated against those working in the sex trade.     

Political Refugees' Violence in Norway

This paper is an attempt to explain why male refugees committed acts of violence in exile in Norway. Three cases, two homicides and one rape case, are presented together with the men who committed them. It is argued that violence occurs as a consequence of a combination of precipitating factors pertaining to the history and biography of the informants. The historical and biographical factors, such as war, refugee experiences and mental illnesses, work in combination with more immediate contextual factors which pertain to the refugees' subsequent experiences in Norway, such as social isolation, lack of treatment, alcohol abuse and precarious living conditions. The main hypothesis is that violent acts may be committed when somebody has been exposed to an intolerable amount of physical and/or psychic pressure and as a means of regaining control. Furthermore, Bourdieu's concept of habitus is a tool in the analysis of the men's violent acts.     

Pornographic exposure over the life course and the severity of sexual offenses: Imitation and cathartic effects

Purpose

Extant scholarship has examined pornography's putative link to the commission of sex crime. Yet, virtually no research speaks to whether an offender's exposure to pornography during many different stages of life elevates the violence of a sex offense. The current study addresses this gap.

Methods

Using retrospective longitudinal data, we systematically investigate the effect of offender pornography exposure during adolescence, adulthood, and immediately prior to the offense on the level of physical injury as well as the extent of humiliation experienced by sex crime victims.

Results

Findings indicate that adolescent exposure was a significant predictor of the elevation of violence—it increased the extent of victim humiliation. Results also suggest a tempering, or cathartic effect of pornography—using pornography just prior to the offense was correlated with reduced victim physical injury. No effects, however, were observed for adult pornography exposure.

Conclusion

Pornography use may differentially influence offenders’ propensity to harm or degrade victims over the life course.     

The influences of incident and contextual characteristics on crime clearance of nonlethal violence: A multilevel event history analysis

Using multilevel event history analyses, this article investigates the effects of both incident and contextual (social disorganization and police resources) factors on crime clearance by arrest for robbery, forcible rape, and aggravated assault incidents in 106 cities. The analysis found that victim's age, the number of concomitant offenses and victims, victim's injury, and weapon use played important roles in crime clearance for all three types of nonlethal violent incidents. Among social disorganization variables, higher unemployment and racial segregation significantly decreased the odds of clearance for robbery and aggravated assault, but not for rape. Instead, higher divorce rates significantly decreased the odds of rape clearance. This suggests that social disorganization may play a different role in the clearance mechanisms for sexual than for nonsexual violent offenses. The effects of police resource variables on clearance were not significant in the expected direction for any of the three types of incidents.     

How reliable are eyewitness memories? Effects of retention interval,violence of act,and gender stereotypes on observers' judgments of their own memory regarding witnessed act and perpetrator

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of (i) stimulus person's gender, (ii) type of act (neutral or violent), and (iii) retention interval (short or long) on observers' memory of a stimulus person. Participants were presented with one of two acts: neutral (walking around in a store) or violent (robbing a store). The retention interval was 10 minutes or one–three weeks. The dependent variables were questionnaire items concerning the participants' memory of (1) the stimulus person's appearance and (2) the event, and (3) rating scales where the participants were asked to evaluate the stimulus person's aggressiveness, insensitivity, and other personality traits as well as characteristics of the act. Results showed that when the act was violent, and a long retention interval was used, a female, but not a male, stimulus person was evaluated less harshly than with a short retention interval (enhancement of gender stereotype); a stimulus person was seen as behaving in a more masculine way when performing a violent rather than a neutral act; witnessing the violent act resulted in better self-rated memory of the stimulus person; and with increasing retention interval, the violent act was seen as less negative and the neutral act as more negative (regression toward the mean).     

Predicting the timing of women's departure from abusive relationships

The aim of this study was to investigate forces that affect the timing of women's exit from violent relationships with men. Abused women were recruited from posters in the community and battered women's shelters, interviewed, and followed up for 10 years. Data for this study are based on 100 women and were analyzed using event history analysis. Age, ethnicity, and alcohol consumption levels of both partners predicted the timing of women's termination of abusive relationships. An interaction effect showed that women who scored above the mean on an index of physical aggression and who never used shelter services had the longest trajectories of violence exposure; severely abused women without shelter use were more likely to stay. Our findings indicate that women who receive shelter services endure shorter periods of violence than women who do not access such services. Further outreach, especially to women experiencing high rates of physical aggression, is recommended.