At the last Pasty Quail editorial meeting we debated the merits of recent study that suggests that the rise of freely available pornography on the internet has contributed to dramatically lower rates of sexually violent behavior against women. For more background on the study, Reason Magazine now has an article discussing the issues. From the article:
"Since 1993, violent crime in America has dropped by 58 percent. But the progress in this one realm has been especially dramatic. Rape is down 72 percent and other sexual assaults have fallen by 68 percent. Even in the last two years, when the FBI reported upticks in violent crime, the number of rapes continued to fall."
The data certainly seems conclusive at first glance, but, as we discussed on Monday, it is impossible to create a controlled environment for something like this. Although 1993 was one of the first years that internet access became widely available to Americans (AOL launched its Windows compatible version in January '93), there could be any number of contributing factors to the declining rate. Its an interesting theory to contemplate nonetheless. What do you think?
Friday, November 9, 2007
Does Internet Porn Reduce Sexual Violence Against Women?
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2 comments:
Since the domestication of the internet, not only have violent pervs had a way to peacefully resolve their sexual frustration with the mass amount of internet pornography (including interactive erotic en devours such as chats and web cams), but the internet also offers a wide range of stimuli that might help sexual violence rates. Such variables includes access to information about criminal penalties, studies and statistics as to the report and outcomes of such crimes, help resources for victims, "dating" services, as well as an entirely new wave of internet related crimes to commit and ways to invade people's privacy. Not to mention a myriad of other time-consuming distractions. Perhaps I attribute too much premeditation (and intellect) to sexual criminals, but it seems logical to do some research before breaking the law.
Some psychological studies not only show that most sexually violent crimes occur with people that the victim already knows, but they also link sexual crimes to miscommunication and lack of control of the situation on both sides of the struggle. The internet (especially networking tools such as AIM, Facebook, and Myspace) have introduced a new dynamic of communication and control in the realm of social interaction.
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