More Internet Porn, Less Rape
The research has been out there for awhile, but the suggestive numbers just keep getting stronger: there’s evidence that as access to the internet increases in the US population, rape rates fall. (Dr. Faustus blogged about this, and about a Salon article discussing the same research paper as today’s story, back in 2009, as did I when the research was new, back in 2006.) An attractive theory that might explain this is that access to porn (which as everybody knows, is what the internet is for) reduces the urge to rape — but that, of course, is merely what the data are suggestive of, it’s far from proven.
Today’s link (via Violet Blue) is to a blog by Canadian econ professor Marina Adshade, in which she updates the rape and internet stat numbers and discusses the hoary old research paper in greater detail:
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report has recently released the preliminary statistics for 2010. The incidence of violent rape in US has declined once again, this time by 6.2% between June 2009 and June 2010. The most recent decline is not an anomaly; rape rates have been falling since their peak in the early 1990’s (see the figure I have included below which uses annual data from the FBI). Over the same period internet access in the US has skyrocketed; in 1997 (the first year that the current population survey collected this information) only 18.6% of American’s had internet access in their homes. Today that number is above 71%.
It may seem like the relationship between internet access and rape is spurious, but evidence suggests that even after controlling for known determinants of rape rates (such as policing, urbanization, poverty and the age distributions), a 10% increase in internet access coincides with a fall in rape rates of 7.3%.
And here’s why it’s worth revisiting this as the journalistic dinosaurs in TV and print media continue to ramp up their anguished bellowing and braying against internet porn:
[N]ot good results for those who have tried for years, largely unsuccessfully, to prove that access to porn increase male violence. There are also some interesting implications for how we think about the motivation for rape. It is difficult, for example, to reconcile a belief that rape has nothing to do with the act of sex itself if the evidence suggests that teenage boys are choosing to masturbate in front of their computers instead of being rapists.
Similar Sex Blogging:
Shorter URL for sharing: http://www.erosblog.com/?p=6768
Okay, this may just be wishful thinking, but perhaps greater access to a more democratized field of pornography and greater voices given to those who participate in porn (and otherwise generate sexually-explicit material) helps to fight rape culture and build an impression in young men that rape is wrong and sex is supposed to be an act between equals.
I mean, on the internet a young man in his formative years can access videos of Sasha Grey engaging in some very extreme sex acts and then just as easily then access interviews where she talks about her philosophy of performance and how she is empowered by why she does. Hell, sometimes both of those things will be on the very same page.
The internet has a lot of porn, but it also has a lot of very sex-positive messaging. Dan Savage, Scarletteen, this blog, and countless other resources out there are sending the message to the young people who are searching for sexual stimulation online, still forming their ideas of what is right and what is wrong, learning how they should treat people they want to have sex with, they are just as likely to run into this stuff as they are into the type of sex-negative porn that reinforces rape culture…
…and frankly, the sex-positive stuff is a whole lot hotter.
Lance, I like the way you think. I’ll grant that you may be too optimistic, but you highlight something the anti-porn people never mention. Yes, there’s lots of extreme violent-looking porn available now that was unavailable or very hard to find “back in the day”. But also “back in the day”, the dominant porn message was that San Fernando valley pornographer schtick in which every woman was a bitch, a cunt, a whore, and a slut. I’m not saying that message is gone — oh no it isn’t — but now there are other voices, more positive ones, all over the internet. And it would be nice to think that’s helping.
Some researchers have suggested that instead of reducing the urge to rape, pornography serves as a surrogate, such that would-be aggressors are using porn as a substitute – changing behavior without modifying the underlying drive. I’ve been interested in this phenomenon for a while now, particularly since studies have found mixed results in terms of the effects of pornography (both violent and nonviolent) on laboratory paradigms of aggression towards women. Some suggest that there’s an immediate effect of increase but that it’s not particularly durable over time.
However, research tends to be less accessed and utilized in most public policy and statutory decisions, especially when it comes to porn. It’s so much more fulfilling – and clearcut – to create laws based on unfalsifiable morality.
So breasts soothe the savage beast?
Haven’t we read years ago on ErosBlog, where staring at women’s breasts (looking at porn) is good for your health?
I seem to remember where Bacchus covered the fact that it lowered blood pressure and was roughly equivalent to aerobic exercise…
This article is the closest thing I could find on a quick, brief, internet search:
http://www.them....html
Hell, if porn makes you happy and calms you down a bit, it stands to reason that rape might be less likely to happen in a porn-rich environment.
I know that boobs sure make ME feel benevolent to their bearer(s)…
Er… I also found this photo illustrating the exercise…
http://collegec...l.jpg
I really hope there is a correlation between availability of porn and reduction of rape, but there could be any number of factors. I really like the idea, though.
I dunno about other men, but masturbation helps reduce my stress levels, and is a very effective sleep aid. Getting more sleep and reducing stress levels surely helps people deal with their problems better, and generally moderates their outlook on life and their actions. A highly stressed person is probably more likely to act out in a way that looks like it would restore order and some sense of control to their lives, and if they can’t establish control over their life, perhaps they can exert control over the life of another.
oh I do like Lance Hunter’s thinking, that sex-positive messages on the internet are helping young people to understand their sexuality better, making them more about to go out into the world and forge positive relationships. I have an 11 year old son, my ex husband is close to hysteria about the fact that he might see porn on the internet and how damaging that can be, I other hand hope he does find porn on the internet, when he is ready for that, but I hope he finds good porn….oh and the same applies to my daughter too.
Mollyxxx
Focusing on a tiny part of the post, it bothers me a little when I see people get into the rape-is-about-sex-no-rape-is-about-power debate. I may be alone in believing this, but from what I see, in the mind of rapists there is really no separation.
I myself think it may be problematic to make categorical statements about the motives of rapists. Could differ from one to the next, y’know?
Well I think the relationship is related to testosterone; the same hormone is released in anger or sexual arousal. and I believe rapists are getting a mixed signal in their brains, and confuse the two. Masturbation reduces the hormone at issue and trains a man to interpret it as horniness not anger ( because how do you rationalize being angry at a photo while jacking off to it … You can’t “punish” or “control” an image … so it must be horniness )
I love the idea that access to porn could be reducing the number of rapes and I hope it’s true. I wish some researchers would do a study to try and find out if there is a connection and if so, how porn could be used as prevention.
I think that it probably depends on the type of rape. The article mentions violent rape and presumably doesn’t include cases of date rape, for example. It does seem logical though that if someone can experience something that he or she is longing for – without actually going through with the real act – it could be very therapeutic and possibly enough to satisfy on its own.