SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND PORNOGRAPHY.   Term Paper ID:30710 Click to get this paper

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Paper Abstract: Examines how pornography interacts with sexual violence. Question of whether pornography promotes sexual violence. The objectification of women. Women as victims. Causal relationship between exposure to porno and the acceptance of rape myth. Desensitization of males toward rape. Pornography's message of male domination and contempt for women's dignity. Paper Introduction: Pornography and Sexual Violence Introduction The question of whether or not pornography promotes sexual violence has been discussed by Scott and Cuvelier (1993) who make the point that there is a consensus that the amount of sexually violent material has increased dramatically in recent years and that the violence in pornography is associated with increased violence toward women. Barron and Kimmel (2000) note that sexually violent content in magazine, video, and Internet pornography tends to victimize women and present visions of women’s victimization as acceptable forms of sexual activity. This brief report will examine the question of whether or not pornography promotes sexual violence against women and men as well as children. In general, Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. The relationships among sexrole orientation, egalitarianism, attitudes toward sexuality, andattitudes toward violence against women. L. It is, therefore, difficult at best to develop a clear-cut answer tothe question of whether or not pornography promotes sexual violence. Caron and Carter (1997) concluded that there is insufficientevidence to establish a causal relationship between the use of pornographyand violent sexual crimes.Discussion and Conclusion The question of how pornography interacts with sexual violenceappears to be controversial and difficult to answer definitively (Barron &Kimmel, 2 ). (1996). (1996). (2 ). Caron, S. While Page (1991)recognizes that the evidence about this relationship is unclear, he takesissue with other researchers who maintain that violent crime in society hasdecreased over time and that sexual violence has no meaningful relationshipto pornography use. This includes violent sexual crime aswell as other violent crimes. Page, S. Smiljanich, K., & Briere, J. Sexual violence in threepornographic media: Toward a sociological explanation. Though this was not the specific focus of research by Margittai,Moscarello, and Rossi (1996), these researchers found that among a sampleof medical students, threats of sexual assault and/or physical sexualadvances were far more commonplace than might have been anticipated.Unfortunately, these researches did not explore the relationship betweenpornography and sexual advances. (1997). Pornography featuring physicallydisabled women and girls is seen by Elman (1997) as having the potential tofoster the victimization of these individuals by violent and sexuallyassaultive attacks. (1993). (1996). (1991). Prolonged exposure to sexuallyexplicit films may lead to a greater involvement in sexual activity and mayundermine emotional reactivity to violence in the films and the sufferingof female victims in more realistic contexts. It is the view of Elman (1997) that the ultimate impact of pornographysexualizes and ridicules women and girls who are disabled and makes themespecially vulnerable to sexual abuse. M., & Gebhardt, L. Barron and Kimmel(2 ) note that sexually violent content in magazine, video, and Internetpornography tends to victimize women and present visions of women'svictimization as acceptable forms of sexual activity. American Psychologist, 49(6), 652-653. Theresults of the study showed a decline in consumption of printed pornographyand a rise in rape rate. Page (1988, 1991) disagrees and contends that there is a wealth ofvalid empirical evidence as well as anecdotal or observational data thatsupports an association between frequent use of pornography and sexualviolence. Linz, D. Duncan, D. Margittai, K. F. In this context, Monto and Hotaling (2 1) examined the level ofacceptance of attitudes supporting sexual violence against females and thepredictors of rape myth acceptance among males arrested for attempting tohire prostitutes. Archives of Sexual Behavior,22(4), 357-371. An aggregate empirical analysis of pornography and rape.Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, 8(3), 1-2 . Journal of Sexual Aggression, 6(1-2), 52-66. Thiswould suggest that a correlation between pornography and violence doesexist. American Psychologist,45(6), 778. F., Woodard, U., & Hafer, C. The researchers found that while the frequency ofpornography use did correlate with rape myth acceptance, it was not asignificant predictor of it. Journal of Sex Research, 36(3), 288-291. It would appear, on balance, as Page (1988, 1991) has noted, thatthere is a causal relationship between exposure to aggressive pornographyand violence towards women. Kimmel, M. In general, Duncan (199 ) has argued that violent themes inpornography have not increased but such a research finding begs thequestion of whether or not pornography itself promotes sexual violence.Page (1991) believes that answering the question of how pornography affectsbehavior cannot be done solely through empirical research and a valuesystem oriented around data, causation, and scientific principles. Bogaert, Woodard, and Hafer (1999) considered intellectual ability andreactions to pornography and found that differing pornographic content andthemes predict the suggestive behavior of lower IQ men, but not higher IQmen. The nature of this relationship may beunclear, but its existence is not challenged by Page (1988). F. This comes at a time, as Linz, Donnerstein,and Penrod (1988) have commented, when greater exposure to and availabilityof pornographic materials is occurring. Violence and sexual violencein pornography: Is it really increasing? Reply to Mould and Duncan on pornography research:Some important issues for psychology. (1999). Pornography and Sexual ViolenceIntroduction The question of whether or not pornography promotes sexual violencehas been discussed by Scott and Cuvelier (1993) who make the point thatthere is a consensus that the amount of sexually violent material hasincreased dramatically in recent years and that the violence in pornographyis associated with increased violence toward women. Bulletin of theAmerican Academy of Psychiatry & the Law, 24(3), 377-385. G., Donnerstein, E., & Penrod, S. Given thatpornography posits a dominance theme and objectifies women, it is seen byPage (1991) and Barron and Kimmel (2 ) as having the effect of providingtacit support for acting-out behaviors that employ violence and sexualattacks as a means of asserting dominance.Pornography Does Not Increase Sexual Violence Duncan (199 ) believes that violent crime in our society has begun todecrease rather than to increase. Barron, M., & Kimmel, M. Cowburn and Pringle (2 ) examined the relationship betweenpornography and sexual violence and found that from a feminist standpointor theory, it is largely assumed that such a relationship exists. Comment on Page. (1997). Violence Against Women, 3(3), 257-27 . J. A. References Allen, M., D'Alessio, D., Emmers, T. Theseresearchers believe that defining the exact nature of the relationship canbe difficult. What does appear to be accurate is the assertion that a causalrelationship between exposure to pornography and the acceptance of rapemyth exists (Kimmel & Linders, 1996). Journalof Sex Research, 33(2), 135-141. Nevertheless, there is little evidence, according to Monto andHotaling (2 1), that frequency of pornography use is a direct or primarypredictor of rape myth acceptance. Violence & Victims, 11(1), 39-5 . Disability pornography: The fetishization ofwomen's vulnerabilities. Pornographymay very well desensitize males toward rape and may color their attitudestoward women, leading them to view women as objects and as perhaps willingvictims. They used an aggregate statisticalanalysis of pornography consumption and rape rates to the argument thatincreased pornography consumption leads to increased rates of rape. Predictors of rape mythacceptance among male clients of female street prostitutes. At the same time, Page (1988) also believes that a link betweenaggressive behaviors and an interest in pornographic and sexually violentpornographic materials does exist and can be identified in anecdotal aswell as empirical studies. Does censorship make adifference? Kimmel and Linders (1996) examined the relationship betweenpornography and sexual violence. B. Journal of SexResearch, 37(2), 161-18 . Pornography and men's practices. (199 ). American Psychologist, 44(3), 578-58 . Many believe that pornography itself is a form of inherentviolence against women that reinforces messages about the normality of maledomination and contempt for the dignity of women. Additionally, there was no evidenceindicating that frequent use of pornography led to rape or other violentcrimes. Bogaert, A. (1988). Self-reported sexual interestin children: Sex differences and psychosocial correlates in a universitysample. Intellectualability and reactions to pornography. Forensicaspects of medical student abuse: A Canadian perspective. Effects of long-term exposure to violent and sexually degrading depictions of women.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(5), 758-768. A., & Hotaling, N. It is thebelief of Duncan (199 ) that we cannot accept the assumption that violencein pornography and the use of pornography are correlated with criminalviolence of a sexual or nonsexual nature. ViolenceAgainst Women, 7(3), 275-293. Most pornography tends to objectify women while much of thevast array of pornographic materials that are available position women insubordinate or submissive postures (Cowburn & Pringle, 2 ). S., & Linders, A. J., Moscarello, R., & Rossi, M. (1996).The role of educational briefings in mitigating effects of experimentalexposure to violent sexually explicit material: A meta-analysis. (2 1). Subjects with lower IQs appear to be more sexually suggestive afterwatching violent materials than watching purely erotic materials. Page(1991) claims that the relationship of pornography to violent crime isunclear, but suggests that it is likely that such relationships do exist.Pornography Promotes Sexual Violence Linz, Donnerstein, and Penrod (1988) conducted a study in which malesubjects viewed pornography with and without violent content. Misrepresentation of pornography research:Psychology's role. Page, S. It islikely that such a relationship may well exist, but to affirm the existenceof this relationship, it is necessary to conduct research into theattitudes and behaviors of individuals convicted of violent sexual crimes.It also seems probable that some sexual criminals will be frequent users ofpornography while others will not. L., & Carter, D. Allen, D'Alessio, Emmers, and Gebhardt (1996) contend thatdetermining the impact of violent and other types of sexually implicitmaterial is difficult because it requires an investigator to expose aperson to material that may harm him or her. Though the research conductedby Allen, et al (1996) consisted of a meta-analysis of educationalbriefings in studies of sexual violence depictions, they concluded thatmere exposure to such materials is not sufficient in and of itself alone tocreate a propensity for violence. Smiljanich and Briere (1996) approach the subject with respect tochildhood victimization and found that greater use of pornography depictingconsensual adult sex was associated with males' sexual attraction tochildren. (2 ). Monto, M. Their studyrevealed that frequent exposure to sexually violent materials had theeffect of desensitizing males to violence directed against women. However, as the literature discussed above indicates and asLinz, et al (1988) argue, acceptance of the rape myth does not necessarilyoccur in tandem with any increase in sexually violent crime. Cowburn, M., & Pringle, K. Scott, J. At the same time, it is thebelief of Linz, Donnerstein, and Penrod (1988) that little evidence existsspecifically linking frequent viewing of pornographic materials to overtviolence. Thus, Kimmel and Linders (1996) maintain that itcannot be concluded that pornography use fosters sexual or other types ofviolence. E., & Cuvelier, S. Caron and Carter (1997) also found that attitudes toward pornographyare unrelated to attitudes toward rape, but acceptance of violence againstwomen and a lack of sexual egalitarianism are predictive of acceptance ofrape myths. Acceptance of a rape myth or theview that women at some visceral level enjoy or at least do not object toviolent sexualcontact may well be one of the more significant artifacts of exposure topornography. Journal of Social Psychology,137(5), 568-587. Elman, R. This brief reportwill examine the question of whether or not pornography promotes sexualviolence against women and men as well as children. (1988). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.