More internet porn = less rape

[Enoch]

Clicky.

 

Excerpt:

The bottom line on these experiments is, "More Net access, less rape." A 10 percent increase in Net access yields about a 7.3 percent decrease in reported rapes. States that adopted the Internet quickly saw the biggest declines. And, according to Clemson professor Todd Kendall, the effects remain even after you control for all of the obvious confounding variables, such as alcohol consumption, police presence, poverty and unemployment rates, population density, and so forth.

 

OK, so we can at least tentatively conclude that Net access reduces rape. But that's a far cry from proving that porn access reduces rape. Maybe rape is down because the rapists are all indoors reading Slate or vandalizing Wikipedia. But professor Kendall points out that there is no similar effect of Internet access on homicide. It's hard to see how Wikipedia can deter rape without deterring other violent crimes at the same time. On the other hand, it's easy to imagine how porn might serve as a substitute for rape.

[Winterwolf]

Hooray! Rape.

[Dark_Raven]

EDDOs alt!

 

Report!

[Winterwolf]

What does EDDO mean?

 

But seriously, I don`t think that Internet porn decreas rape. Soldiers still like to rape the women of conquered nations, prisoners still like to rape other prisoners... human beings like to do evil, spreading internet porn doesn`t make humans more goody.

Edited October 31, 2006 by Winterwolf

[Deraldin]

What does EDDO mean?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

EDDO!

[thepixiesrock]

What does EDDO mean?

 

But seriously, I don`t think that Internet porn decreas rape. Soldiers still like to rape the women of conquered nations, prisoners still like to rape other prisoners... human beings like to do evil, spreading internet porn doesn`t make humans more goody.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Going on basis that your assumptions are facts, soldiers and prisoners aren't the only people to commit rape. By wich I mean that you are wrong because I am taking your statement to mean that there is still rape in the world, and that's true, but just because it is still here doesn't mean it hasn't decreased. There is always room for a value of something to be more or less, the article doesn't say rape is no longer an issue, that it no longer exists, it is saying it has just decreased.

Edited October 31, 2006 by thepixiesrock

[Winterwolf]

What does EDDO mean?

 

But seriously, I don`t think that Internet porn decreas rape. Soldiers still like to rape the women of conquered nations, prisoners still like to rape other prisoners... human beings like to do evil, spreading internet porn doesn`t make humans more goody.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Going on basis that your assumptions are facts, soldiers and prisoners aren't the only people to commit rape.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They were only examples. But in wars rape happens on a more massive scale. Tis a topic that I have wearied myself too much. You see I have Bubbaphobia - a fear of being raped by a fat black man called Bubba.

Edited October 31, 2006 by Winterwolf

[Pop]

Hmm, yeah, the japanese came to this conclusion years ago. That's why the most confoundingly disturbing pornography that forum trolls ply their trade with are japanese in origin. One wonders why such things exist, it's because of this.

 

Still a hard sell. Porn has always been considered deviant, it's difficult to suggest that it deters deviance.

[Walsingham]

It's too early to make me read about rape. Bad bad forumite.

[Pop]

It's too early to make me read about rape. Bad bad forumite. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually, Slate is about as good as internet newsmagazines get.

[Fenghuang]

Hmm, yeah, the japanese came to this conclusion years ago. That's why the most confoundingly disturbing pornography that forum trolls ply their trade with are japanese in origin. One wonders why such things exist, it's because of this.

 

Still a hard sell. Porn has always been considered deviant, it's difficult to suggest that it deters deviance.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

You know that does make a lot of sense actually considering last I checked Japan had some of the lowest rape and violent crime rates in the world and one of the most perverted populations.

 

lol tentacles.

[Walsingham]

Erk. Just erk.

[Nartwak]

I guess it's too late to get this guy online.

[Fenghuang]

What Wals said.

 

Also, yuck.

[metadigital]

I guess it's too late to get this guy online.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What an exceptional example of a psychopath.

[deganawida]

I thought that the prevailing opinion regarding rape was that it was a crime of violence (driven by a need to hurt) rather than a crime of lust.

[Pop]

I thought that the prevailing opinion regarding rape was that it was a crime of violence (driven by a need to hurt) rather than a crime of lust.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Depends on what school of abnormal psych you're listening to. Evolutionary psych shirks it off as a natural impulse to spread one's seed. Psychoanalysis identifies it as some reaction to past trauma that one is unable to deal with healthily. Most other accounts paint it as having to do with the desire for domination and control (psychoanalysts might deem rapists as having reverted into the anal stage of development to an extreme degree) That's the one that makes the most sense to me.

 

But you're touching on something interesting, there. If rape is indeed about control and domination, or a need to hurt, this clinical finding doesn't make a lot of sense. This doesn't suggest that exposure to resistance play porn or S/M porn reduces the likelihood of rape, just the access to porn in general. But I wouldn't conclude that rape is a crime of lust, because that's a very slippery slope. If rape is a crime perpetrated out of a desire for the victim, then it stands to reason that the victim could have prevented the rape by becoming less desirable. That's a case for enforced burka-wearing if there ever was one.

[metadigital]

Perhaps viewing the more perverted pr0n helps to ameliorate the need for acting out such fantasies ... after all, the more serious images are based on domination and such like.

[deganawida]

But you're touching on something interesting, there. If rape is indeed about control and domination, or a need to hurt, this clinical finding doesn't make a lot of sense. This doesn't suggest that exposure to resistance play porn or S/M porn reduces the likelihood of rape, just the access to porn in general.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That's what I'm getting at. If availability to porn (of the non-snuff variety) actually decreases rape, then the prevailing theories as to what drives rape need to be revised significantly.

[metadigital]

Science is always based on reality, however, so this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Also, as Pop noted:

Depends on what school of abnormal psych you're listening to. Evolutionary psych shirks it off as a natural impulse to spread one's seed. Psychoanalysis identifies it as some reaction to past trauma that one is unable to deal with healthily. Most other accounts paint it as having to do with the desire for domination and control (psychoanalysts might deem rapists as having reverted into the anal stage of development to an extreme degree)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

there is hardly agreement nor even a cohesive understanding of the symptoms, let alone the causes.

 

So perhaps all the (soft) science is quite wrong.

[Enoch]

I thought that the prevailing opinion regarding rape was that it was a crime of violence (driven by a need to hurt) rather than a crime of lust.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's probably true of the traditional "dark alley in a bad neighborhood" kind of rape. But with more "date rape" type situations, I'm guessing that lust can be the stronger motive (e.g., the 'assailant' takes the backseat necking session a step too far). If you read the article, it notes that the effect was most evident in a decline in rapes by 15-19 year old perpetrators, which seems in line with this.

[Sand]

I have always seen it as a combination of both power and lust, with varying degrees of which one is dominate depending on the situation. In any case it is abhorrent.

[Calax]

so how did they tell this exactly? From what I'm skimming it looks like they took a bunch of rapists... put em in an institiution with naughty nurses... showed em a ton of porn, and watched as the rapists either "plied their trade" or not.

[Nartwak]

so how did they tell this exactly?

They compared number of homes with internet access in a state with the number of reported rapes in that state and correlated the results. It's not rocket surgery, Calax.

[Fenghuang]

They're doing surgery on rockets now?!!