Decriminalize
Prostitution Now Coalition
Your Tax Dollars Are Being Wasted Ruining Citizens Lives
Instead of fighting real crime
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Sexwork & Porn
Results in Less Sexual Crime
While I do not know of studies have been done on sexwork I believe the studies
of porn that show no bad effects and just common sense would lead to the
conclusion that sexually frustrated men without a source for sexual satisfaction
are far more likely to be sexually aggressive in negative ways than those as in
most of the world have easy access to sexworkers. In some countries having a
good sex life is almost a public policy issue.
As one sexworker who use to work in a Nevada brothel who moved to a conservative
Southern U.S. city said how much more fear she had of being attacked on the
street in the South where men didn't have choices for sexual expression as they
do in Nevada. In most of the world sexually aggressive behavior and crimes are
far lower than in the U.S. In most of the world except the U.S. private sexwork
is legal and is a benefit to cultures. Historical studies have shown the more
repressive a culture sexually the more violent it is. Sexuality has many
physical and emotional benefits. Not everyone has a loving wife or girlfriend,
or satisfying sexuality even if they do.
Porn reduces sex crimes and benefits a society.
The more porn, the fewer "sex" crimes, and the fewer problems related to
ignorance of things sexual. In effect, porn can be seen as teaching us about
ourselves. The argument can be made that the educational effect far outweighs
any other effect. If that's true, the films of Candida Royale, say, should be
made available in every school library. ;) Perhaps we will have found a means of
addressing the dropout rate .... Maybe we can put another nail in the tail of
the "no child should ever see a breast" boogieman.
This study has already been done (and done well) in European countries and Japan
where porn has been legal and readily available for years. The data shows that
sex crimes against women and against children goes down as the availability of
erotica goes up. This correlation cannot prove the case that porn reduces sex
crimes, but any argument that porn increases sex crimes would have to have a
positive correlation, not the negative one found.
Doing the study in the US would be difficult as the availability of porn, while
increasing, is not evenly distributed in the US and the actual availability in
various localities cannot be measured well. Also, crime statistics are not
uniformly accurate in the US as some jurisdictions lie about their data (Salt
Lake and Atlanta are a good examples, while bidding on the Olympics). But we
don't need to do the study, it has been done and nobody pays any attention to it
in this Puritan dominated society.
The following is quoted from “Pornography, Erotica, and Behavior: More Questions
than Answers” Fisher and Barak, Intl Journal of Law and Psychiatry, V.14, 65-83,
1991
"With respect to the impact of increasing amounts of pornography on aggregate
sex crime statistics, three studies known to us have failed to establish a link
between the availability of pornography and the incidence of sex-related crimes.
Kutchinsky (1973) studied the impact of the legalization of most forms of sexual
material in Denmark in 1965 on the occurrence of sex crime in that country.
Contrary to what would be expected if there was a robust pornography-aggression
link, the legalization of sexually explicit material was associated with either
no change or with a decrease in various categories of sex crime, and such
findings have served as the basis for discussion of a "catharsis" or
"substitution" hypothesis with respect to pornography and sex crime (see
Kutchinsky, 1973; Rubin, 1970). Moreover, Kutchinsky (1985; 1991) has replicated
these findings in a recent paper which indicates that the legalization of
sexually explicit material in West Germany was also associated with either no
change or with a decrease in various categories of sex crime.
In still more research on the pornography-aggression link in natural settings,
Abramson and Hayashi (1984) studied the incidence of violent pornography and sex
crime in Japan. According to these investigators, "the juxtaposition of
sexuality and aggression is evident in almost all forms of Japanese sexual
material. . . . If there is a direct connection between the prevalence of rape
imagery and rape behavior, Japan should have an overwhelming occurrence of rape"
(p. 181). Despite the very high prevalence of rape theme pornography in Japan,
however, this nation has an extraordinary low incidence of reported rape (2.4
per 100,000, compared to 34.5 per 100,000 in the U.S.)."
"In contrast to these findings for no association or a negative association
between prevalence of pornography and occurrence of sex crime, two studies claim
to have found evidence for a positive relationship between the two (Baron &
Straus, 1984; Court, 1984), although Court's research line has been severely
criticized (Brannigan & Kapardis, 1986), and Baron and Straus' (1984) findings
may need to be qualified in light of inconsistent evidence reported both by
Scott (1985) and by Baron and Straus (1986) who reported that the relationship
became nonsignificant when controlling for macho attitudes. Overall, the number
of studies which have failed to find a link between the prevalence of
pornography and aggregate occurrence of sex crime is considerable and is highly
inconsistent with the presumption of direct links between pornography and
antisocial behavior."
Refs:
Kutchinsky, B. (1973). The effect of easy availability of pornography on the
incidence of sex crimes: The Danish experience. Journal of Social Issues, 29,
169-181
Kutchinsky, B. (1985). Pornography and its effects in Denmark and the United
States: A rejoinder and beyond. Comparative Social Research, 8, 301-330
Kutchinsky, B. (1991). Pornography and rape: theory and practice? Evidence from
crime data in four countries where pornography is easily available. Intl Journal
of Law and Psychiatry, 14, 47-64.
Abramson, P.R. and Hayashi, H. (1984). Pornography in Japan: Cross-cultural and
theoretical considerations. In N. M. Malamuth & E. Donerstein (Eds.),
Pornography and sexual aggression (173-183). Orlando, FL: Academic Press