Pornography is a danger to women

[Hermione]

One out of every six American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime (14.8% completed rape;2.8% attempted rape). A total of 17.7 million women have been victims of these crimes.

[Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women Survey[/color], National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1998.]

• Approximately 66% of rape victims know their assailant. [[2000 NCVS.]](http://www.rainn.org/Linked%20files/NCVS%202000.pdf)

• Approximately 48% of victims are raped by a friend or acquaintance; 30% by a stranger; 16% by an intimate; 2% by another relative; and in 4% of cases the relationship is unknown. [[2000 NCVS.]](http://www.rainn.org/Linked%20files/NCVS%202000.pdf)
  ( http://www.rainn.org/statistics.html )
  
  According to one study, early exposure (under fourteen years of age) to pornography is related to greater involvement in deviant sexual practice, particularly rape. Slightly more than one-third of the child molesters and rapists in this study claimed to have at least occasionally been incited to commit an offense by exposure to pornography. Among the child molesters incited, the study reported that 53 percent of them deliberately used the stimuli of pornography as they prepared to offend. *(“http://www.protectkids.com/effects/harms.htm#i”)
  
  In a study of convicted child molesters, 77 percent of those who molested boys and 87 percent of those who molested girls admitted to the habitual use of pornography in the commission of their crimes.iii
  
  http://www.protectkids.com/effects/harms.htm#1a
  
  CONTINUED…

 

[Hermione]

Psychologist Edward Donnerstein (University of Wisconsin) found that brief exposure to violent forms of pornography can lead to anti-social attitudes and behavior. Male viewers tend to be more aggressive towards women, less responsive to pain and suffering of rape victims, and more willing to accept various myths about rape.1

Dr. Dolf Zimmerman and Dr. Jennings Bryant showed that continued exposure to pornography had serious adverse effects on beliefs about sexuality in general and on attitudes toward women in particular. They also found that pornography desensitizes people to rape as a criminal offense.2

These researchers also found that massive exposure to pornography encourages a desire for increasingly deviant materials which involve violence, like sadomasochism and rape.3

Feminist author Diana Russell notes in her book Rape and Marriage the correlation between deviant behavior (including abuse) and pornography. She also found that pornography leads men and women to experience conflict, suffering, and sexual dissatisfaction.4

Researcher Victor Cline (University of Utah) has documented in his research how men become addicted to pornographic materials, begin to desire more explicit or deviant material, and end up acting out what they have seen.5

According to Charles Keating of Citizens for Decency Through Law, research reveals that 77 percent of child molesters of boys and 87 percent of child molesters of girls admitted imitating the sexual behavior they had seen modeled in pornography.

Sociologists Murray Straus and Larry Baron (University of New Hampshire) found that rape rates are highest in states which have high sales of sex magazines and lax enforcement of pornography laws.6

Michigan state police detective Darrell Pope found that of the 38,000 sexual assault cases in Michigan (1956-1979), in 41 percent of the cases pornographic material was viewed just prior to or during the crime. This agrees with research done by psychotherapist David Scott who found that “half the rapists studied used pornography to arouse themselves immediately prior to seeking out a victim.”

The Final Report of the 1986 Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography lists a full chapter of testimony (197-223) from victims whose assailants had previously viewed pornographic materials. The adverse effects range from physical harm (rape, torture, murder, sexually transmitted disease) to psychological harm (suicidal thoughts, fear, shame, nightmares).

forerunner.com/forerunner/X0388_Effects_of_Pornograp.html

 

[Lilyofthevalley]

Hermione, wow! Something we can agree on!
Yes, pornography harms women. In a nutshell pornography trains men to view women as objects or things, which should perform on command.

 

[turboEDvo]

It really adds to our society’s fixation on promiscuous sex. Rather than using sex for its intended purpose, it refocuses sex back on individual pleasure (mastrubation). Then, people start using each other simply for pleasure, instead of building a loving relationship and reaping the full benefits of it. Porn is selfish, and very very wrong. I can always tell the difference between my friends who look at porn and my friends who don’t: it is evident in the way they talk about their female friends. Those who do seem to have an attitude that their female friends should be subservient, and they like joking about “a woman’s place.” Not entertaining, let me tell you. Then, there are my friends who do not look at porn: they show respect to their parents, they never say anything derogatory towards females.

Eamon