Media Group Finds Porn-Sex Crime Link
by AFA Journal
July 8, 2004
(AgapePress) - Pornography has become nearly ubiquitous in American culture, and yet so many regard it as a harmless pursuit. However, in a recent report, media watchdog Morality in Media (MIM) has established what it calls a "causal connection" between pornography and violent sex crimes.MIM's report knits together a compelling case using news accounts, the testimony of law enforcement officers, clinical case studies and common sense.
The report said that while pornography cannot be singled out as the sole cause of violent sex crimes, "there is ample evidence to support the conclusion that many violent sex crimes would not have occurred ... if the perpetrator had not been exposed to or become addicted to pornography."
MIM president Robert Peters said, "At a time when some commentators in the media are saying that pornography is widely accepted and harmless, we need to remind ourselves that common sense, anecdotal evidence and social science research all point in the opposite direction."
Peters was motivated to write the report because, in his words, "defenders of pornography are misleading the public" by using one of two deceptive arguments: pornography is harmless, or society lacks the necessary "conclusive scientific data" that pornography causes sex crimes to justify suppressing pornography. The MIM head maintains "conclusive scientific data" is not necessary.
"There is already enough evidence of a causal link between pornography and sex crimes to justify enforcement of obscenity laws," he writes, "and there would be much more if we would listen more to the people who deal with pornography first hand."
The report, titled The Link Between Pornography and Violent Sex Crimes, can be found at MIM's website.
This article appeared in the July 2004 issue of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.
