18), “female nudity," "daydreaming" and "obscene pictures" were judged as most arousing. A comparison of unwed pregnant high school girls with junior college girls (Schiller, 1970) found that romantic themes in television, books, romance magazines, motion pictures and musical recordings were generally considered more arousing than "pornographic" materials among both groups. The two groups of girls differed, however, in that the pregnant girls considered television to be most sexually provocative, while college girls reported that movies were most stimulating. 81 An early study of 100 incarcerated delinquents 16 to 21 (Haines, 1955) found that 14% of those who had experience with "eight" or "sixteen-pagers" depicting sexual acts reported being sexually aroused by them.82 age Comparison of 476 incarcerated delinquents, median age 19 years, (Propper, 1970) with a representative sample of 18 to 20 year-old nondelinquent males (Abelson, et al., suggests that the delinquents were approximately three times as likely to report arousal from visual erotica. When the same delinquents are compared with a sample of 473 working- class adolescents 13 to 18 years of (Berger, et al., 1970b), however, the differences in reported arousal diminish markedly. Fourty-four percent of the delinquents, compared with 36% of the working-class boys, reported arousal from visual depictions of heterosexual intercourse, and 38% of the delinquents, as compared to 31% of the working-class youth, reported arousal from visual depictions of genitalia (Propper, 1970; Berger, et al., 1970b). Part of the residual difference is probably a function of age. Two important findings emerge from the studies reviewed: (a) experience with erotic materials is widespread among American youth; and (b) the experiences of delinquent and nondelinquent youth, though not identical, are generally similar. The small differences which appear to be in the amount of exposure and the reactions to it, seem to be attributable to age and subcultural variables. Taken together, these data provide no particular support for the thesis that experience with sexual materials is a significant factor in the causation of juvenile delin quency. There is some evidence that both juvenile misbehavior and certain dimensions of experience with erotic materials may be explained by the subcultural and social processes operative in the home, neighborhood, and school peer groups. One study, in particular, addressed these relationships. Davis and Braucht (1970b) examined the relationships between moral character and experience with erotic materials among young males. Results indicated that the statistical relationship 81 Several other studies have suggested that such themes evoke feelings and fantasies of affection, sentimentality and romance among females generally (Kinsey, et al., 1953; Cairns, et al., 1962; Elias, 1970). 82 The researcher concludes from these data that pornography "plays a distinct role in the creation of antisocial behavior in susceptible teenagers” (Haines, 1955; p. 198). The inference of causality, however, seems premature in the absence of data for a nondelinquent control group. There is no indication in the study that delinquents' experience with sexual materials was or was not different from that of nondelinquent youth. between moral character and amount of experience with sexual materials (r = -.142) was a function of the relationship of each of these variables to the influence of deviant peers. There were strong relationships between associating with deviant peers and moral character (r = -.453) and deviant peers and amount of exposure to erotica (r = -.430). This study also found that an early age of first exposure to sexual materials was more strongly related to deviance in the home (r = .302) and the influence of deviant peers (r = .423) than to moral character (r = .280). These results were interpreted by the authors to indicate that "it may well be that an early age of exposure has no impact on character over and beyond that of a generally deviant background" (Davis and Braucht, 1970b). Among persons whose first experience with sexual materials occurred in late adolescence, those with low character scores more often pursued such experience, and this pattern was strongly associated (r = .585) with having deviant friends and neighbors. This analysis concluded that "at the very least, this argues for a pattern in which exposure to pornography is part of a strongly deviant life style" (Davis and Braucht, 1970b). Needed Additional Research Available research concerning the effects of erotic material upon juveniles has not included experimental studies in which the direction of relationships is more systematically assessed. Continuing fears about the consequences of controlled exposure studies have precluded the accumulation of strong evidence. The generally wide experience of adolescents with sexual materials, however, suggests that concerns about detrimental effects of experimentation may well be unwarranted. Additional research is needed and existing studies with slightly older populations suggest its feasibility. Future research might include: (a) retrospective and comparative studies of youth with histories of those antisocial behaviors deemed to be consequences of exposure to sexual materials; (b) longitudinal studies of the consequences of exposure to erotica among youths with similar social and demographic characteristics; (c) experimental studies of the consequences of controlled exposure to erotic materials with a wide range of youth. Gaps in available knowledge suggest that such studies should expand the experimental circumstances of exposure, the types of consequent variables observed, and the length of observation periods. The observed relationships between exposure and certain sexual behaviors suggest that particular attention be devoted to the social and psychological processes which mediate these relationships. EROTICA AND SEXUAL DEVIANCE The belief that reading or viewing explicit sexual materials causes sex crimes is widespread among the American public. A recent survey of a representative sample of adults in the United States (Abelson, et al., 1970) showed that 47% of the men and 51% of the women believed "sexual materials lead people to commit rape." Law enforcement officials, students of criminal behavior and other professionals working with criminals are also divided in their opinions about this relationship. Although some law enforcement officials attest to a causal relation ship between exposure to pornography and the commission of sex offenses (Hoover, 1965), few psychiatrists and psychologists report having encountered such cases in their professional experience (Lipkin and Carns, 1970). AVAILABILITY OF EROTICA AND SEX OFFENSES Reports of increased availability of erotic materials coupled with reported statistical increases in sex crimes over the past decade may, in part, account for the public's apprehensions in this area. The Commission variously sponsored and performed several studies of the relationship between availabilit of erotic materials and the incidence of sex offenses in both t. United Stated Denmark. Note - Compiled from Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Depart- A recent analysis of national police statistics in the Uniform Crime Reports for the period 1960 to 1969 (Kupperstein and Wilson, 1970) showed that both the availability of erotic materials and the incidence of sex offenses increased over the past decade. Increases in the availability of erotica,83 however, generally outweighed the overall increase in adult arrests for sex offenses. With respect to sex offenses, there was an absolute increase of 50% in adult arrests for forcible rape and a 60% increase in adult arrests for prostitution and commercialized vice. At the same time, however, there was a decrease in arrests for all other sex offenses which may, at least in part, be attributable to a reduction in arrests of homosexuals (See Table 30). Two other points regarding the offenses of forcible rape, prostitution and commercialized vice deserve mention here. First, these offenses, combined, ac 83 See Report of the Traffic and Distribution Panel of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography (1970). FIGURE 9 Percentage Change in Number of Adult Arrests for, and Known Cases of Note Adapted from Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Department of Justice. Uniform crime reports 1969. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1970, pp. 57, 110. 1 The seven offenses included in the FBI's crime index are: criminal homicide, forcible rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, grand larceny, and auto theft. counted for only 1.1% of all adult arrests in 1960 and 1.6% in 1969. Further, the number of known cases of and arrests for forcible rape increased less than did four out of the other six serious crimes which comprise the F.B.I. Crime Index4 (See Figure 9) and less than such other serious offenses as narcotic drug law violations (adult arrests up 380.4% from 1960 to 1969) and weapons law violations (adult arrests up 129%). 1Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Department of Justice. Uniform crime reports -1969. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1970, Based on figures supplied by the United States Department of Commerce, Adapted from Uniform crime reports - 1969. Once again, however, the relatively crude comparisons of the absolute number.of arrests or offenses over time may be misleading. The figures in Table 31 show that the differences in known cases and arrests for forcible rape between 1960 and 1969 become smaller as the index is refined. This would, of course, also be true for other crimes. In sum, available evidence shows that although adult arrests for sex offenses have increased on the whole, the increase has not been as great for these offenses as for such other serious offenses as robbery and narcotic law violations. Further; arrests for sex offenses constituted no more than 2% of all adult arrests during the period studied. If the heightened availability of erotica were directly related to the incidence of sex offenses, one would have expected an increase of much greater magnitude than the available figures indicate. Thus, the data do not appear to support the thesis of a causal connection between increased availability of erotica and the commission of sex offenses; the data do not, however, conclusively disprove such a connection. 84 The F.B.I. Crime Index is comprised of the following offenses: criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny of $50 or over, and auto theft. |