Denmark: 1958-1969 In June, 1967, the Danish Parliament voted to remove erotic literature from its obscenity statute 85 and then, on June 1,1969, repealed the statute, thus abolishing legal prohibitions against the dissemination of sexually explicit materials to persons sixteen years of age and older. Despite the general prohibition which existed prior to 1967, however, literary erotica has been available since 1965, and graphic material since 1967 (Ben-Veniste, 1970). Estimates furnished by producers of sexual materials indicated that dissemination of erotic literature, particularly paperback novels, began to increase during 1960, and reached a peak around 1967. By that time, an increase in production of explicit graphic materials apparently reduced consumer demand for literary erotica and the market for explicit graphic materials increased. 86 = 1Total reported sex crimes, 1958-1969 9284. These include: rape and Note - Adapted from Ben-Veniste, R. Pornography and sex crime the Danish 85 86 Sec. 234 of the Danish Penal Code. As one researcher has noted, "spirited public discussion in the newspapers, radio and television alerted the populace to its accessibility. The existence of magazine vending machines outside some porno shops' and mail order solicitation in the daily newspapers has ensured that even the most inhibited consumer may purchase pornography with a minimum of anxiety" (Ben-Veniste, 1970). Ben-Veniste (1970) compiled statistics on sex offenses reported to the police in Copenhagen, Denmark, over a twelve year period, 1958 to 1969. These figures show that the number of reported sex crimes declined during the period, even though pornography became increasingly available to the general public. As shown in Table 32, the sharpest continuous reduction in sex offenses began in 1967, and has continued through 1969. The onset of this decline occurred when prohibitions regarding dissemination of literary sexual materials were relaxed. Further analysis found that all classes of sex crimes decreased, but that some decreased more than others. Rape and attempted rape decreased less than did exhibitionism or "unlawful interference short of rape" with children, and these latter offenses decreased less than voyeurism and homosexual offenses which showed the most dramatic decreases (see Table 33). Note Adapted from Ben-Veniste, R. Pornography and sex crime the Danish Additional studies (Ben-Veniste, 1970; Kutschinsky, 1970c) attempted to determine whether the reported decrease in sex offenses was attributable to changes in legislation, law enforcement procedures or practices, police reporting and data collection procedures or people's definition of sex crimes, their readiness to report offenses to the police, and their experience with such offenses. It was found that changes in the incidence of sex offenses could not be attributed to legislative change, alteration of law enforcement practices or modified police reporting and data collection procedures87 (Ben-Veniste, 1970). A survey 87 With the exception of arrests for homosexual activity, which for several years reflected a change in the legal age of consent for homosexual relations and a short-lived police "crackdown" on homosexuals. (Kutschinsky, 1970c) of Copenhagen residents found that neither public attitudes about sex crimes nor willingness to report such crimes had changed sufficiently to account for the substantial decrease in sex offenses between 1958 and 1969. SEX OFFENDERS' EXPERIENCE WITH EROTIC MATERIAL Prior to 1960, there were few empirical studies of the relationship between exposure to erotic materials and the commission of sex offenses. They provided, however, a baseline and point of departure for the Commission's studies. Two early studies investigated the relationship between choice of reading matter and the nature of offenses committed by male prisoners. Von Bracken and Schafers (1935) found that murderers reported preferences for "high-grade information" books and adventure stories, swindlers preferred light novels, thieves chose books on "practical culture," and sex offenders preferred "sex books." A study of more than 3,000 sex offenders (Le Maire, 1946) concluded that literature was not generally a factor in the commission of these offenses. Between 1961 and 1968, several studies probed beyond overt deviant behavior and found that responses to sexual stimuli were also associated with sexual guilt, conflict, and psychosexual development (Galbraith and Mosher, 1968; Leiman and Epstein, 1961; Thorne and Haupt, 1966). The most extensive study during this period (Gebhard, et al., 1965) analyzed the sexual histories of 1,356 white male sex offenders, 888 male nonsex offenders and a control group of 477 males (volunteers) from the general population. The study found that: (a) exposure to sexual materials was almost universal among all three groups, and (b) there were no significant differences in exposure between the two groups of offenders and the nonoffender control group. Respondents were asked: "Does it arouse you sexually to see photographs or drawings of people engaged in sexual activity?" Findings revealed no substantial differences in reported arousal between these groups. Table 34 shows that 33% of the control group reported little or no arousal, and 31% reported strong arousal. The corresponding percentages for the imprisoned nonsex offenders were 38% and 36% respectively. On the whole, sex offender groups reported least arousal from pornography, with the exceptions of heterosexual aggressors against minors and homosexual offenders against adults, whose rates of reported "strong arousal" are higher but not statistically significantly so. Exhibitionists reported more arousal than nonsex offenders but less than controls. The study also found that about one-third of the control group and one-half of the prison group reported having owned pornographic materials. Sex offenders fell between these two groups. The researchers concluded that: About all that can be said is that strong response to pornography is associated with imaginativeness, ability to project, and sensitivity, all of which generally increase as education increases, and with youthfulness, and that these qualities account for the differences we have found between sex, offenders, in general, and nonsex offenders. Since the majority of sex offenders are not well educated nor particularly youthful, their responsive-ness to pornography is correspondingly less and cannot be a consequential factor in their sex offenses unless one is prepared to argue that the inability to respond to erotica in general precludes gaining some vicarious stimulation and satisfaction and thereby causes the individual to behave overtly which, in turn, renders him more liable to arrest and conviction. The results of these studies indicate that sex offenders are somewhat less responsive than other adults to erotic stimuli. Several recent studies of sex offenders generally support and extend knowledge about the relationship between exposure to erotic material and sexual deviance, and indicate more specifically how sex offenders' experience with erotica is different from that of other adults. Source: Gebhard,P. H., Gagnon, J. H., Pomeroy, W. B., & Christenson, C. V. Sex offenders: An analysis of types. New York: Harper and Row, 1965. Early Experience With Erotica Available research indicates that both the extent and frequency of sex offenders' experience with erotic material is substantially less than that of non-sex offenders and nonoffender adults during preadolsecence (Cook and Fosen, 1970; 88 Johnson, et al., 1970) and during adolescence (Cook and Fosen, 1970; Goldstein, et al., 1970; Johnson, et al. 1970). One indicator of the extent of adolescent exposure to erotica is the proportion of persons who report ever and never having encountered specified materials during this period. When sex offenders and sex deviants were compared with nonoffender adults, Goldstein and his colleagues (1970) found that several specific offender and deviant groups, e.g., male object pedophiles, had significantly less adolescent experience with several specific depictions (e.g., photos of partially and fully nude women, heterosexual intercourse and sadomasochistic activity as well as books describing intercourse and mouth-genital relations). No significant differences in the other direction were observed. The data in Figure 10 show the proportion of sex offenders, sex deviants and nonoffender adults who ever encountered photographs of human coitus during adolescence (Goldstein, et al., 1970). FIGURE 10 Percent Reporting Adolescent Exposure to Photographic Depictions of Coitus Note Adapted from Goldstein, M. J., Kant, H. S., Judd, L. L., Rice, C. J., & Green, R.. Exposure to pornography and sexual behavior in deviant and normal groups. Technical reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. Vol. 7. Although the number of subjects in the various categories is small, sharp and statistically significant differences are nonetheless evident. Table 35 shows that i.e., sex 88 Although the percentages reporting adolescent exposure sometimes differed according to the characteristics of the stimulus (medium and content), the differences were all in the same direction offenders and sex deviants tended to report less ex exposure. |