Pornography and sex crime

Here is a study from the University of Hawai'i, Pornography, Public Acceptance and Sex Related Crime: A Review, via the good offices of Mr. Paalanen. I quote at length from the conclusion:

With these data from a wide variety of communities, cultures and countries we can better evaluate the thesis that an abundance of sexual explicit material invariably leads to an increase of illegal sexual activity and eventually rape. Similarly we can now better reconsider the conclusion of the Meese Commission and others that there exists "a causal relationship to antisocial acts of sexual violence and … unlawful acts of sexual violence" (Meese, 1986, page 326). Indeed, the data reported and reviewed suggests that the thesis is myth and, if anything, there is an inverse causal relationship between an increase in pornography and sex crimes. Further, considering the findings of studies of community standards and wide spread usage of SEM, it is obvious that in local communities as nationally and internationally, porn is available, widely used and felt appropriate for voluntary adult consumption. If there is a consensus against pornography it is in regard to any SEM that involves children or minors in its production or consumption.

Lastly we see that objections to erotic materials are often made on the basis of supposed actual, social or moral harm to women. No such cause and effect has been demonstrated with any negative consequence. It is relevant to mention here that a temporal correlation between pornography and any effect is a necessary condition before one can rationally entertain the idea that there is a positive statistical correlation between pornography and any negative effect. Nowhere has such a temporal association been found.

For those of you not up on the history of pornography, the Meese Commission produced the infamous hatchet job properly referred to as the final report of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography. In brief, the Meese commission heard testimony from several "experts", all of whom were rabidly anti-porn radical feminists, including the lunatic Andrea Dworkin, and Christian Conservatives of all shades. Unsurprisingly, the report came to the conclusion that pornography directly caused sex crimes and violence against women; equally unsurprisingly, it did so without any evidence or even a pretense of science.

I post this just in case anyone needs an easy reference to proving that based on everything we know, pornography has no harmful effects at all.