Elsevier

Aggression and Violent Behavior

Volume 46, May–June 2019, Pages 116-126
Aggression and Violent Behavior

The use of pornography and the relationship between pornography exposure and sexual offending in males: A systematic review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2019.02.003Get rights and content

Highlights

  • There is no clear evidence to suggest a relationship between pornography and offending.

  • Men who offend report less exposure to pornography

  • Pornography use does not result in more harm to the victim.

  • Definitions of pornography are poor.

Abstract

Background

Exposure to pornography is common, although research examining the use of pornography, and the relationship between exposure to pornography and offending, is contradictory. The purpose of this systematic review was to determine whether there was an association between pornography exposure and sexual offending in males.

Method

A comprehensive search of eight electronic databases was undertaken to systematically identify literature relating to pornography and offending. Reference lists of key journals were hand searched and contact was made with experts in the field to identify any unpublished work. A total of twenty-one studies were included in the review and all were assessed using a quality criteria tool adapted from the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP, 2018).

Results

From the twenty-one studies included in the review, studies explored pornography use either prior to or during offending. Studies exploring the effects of pornography assessed recidivism, seriousness of the sexual offence and deviant sexual fantasies. The data synthesis indicated that the impact of pornography on offending is not always negative but that it is complex, particularly due to issues related to defining pornography.

Conclusion

The review yielded mixed findings largely due to variations in samples and a lack of agreed definitions for pornography. Recommendations are provided regarding the need for more recent longitudinal studies able to capture any possible changes within the pornography literature and its effect on sexual offenders, and the need for studies that provide specific definitions for pornography.

Introduction

There is a growing belief globally that pornography has a range of negative effects (Flood, 2009; Malamuth, Hald, & Koss, 2012; Zillman & Bryant, 1982). One of the most prominent concerns is the effect of pornography on attitudes and behaviour. Bridges, Wosnitzer, Scharrer, Sun, and Liberman (2010) conducted a content analysis of pornography videos and identified that 88.2% encompassed physical aggression and 48.7% contained verbal aggression. Moreover, the perpetrators of the aggression were mainly predominantly males with a female victim. A critical question surrounding pornography is the relationship between exposure to pornography and offending. Thus, does pornography exposure increase the likelihood of a person becoming an offender or do individuals who offend then go on to consume pornography? It is therefore important to explore the use of pornography both pre-offending and post-offending to determine whether there is a relationship. The typical hypothesis is that individuals who engage in sexual criminality use pornography more frequently or that pornography has a stronger effect when compared to the general population (Paolucci, Genuis, & Violato, 1997). However, some research has found there to be weak evidence in support of these contentious issues (Ferguson & Hartley, 2009). Consequently, the relationship between pornography and offending needs to be explored further to support our understanding of the relationship and what implications the relationship may have with regards to the risk management of sexual offenders, specifically relating to their use of pornography.

One theory that has previously been used to explain the relationship between pornography and sexual offending is Bandura's Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1973). By applying this theory to pornography, viewing pornography may affect the consumer's behaviour. Thus, when the consumer views pornography it creates either a physiological or psychological response. The consumer then views this response as desirable and therefore implies to the consumer that, if the behaviour depicted within the pornography is performed in ‘real’ life, the same desirable response should occur. Consequently, the pornography ‘serves as a basis for future behaviour’ (Allen, D'Alessio & Emmers-Sommers, 1999, p. 140). Theories related to classical and operant conditioning have also been referred to when discussing the effects of pornography. Seto, Maric, and Barabaree (2001) highlighted that when an individual masturbates to pornography, the arousal may positively reinforce the behaviour that the individual may then interpret as rewarding. It is possible that masturbating to pornography could increase the likelihood of the individual engaging in sexual behaviour similar to that being observed in the pornography. It could cause particular issues in terms of harmful pornography, such as that involving the use of violence, whereby violence may be inadvertently associated with sexual pleasure.

A further theory that can be used to explore the association between pornography and offending is Excitation Transfer Theory developed by Zillman (1971). This theory emphasises that exposure to arousing stimuli, such as pornography, causes an enduring arousal that may last for some time. This arousal therefore intensifies the reaction to subsequent sexual stimuli.

A number of researchers have explored the link between pornography and sexual aggression within non-offending populations. For example, Vega and Malamuth (2007) explored the role of pornography in the context of risk factors associated with sexual aggression within a group of male university students. They found that excessive pornography consumption added significantly to the prediction of sexual aggression. Furthermore, for those men who were considered high risk of committing a sexual offence, pornography consumption increased their risk of sexual aggression. Therefore, for men who scored higher on both general and specific risk characteristics, such as impulsivity and hostility, frequent use of pornography increased their risk of sexual aggression. Allen and Emmers (1995) conducted a meta-analysis, and found that there was a small correlation between pornography exposure and acceptance of rape myths. However, this meta-analysis was criticised by Hald, Malamuth, and Yuen (2010) due to its methodological and analytical flaws. Hald et al. (2010) believed that several studies should not have been included in Allen at al's meta-analysis because of the definitions, sampling and assessment they used (Allen & Emmers, 1995). Paolucci et al. (1997) suggest that pornography consumption, especially violent pornography, is supportive of violence towards women.

It may be realistic to hypothesise that such negative effects are more relevant to those who are either vulnerable to committing a sexual offence or those who have already committed a sexual offence. This could help determine whether pornography plays a casual role within the offending. Langevin and Curnoe (2004) found that offenders may view pornography prior to, or during, the offence. It may be that pornography use incites some individuals to offend or pornography creates a greater physiological response in those who sexually offend (Barbaree & Marshall, 1989).

In order to explore the effects of pornography, some researchers have adopted experimental methods. These have generally involved exposing the participant to a range of pornography and assessing their physiological arousal response, for example erection (Marshall, Seidman, & Barbaree, 1991), attitudes (Allen & Emmers, 1995) and sexual behaviour, for example sexual aggression (Vega & Malamuth, 2007). However, the data from these studies are self-reported and therefore it may be possible for the results to be biased due to the potential for impression management by participants. Other studies have utilised physiological responses to pornography, such as a penile plethysmograph (Looman & Marshall, 2005). However, the ecological validity of such findings is limited as participants were exposed to pornography in a laboratory setting. Therefore the exposure to pornography was not one of a natural occurrence. More recently, Kingston, Malamuth, Federoff, and Marshall (2009) suggested that “pornography consumption, through a variety of mechanisms may facilitate the likelihood of future sexual aggression, particularly among individuals with a predisposition for sexual offending” (Kingston et al., 2009, p. 227). They suggested that rather than viewing pornography and offending as a causal link, individual and cultural differences should also be considered. That is, personality, home environment and peer environment could all be moderating variables in the effect of pornography (Kingston et al., 2009).

Understanding the effect of pornography is complex (Ferguson & Hartley, 2009). One explanation for the differences in findings within the literature is the inconsistency in defining the term pornography (Seto et al., 2001). Allen et al. (1999) defined it as ‘material that is used to create sexual arousal in the consumer’ (p. 140). Furthermore, as well as providing sexual material, Bridges et al. (2010) also noted that violence often exists within pornographic material. This raises further issues around the conceptualisation of violence. Typically, definitions of violence incorporate behaviours directed from one person to another that are intended to cause harm (Donnerstein & Linz, 1986). However, research does not always define violence within the use of pornography. Thus, research does not always distinguish whether the impact of pornography on criminal behaviour is a direct result of the sexual elements of pornography or a result of the violence within the pornography or both. Given the findings of Bridges et al. (2010), that pornography often contains violence, it may be important to rethink the definition of pornography, particularly with regards to the type and explicitness of the material.

As well as the differences in definitions, different terminology is also used within the research. The following terms: erotica (Langevin & Lang, 1988), degrading (Bridges et al., 2010) and violent or non-violent pornography (Malamuth & Centi, 1986) have been used interchangeably with the term pornography. Furthermore, different methodologies appear to produce different outcomes. Allen and Emmers (1995) found that the effect of pornography was different in experimental studies than it was in non-experimental studies.

During the literature search, a number of reviews in this area were identified. Paolucci et al. (1997) conducted a meta-analysis on the published effects of pornography. There were, though, a number of limitations with this paper. The authors did not state the methodological procedures, the exclusion and inclusion criteria, or whether they assessed the papers for quality. Therefore, the results should be approached with caution. Allen et al. (1999) completed a systematic review on the reactions of sexual offenders to pornography. Allen et al. (1999) primarily used studies that exposed the participant to pornography through experimental procedures and thus exposure to pornography was not naturalistic. This review focused purely on the physiological effects of pornography on sexual offenders rather than exploring the relationship more generally between pornography and offending. Several reviews have simply summarised the previous literature on pornography use rather than using a systematic methodology (Bauserman, 1996; Ferguson & Hartley, 2009; Kingston et al., 2009; Paolucci et al., 1997).

The present review aims to bring together the current evidence on the use of pornography and its relationship with offending. In addition, the review aims to highlight gaps in the research.

The aims of this systematic review are:

  • 1.

    To explore the use of pornography by male sexual offenders both pre-offending and post-offending.

  • 2.

    To identify if there is a relationship between exposure to pornography and offending.

The overarching aim of this review is to provide an in-depth analysis of pornography use, and the relationship between pornography exposure and sexual offending, among individuals residing in forensic and psychiatric settings, and in the community. Previous studies include a variety of different outcomes regarding pornography use, including pornography use prior to offending (Cook, Fosen, & Pacht, 1971) and recidivism rates. This paper aims to integrate the findings from previous research.

Section snippets

Method

A systematic approach to this review was undertaken to identify literature related to the use of pornography, and the relationship between exposure to pornography and sexual offending. This involved following the guidance of PRISMA-P (Moher et al., 2015), which included the systematic identification and development of a search strategy. Papers were appraised using the Critical Appraisal Programme Checklist (CASP, 2018) for case control studies, as a quality assessment tool.

Results

Overall, 189 full manuscripts were retrieved and considered for inclusion. From these, 32 were excluded on the basis that they were duplicates and 21 studies remained in the final review (see Fig. 1 for reasons for exclusion). Table 2 provides a brief description of included study characteristics.

Data synthesis

The synthesis is divided into two main sections: the use of pornography pre-and post-offending; and the effects of pornography on offending.

Discussion

The paper provides a systematic review of the research evidence regarding the use of pornography both pre-and post-offending. The review aimed to explore the use of pornography to determine whether there is a relationship between exposure to pornography and offending in males. The review highlights that the relationship between pornography and offending is not always clear. The outcome of this review is consistent with previous reviews suggesting a causal relationship between exposure to

Conclusion

This review was unable to demonstrate that there was not a relationship between early exposure to pornography and sexual offending. It also consistently appears that men who sexually offend report less exposure to pornography and that exposure to pornography does not result in more harm being caused to the victim. The review suggests that there is not a consistent relationship between exposure to pornography and offending shortly after exposure. The review has demonstrated that inconsistency in

Acknowledgments

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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