Content area
Full Text
It is widely believed that violent pornography is prevalent in our society and that such material has clearly demonstrated negative effects on men's attitudes and behaviors toward women (see, for example, Donnerstein, Linz, & Penrod, 1987; Malamuth & Donnerstein, 1984; U.S. Attorney General, 1986; U.S. Surgeon General, 1987). A considerable body of literature, however, is in conflict with these conclusions (e.g., Brannigan & Goldenberg, 1986, 1987a, 1987b; Fisher & Barak, 1989, 1991; Langevin et al., 1988; Linz, Donnerstein, & Penrod, 1988; Malamuth & Ceniti, 1986; Marshall, 1988; Palys & Lowman, 1984; Scott & Cuvelier, 1987; Special Committee on Pornography and Prostitution, 1985). In this article, we consider conflicting evidence regarding the prevalence and effects of violent pornography and describe two experiments in which we examined the impact of such material on men's fantasies, attitudes, and behaviors toward women.
PREVALENCE OF VIOLENT PORNOGRAPHY
To establish a context for considering effects of violent pornography, it is essential to know what such material consists of and whether it is relatively common or relatively rare in our society. With respect to definition, violent pornography is viewed for current purposes as sexually explicit material that portrays sexually violent or sexually coercive acts (see Fisher & Barak, 1991, for discussion of the definition of pornography). With respect to prevalence, it is widely held that violent pornography is common in our culture and that it is becoming increasingly common over time (U.S. Attorney General, 1986). A significant body of literature, however, contradicts this conclusion. As Table 1 illustrates, numerous investigators have concluded that violent pornographic images are common in sex magazines, videos, and adult bookstore materials and are on the increase, and numerous other investigators, covering the same ground, have concluded that violent pornographic images are uncommon in each of these media and are on the decline (see Fisher & Barak, 1991, for further discussion of these inconsistencies).
What are we to make of these highly inconsistent findings for the prevalence of violent pornography? Some inconsistency stems from the use of different sampling strategies, coding categories, and statistical aggregation techniques by different researchers and may be understood in this light. For example, Cowen, Lee, Levy, and Snyder's (1988) and Palys' (1986) differing procedures for studying sexual violence in X-rated videos may help...