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Watching Porn Reduces Sex Crimes
Two studies, one by Clemson professor Todd Kendal and the other by University of California professors Gordon Dahl and Stefano DellaVigna, apparently arrive to the counter-intuitive conclusions that watching pornography online (the former) and watching violent movies (the latter) actually leads to a decline in sex crimes and homicides, respectively.
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Crimes reduction, by AresCraft
This can’t be right. Studies were done to show that watching violent movies and such will increase the violence of the viewer. It’s written in every psychology book.
RE: Crimes reduction, by Anonymous
Then what you state is that even thought this individual has come across a theory based on his findings, he is wrong based off of the sole premise that others have come across different results?
What must always be kept in mind is that humans (no matter how advanced) are still animals. That being said, we as a race are still plagued by desires and needs that are played out in a variety of ways. Would fulfilling those needs (as in this study) virtually not decrease the desire to perform those acts?
Think of it this way, we all need to eat right? What if you took 2 individuals and did not allow them any food for 1 entire day. You subject one of the individuals to a sensory overload of food related items (smells, pictures, and video) and the other you only allow them to “think” about what they are being denied. When it comes time to eat, which of the two would you guess goes at it with the greatest enthusiasm? I would venture a guess that the individual that had to rely on their own thoughts would have a more skewed perspective and actually eat more that the one that was subjected to the stimuli. This would also explain why individuals that are subject to the stimuli of food have reduced appetites such a food workers and packagers.
Now apply the same train of thought to the original study. If someone could “vent” their innate desires in a manner that holds no threat to others, could you not satisfy them to some extent? Studies have proven that porn does not increase the sex drive, but can actually decrease it because it is satisfying the sexual desire to some extent. Why would this not apply to all human desires?
RE: Crimes reduction, by VnutZ
When it comes time to eat, which of the two would you guess goes at it with the greatest enthusiasm? I would venture a guess that the individual that had to rely on their own thoughts would have a more skewed perspective and actually eat more that the one that was subjected to the stimuli.
I wonder if any actual diets exist that are based on the psychological effect of making people disgusted via sensory overload.
RE: Crimes reduction, by Brandon
I would venture a guess that the individual that had to rely on their own thoughts would have a more skewed perspective and actually eat more that the one that was subjected to the stimuli.
I think it would be the exact opposite, actually. My hunger level actually seems to increase as I experience food related stimulus.
In my opinion, it isn’t watching porn that reduces the rate of sexual crime but the activity that usually goes along with it. Sexual predators aren’t satisfied by just looking at pornography, as evident by the fact that they aren’t satisfied by just looking at their victims. On the other hand, if they are able to easily access pornography on the spot, they might be diverted from going out of the house to release their unusual sexual tension. (I say unusual not because it is unusual to want/need sexual satisfaction, but because most are able to exercise enough self-control so as to not let this desire impinge on the rights of others.)
It would be interesting, however to look at the issue from another perspective. This "solution" involves distracting the potential criminal with activities that seem to be harmless (to everyone but the individual and his family, I would argue), but might there not be a way to preemptively dissuade the development of individuals with such unusual desires? What of those growing up in families where the father respects the mother (and other women), the classmates are dressed modestly and nudity/sex is absent from the movie theaters and the computers? Would not such an environment lead to the lowest sexual crime rate of all?
I don’t think it is correct, then, to say that pornography reduces the rate of sexual crime. That would be akin to claiming that smoking reduces stress, an obviously faulty statement because the claimed positive effects are only realized after the person is addicted to smoking. Pornography only has these "positive" effects after the individual has developed these unusual sexual urges.
RE: Crimes reduction, by AresCraft
I think you’re right, but there’s no reason to start showing Prisoners violent movies and such.
RE: Crimes reduction, by Anonymous
If something is written and claims are made to it’s truth, but we find evidence against it, should we simply discount the evidence as a fluke?
RE: Crimes reduction, by EyeOfSage
No….as a good researcher, you have to be especially critical of your own theory.