Pornography criminalization - Essay Example

The CNN article is just one of many that are published each year about pornography within the United States. 1. Fully Criminalize Pornography. Outlawing pornography would mean removing pornographic material from computers, TVs, magazines, sexy videos and posters; Outlawing pornography is speculated to increase the incidents of sex crimes. The pornographic material and production would go underground and the production of the material might be done by "much nastier people than those who run it now" (Micklethwait, p1).

Pornography has been deemed by many as dangerous to women because it promotes sexual violence against women (Corbin, 1-5). Outlawing pornography is argued to help women regain control over their bodies. Pornography that contains fantasies of rape may lead to the fantasy being acted out in the form of an actual rape. This may bring an unintended message that "sex is bad and only men should be interested in it" (Corbin, 3). The negative aspects of pornography are many. There has been "mounting evidence from teachers, social workers, probation officers, doctorsthat there is a link between scenes of violence depicted on TV, Video, and films, and human behavior.

"(Munday, 1) According to Munday many people feel that "freedom of expression has gone to0 far" (Munday, 1). The desire to have pornography banned has been met with opposition that asserts that banning it would a violation of the first amendment right to free speech. On the other hand it has been argued that pornography violates a woman's civil rights (MacKinnon, 1). MacKinnon further argues that "pornography is a political practice of power and powerlessness" (MacKinnon, 2). Conservatives continue to argue that pornography degrades women and uses them only as sexual objects that need to be controlled (Pornography and Ethics, 3).

Some would argue that the viewing of pornography does little or no harm but one only need recall recent news that reported a young American boy who hung himself after viewing the execution of Saddam Hussein over and over on national TV. "We're theorising he tried to experiment or mimic the behaviour and it got out of control" (CNN, January 5, 2007 - 7:49AM) People are affected by what they see in what ever format it appears. Their behavior is a result of their environment and what they are exposed to.

When is comes to pornography, where is the line drawn that protects our freedoms and does no harm.2. Fully Legalize Pornography. Some liberals argue that pornography is mostly low value content designed to produce sexual arousal and contains speech of little value intellectually and does not need protecting (Pornography and Censorship, 5). Proponents of legalized pornography argue that to further censure pornography would have chilling repercussions in the publication or showing of other materials such as valued literary, artistic, and political works.

They question how to define pornography and argue that any definition would also exclude other materials as stated above. Criminalizing pornography would act to suppress future works because the artists, writers, etc who "would fear that their works would be construed as pornography and thus not publish out of fear they would be prosecuted" (Pornography and Censorship, 8-9).The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) president