Pornography As One Of The Causes Of Rape - Essay Example

Pornography As One Of The Causes Of Rape Rape and sexual assault have harmed numerous women and young children alike. To help reduce its occurrence, the research on the connection between pornography and sexual violence has experience growth and has been subjected to intense debate for the past few decades. Predominantly, the causes of rape are matters of interest to society and individuals because of the need to identify and reduce the environmental factors that contribute to it. Russell used several studies and argued that pornography causes rape because it predisposes males to rape women through conditioned learning and decreases in the inhibitions that prevent rape. Seto, Maric, and Barbaree disagreed with Russell and asserted that the studies that link pornography to rape are ambiguous. The Russell article and the Seto, Maric, and Barbaree article, nevertheless, contend that pornography in itself is not a necessary or enough cause for rape. This essay argues that pornography can cause rape only when other mediating and individual factors are considered, particularly when men are predisposed to sexual offenses and the chances of being caught is slim. Summary of Russell’s “Pornography as a Cause of Rape” Russell argued that pornography causes rape because it enhances men’s predisposition to be sexually aggressive against women and children through the processes of conditioned learning and reduction of vital internal and social inhibitions against rape. This article shows that pairing pornography with rape through visual excitation can result to rape in real life. The process can be connected to conditioned learning, where pleasure is connected to watching porn, and afterwards, pleasure is related to rape itself. Aside from this learning process, Russell underscored that watching pornography material reduces internal inhibitions because women are reduced to sexual objects in pornographic material. Porn stimulates rape myths, thereby making it acceptable to rape and assault women. Essentially, Russell showed that porn desensitizes men to seeing women as people of lower value, since porn often dehumanizes women and turns them into willing sexual slaves. Finally, Russell mentioned studies which indicated that the risks of being caught are directly related to rape. Lower risks increases rape incidents. Summary of Seto, Maric, and Barbaree’s “The Role of Pornography in the Etiology of Sexual Aggression” Seto, Maric, and Barbaree underscored that pornography cannot be easily studied as a cause of rape because the former is hard to define, and that correlational studies are not enough to establish that pornography itself leads to rape. They stressed that pornography may or may not include violence and dehumanization, and the latter are subject to individual and community differences because of the varying values placed on the morality and acceptability of sexual attitudes and actions. In other words, what is pornography to one person may be ordinary sex media material for another person. Seto, Maric, and Barbaree argued that many studies on this topic are correlational, which means that causal relations are not considered and established. If there is anything that is general, they asserted that men who can rape do not need porn to be stimulated. They will rape with or without heavy exposure to porn, since they are already internally predisposed to rape. Analysis of Evidence Pornography can be one of the strong causes of rape, but other social factors have to be considered. The Russell article mentioned the study of Malamuth and Check in 1985, where a control group is used to differentiate reactions to two kinds of rape victims, and where porn material was shown to only one group of participants. Their findings showed that students who watched violent porn material are more likely to say that the rape victim did not experience much trauma, that she enjoyed being raped, and that women in general want to be raped. The Russell article added the study of Maxwell and Check, which proved that watching porn promoted rape myths. These high school students who watched porn were more likely to see rape victims as willing victims, even to the point that women invited men to rape them. A careful acceptance of the implications of these studies must be conducted, however. Seto, Maric, and Barbaree mentioned conflicting correlational studies. On the one hand, one study shows that less restrictive pornography laws are not related to the number of rape incidents. On the other hand, other studies correlated reading pornographic material and rape in several American states. Apparently, laws regarding the distribution and consumption of pornography can impact the desire to use pornography, but this desire is not always related to rape. Seto, Maric, and Barbaree provided compelling evidence that correlational studies do not prove that pornography per se predisposes, even non-sexually aggressive men, to acts of rape. Pornography can increase predisposition to rape through perpetuating rape myths and objectification of women as sexual commodities. The Russell article used sociological studies from Scully and Burt to assert that porn is related to learning rape myths. These sociologists asserted that rapists claim innocence for their crimes, saying that their victims asked to be raped because of their physical looks and behaviors. The Russell article added the study from Donnerstein to show that men and women, who saw porn material, tend to develop rape myths. They become more predisposed to believing that rape is not always wrong because many women want to be raped. With these attitudes, some men, after seeing porn, can see women as sexual objects. Because of violent porn, women are dehumanized into objects that can and must be used and abused. Rape becomes trivialized and acceptable, as if it is a social norm. Social inhibitions are loosened, which can impact individual inhibitions. Having sexual attitudes and beliefs that are connected to rape, however, is not always a sufficient factor. Seto, Maric, and Barbaree mentioned the study of Demarè et al., where the connection between self-reported behaviors of rape is not related to actual rape incidents. Pornography is not a single and sufficient factor that predisposes men to rape, unless they are already predisposed to sexual violence and the risks of getting caught are small. The Russell article showed that some men rape women because they believe that they will not get caught. Watching porn itself is not related to these cases. Seto, Maric, and Barbaree discussed the result of the study of Malamuth and Check in 1983. For this study, they noticed that students who volunteered for studying sexually explicit stimuli were less restricted in using force in their sexual actions and were more motivated to use nonconventional sexual practices. This study suggested that rapists are people who are already predisposed to acts of sexual violence. They may even be drawn to violent porn precisely because they are sadistic and want to rape women. Conclusion Porn is only one factor that may contribute to rape, but not for all cases. Seto, Maric, and Barbaree offered conflicting evidence that study the connection between reading porn material and engaging in rape. Some studies showed that pornography incites rape for some sexual offenders, while other studies showed that rapists did not consume more pornographic material than non-rapists. On this regard, people who are predisposed to sexual violence will still rape women and children, with or without heavy pornographic consumption. In addition, when men without predispositions to sexual violence watch porn, it does not push them to rape women. They might develop beliefs that result to rape myths, but they will not necessarily engage in rape, with or without existing opportunities. Hence, watching porn can lead to rape, but not all the time, because rapists do not need porn to compel them to rape women. Read More