Sexual Violence in Three Pornographic Media: Toward a Sociological Explanation - Statistical Data Included

Journal of Sex Research, May, 2000 by Martin Barron, Michael Kimmel

With almost three decades of social science research on sexual violence in pornography, many of its characteristics are now well understood. We know that pornography contains images of both violence and sexual violence (Palys, 1986; Scott & Cuvelier, 1993; Smith, 1976). We have some idea of the negative effect of sexually violent pornography, especially on men's attitudes towards women (Allen, D'alessio, & Brezgel, 1995; Brannigan & Goldenberg, 1987; Fisher & Grenier, 1994; Linz, 1989; Malamuth & Check, 1985; Mayerson & Taylor, 1987).

Unfortunately, however, the vast majority of previous research on sexual violence in pornography has approached pornography as an undifferentiated mass with regards to sexual violence. This study seeks to determine if this assumption is justified. Does pornography differ across media? In what ways, and to what degree? How can these differences be explained? These are the primary questions of concern to this paper. We begin our inquiry by reviewing past efforts to understand the content of pornography, and then present some tentative hypotheses concerning the levels of sexual violence across media. Through an empirical investigation of three contemporaneous pornographic media--magazines, videos, and Internet newsgroups (the Usenet)--we discuss differences in violent content, and speculate about some of the possible explanations for these differences.

THE CONTENT OF PORNOGRAPHY

Most social and behavioral science research on pornography has studied either the effects of pornographic images on viewers, or examined the content of the pornography itself. (As our empirical analysis focuses only on the changing content of pornography, we have confined our review of the literature to that branch of the research.) Although Smith (1976) found remarkable homogeneity in his sample of "adult-only" paperbacks, Malamuth and Spinner (1980) found increasing violence in their study of Playboy and Penthouse over a 5-year period, from approximately 1.5% of all pictorials for both magazines in 1973 to 6% in Penthouse and 4% in Playboy in 1977.

The debate surrounding these studies generated important additional research. Scott and Cuvelier (1987a, 1987b) disaggregated the two magazines and examined them over a longer time span, to eliminate the possibility that the original studies had conflated them and examined an anomalous period. They found a curvilinear relationship between year and sexual violence, from virtually no violence in its earliest years, with increases until the late 1970s (the end-point for the study by Malamuth & Spinner, 1980), when the violent content began to subside. It appears that Playboy responded to the proliferation of more violent magazines and the introduction of videotapes by returning to its traditional, more economically affluent and upscale consumerist readership.

Criticized for methodological synecdoche--letting Playboy stand for all pornographic magazines, especially at a time of proliferation--Scott and Cuvelier (1993) examined sexual violence in Hustler from its inception (July 1974) through July 1987. While they found a higher level of violent content (1.6% of all pictorials) in Hustler than in Playboy (.038%) overall, they found no changes in the magazine over time, and argued that their work "refutes the alleged increase in sexually violent portrayals" (Scott & Cuvelier, 1993, p. 367).

Other researchers used more synchronic approaches. Winick (1985), for example, examined 430 pornographic magazines found in an adult bookstore in New York City's Times Square. After classifying these magazines into 22 categories, Winick found that 4.9% of the magazines examined were dedicated to bondage and discipline, while violent content accounted for only 1.2% of his sample. However, lack of reliability of the sample (Winick only went into one store) and coding validity (all coding was done on the premises) make his findings less useful to other researchers.

The rapid development of video technology revolutionized the pornography industry. The rental of pornographic movies rose from 75 million in 1985 to 490 million in 1992 (Schlosser, 1997). Research followed suit. Comparing sexual aggression in "Triple-X" videos and in more mainstream "adult" videos, Palys (1986) found virtually no differences--6.6% of the scenes from adult videos and 6.4% of the scenes from Triple-X videos contained sexual aggression--but enormous differences between pornographic videos and pornographic magazines (where 1% was more typical). Virtually every study of pornographic videos has found similar levels of sexual violence, substantially higher than in magazines (see, for example, Brosius, Weaver, & Staab, 1993; Duncan, 1991; Yang & Linz, 1990).

Little research has been done on pornography and the Usenet (Internet newsgroups), although it has become a very controversial topic. One study (Rimm, 1995) was both methodologically and ethically suspect--supplemental data were collected from an adult bulletin board (which requires a credit card and age verification to use) and surreptitiously from students using the Usenet (DeLoughry, 1995; Elmer-Dewitt, 1995). Other, less typical forms of pornography--from pornographic cartoons (Matacin & Burger, 1987) to dial-a-porn recordings (Glascock & Larose, 1993)-- have also been examined. These studies tend to underscore the fact that all pornographic media contain violence, and that each displays violence differently.