Violence
Exploring the connection between pornography and sexual violence.
Open Access: No.
Abstract
This article examines the relationship between sexual violence and pornography. Data about women’s experiences of sexual violence and their abusers’ use of pornography were collected at a rape crisis center from 100 survivors. Findings include that 28% of respondents reported that their abuser used pornography and that for 12% of the women, pornography was imitated during the abusive incident. The effects of pornography on women’s experiences of sexual violence are discussed.
Relevance
Overall, the findings of this research support the idea that there is a relationship between pornography and violence against women.
This study indicates that pornography is clearly implicated in some of the abusive experiences of women in this sample. Twenty-eight percent of the 100 participants said that their abusers used pornography. However, the majority of respondents (58%) answered that they did not know about their abusers’ use of pornography…this finding is not surprising, given the secretive nature of pornography consumption and the fact that many women are unaware of their partners’ use of pornography. Even a woman who knows her abuser well. may not know the answer to questions about his pornography usage.”
“A significant number of women surveyed indicated that pornography was part of the actual incident of abuse. When analysis was limited to those women who indicated that their abusers used pornography, approximately 40% said the pornography was part of the abusive incident. In one case, the abuser regularly watched pornography as he abused his partner, while in several other cases, the abuser viewed/used the pornography before committing the violent acts.”
“In fact, 21% of the respondents whose abuser used pornography indicated that they believed pornography increased the frequency of the violence they experienced, while 14% said pornography increased the level of violence. Eighteen percent of the women believed their abuser became more sadistic with the use of pornography. It is also significant to note that 12% of the total sample said that pornography was imitated in some way during the abuse.”
Citation
