Shaping Sexual Behaviors & Sexual Scripts

This article focuses on the effects of exposure to pornography on teenagers, particularly males, concentrating on sexually aggressive outcomes and on the characteristics of the individual as crucial in determining whether pornography consumption may or may not lead to sexually aggressive outcomes. The term ‘‘pornography’’ refers to sexually explicit media that primarily is intended to arouse the viewer sexually. Pornography may be distinguished from sexual material that is ‘‘embedded’’ or interwoven with primarily nonsexual content, although the line to be drawn between the two may be fuzzy. Also inviting occasional ambiguity is the distinction between pornography and obscenity. Although pornography is a descriptive term, obscenity is a legal definition that describes what a court may have determined is particularly unredeeming pornographic material that has crossed the bounds of social propriety and so may allow for criminal prosecution. This article focuses primarily on the findings of the research that Malamuth and his associates have conducted, although other relevant research also is described.