1. Background
   1. Problem of Definitions
   2. Evidence and Standard of Proof
2. The Evidence
   1. Changes in Rape Rates
   2. Correlational Evidence
      1. Danish and Other Cross-Cultural Data
      2. Sex-Magazine Circulation
      3. Sex Offenders and Pornography
      4. Conclusions from Correlational Evidence
   3. Experimental and Clinical Evidence
      1. Arousal
      2. Effects on Attitudes Toward Rape- "Disinhibition"
      3. Overall Evidence for "Causation"
   4. Evidence Against Causation
3. Conclusion
4. Notes

Conclusion

Ultimately the empirical evidence suggests the following conclusions: viewing nonviolent, sexually explicit material similar to widely circulated "adult magazines" is statistically related to a higher probability of rape. (Thus, for example, Wyoming has a "sex-magazine circulation rate" 45 percent higher than Montana's, with a rape rate 57 percent higher. Baron & Strauss (1985).) That relationship is not only highly significant, and constant from year to year, but it is not "spurious" when other potential "third factors" are considered. Evidence from both experimental and clinical studies demonstrates at least two possible ways in which that correlation might be explained by "causation": (1) through the simple arousal properties of such materials, and (2) through their disinhibiting qualities, their capacity to change attitudes regarding sexual aggression. The evidence is nonetheless far from conclusive, and points toward the need for substantially more, and better-focused research. At this point, little or no evidence exists which shows any beneficial effects of such materials.

It is useful to consider the weight of this data against that which supports our previous finding that sexually violent material is causally related to sexual violence. For that conclusion we had no correlational evidence demonstrating a "real-world" statistical relationship between the material and the behavior. By contrast, the experimental evidence was somewhat stronger-showing, for example, "negative effects" from short-term as well as long-term exposure. Sexually violent material is no more arousing to viewers (even to known rapists) than is "standard" nonviolent material (Abel, Barlow, Blanchard & Guild (1977). In the one study which directly attempted to compare the effects on attitudes of sexually violent material with effects from "dehumanizing" material and "erotica," the results showed no significant difference in the most crucial areas.^[67] Only a well-founded intuition that direct depictions of sexual violence are more likely to produce such violence allows us to conclude that they are more "harmful" than nonviolent materials; the evidence from social science is at best ambivalent on the issue.^[68] Our task is not an easy one, because with widely different backgrounds and substantially different ideas about what constitutes "proof" of a given fact, we are highly unlikely to reach consensus on highly disputed questions. With regard to the relationship between sexually explicit materials and sexual violence we will each carry away different levels of skepticism about the state of currently available evidence. And we will know, too, that our stated conclusions may be swept away by new research. Yet that does not relieve us of the obligation to state, not as scientists proclaiming "fact" but as policymakers confronting risk and probability, that wide circulation and consumption of materials similar to "adult men's magazines" must be a matter of concern among those seeking to combat sexual violence. There is at least a substantial basis, if not a preponderance of the evidence, to believe that such materials are a part (if only a small part) of the explanation for that cruel plague.

Acknowledgement. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Edna Einsiedel, The Commission's staff social scientist, for her review of, and comments on, the preliminary versions of this statement. The foregoing represents, however, only my own views and not necessarily hers.

NOTE: All references in the text and notes are to studies cited in the Report on Social Services of the Commission, except where a full citation is given.

Statement of Father Bruce Ritter