The consequences of porn...

Remember all the commercials on TV for cigarettes? Remember them being pulled, in a large part because of the influence they were claimed to have on youngsters? So should anyone be surprised at this article dealing with porn, it's prevalence in our society and the rise of perversion? Found this via the Catholic News Agency . The article starts off with an almost gratuitous swipe at law enforcement. Perhaps the author should spend some time with his local police force, it might give him a better understanding of their problems.

Despite that shortcoming, I feel it cites a lot of valid information.

"When you dance with the Devil, he doesn't change. You do." From the film "Eight millimeter"

Quotations compiled by: Robert Peters, President of Morality in Media

At both the federal and state levels, law enforcement agents and prosecutors are working hard to stop sexual trafficking. In large measure, these individuals are also turning a blind eye towards the ever-expanding problem of “adult” obscenity that helps stimulate the demand for both adult and child prostitutes. “Adult” obscenity does not depict actual children, but it does include hardcore pornographic depictions of sex with persons who look like children, sex with barely legal teens, sex with urine, feces or vomit, sex with dominatrixes, rough sex, unsafe sex, and the degradation, rape and torture of women. Except for pay, many men would find it difficult if not impossible to find a woman who would consent to participate in such activities. What the agents and prosecutors fail to see (or refuse to acknowledge) is that by ignoring the explosion of “adult” obscenity, which helps drive the demand for adult and child prostitutes, they are undermining their efforts to curb sexual trafficking. The evidence set forth here is the tip of the iceberg.

Jan Macleod, Melissa Farley, Lynn Anderson and Jacqueline Golding, “Challenging Men’s Demand for Prostitution in Scotland,” Women’s Support Project, April 2008 [Published at: http://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/documents/Challenging_Men%27s_Demand.pdf]:

We found a statistically significant association between these punters’ pornography use and the frequency of their use of women in prostitution. We compared men who were high frequency users of prostitutes (once a month or more) to those who were low frequency users (once or twice, ever) with respect to their use of print, video and Internet pornography. Those who were the most frequent users of pornography were also the most frequent users of women in prostitution.

John W. Kennedy, “Help for the Sexually Desperate,” Christianity Today, Mar. 2008
[published at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/march/18.28.html]:

Viewing pornography is nearly always accompanied by masturbation…“If a guy masturbates to something it would take a prostitute to do, he’s more likely to find one.”

Finlo Rohrer, “The men who sleep with prostitutes,” BBC News Magazine, Feb. 22, 2008
[Published at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7257623.stm]:

Management consultant Pete…is blunt about his motivation for buying sex. “I’ve not had sex with my wife for at least five years,” he says…Having visited prostitutes for 18 months, Pete says he was attracted while surfing on the Internet. “I’ve been leading up to it; using pornography and looking at various websites. Rather than being a fantasy it was someone you could have sex with.”

Melissa Farley, “Renting an Organ for Ten Minutes: What Tricks Tell Us About Prostitution, Pornography, and Trafficking,” in Pornography: Driving the Demand in International Sex Trafficking 145 (David E. Guinn and Julie DiCaro, Esq. eds., 2007):

Interviews with 854 women in prostitution in 9 countries…made it clear that pornography is integral to prostitution. In 9 countries, almost half (49%) told us that pornography was made of them while they were in prostitution. Forty-seven percent of our respondents were upset by tricks’ attempts to make them do what the tricks had previously seen in pornography.

“Online porn addiction turns our kids into victims and predators,” Sydney Sun-Herald, Aug. 14, 2005 [published at: http://www.smh.com.au/news/miranda-devine/online-porn-addiction-turns-our-kids-into-victims-and-predators/2005/08/13/1123353539758.html]:

But as Internet pornography becomes increasingly pervasive, making every home computer a potential red light district, Australian parents, in particular, are becoming alarmed. Enter American sex abuse expert Dr Mary Anne Layden, who visited Sydney last week to address a forum on sex trafficking at NSW Parliament House. Layden, a psychotherapist at the University of Pennsylvania, has testified before the United States Senate on the dangers of online porn, gleaned from her experience treating sexual violence victims and perpetrators for 20 years… The connection to sex trafficking is that increased use of pornography leads to increased demand for prostitution. When demand outstripped supply of local prostitutes, women and children were brought in from overseas, often against their will, Layden told the forum…

Martin Monto and Nick McRee, “A Comparison of the Male Customers of Female Street Prostitutes With National Samples of Men,” International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 49(5), 505-529 (2005):

Repeat users reported greater participation in all aspects of the sex industry than did non-customers. They were much more likely to report having purchased sexually explicit magazines or videos, and they were more than twice as likely to have visited nude establishments.

Vernon Geberth (a retired NYPD Lieutenant Commander of the Bronx homicide squad): “Sex-Related Homicide and Death Investigation,” CRC Press (2003):

In many cases, the offenders use their girlfriends or prostitutes to act out their sadistic fantasies…This case involved a serial killer who was killing prostitutes…Once he completed the sex act, he stripped and tortured them for hours…The significance of fantasy in this case was graphically revealed when…detectives went to the killer’s home and retrieved a number of items, including one pornographic videotape…This videotape contained a number of scenes that were similar to what the offender was doing to his victims. The breast assault and paddling activities appeared to be based upon this sadomasochistic videotape, which seemingly fueled his increasingly sadistic activities.

Dr. Victor B. Cline, “Pornography’s Effects on Adults and Children,” Morality in Media (2001) [published at: http://www.obscenitycrimes.org/clineart.cfm]:

As a clinical psychologist, I have treated, over the years, approximately 350 sex addicts, sex offenders, or other individuals (96% male) with sexual illnesses. This includes many types of unwanted compulsive sexual acting-out…With several exceptions, pornography has been a major or minor contributor or facilitator….

The first change that happened was an addiction-effect. The porn-consumers got hooked. Once involved in pornographic materials, they kept coming back for more and still more. The material seemed to provide a very powerful sexual stimulant or aphrodisiac effect, followed by sexual release, most often through masturbation…Once addicted, they could not throw off their dependence on the material by themselves, despite many negative consequences such as divorce, loss of family, and problems with the law….

The second phase was an escalation-effect. With the passage of time, the addicted person required rougher, more explicit, more deviant, and "kinky" kinds of sexual material to get their "highs" and "sexual turn-ons." It was reminiscent of individuals afflicted with drug addictions…Being married or in a relationship with a willing sexual partner did not solve their problem…The third phase was desensitization. Material (in books, magazines, or films/videos) which was originally perceived as shocking, taboo-breaking, illegal, repulsive, or immoral, in time came to be seen as acceptable and commonplace….

The fourth phase was an increasing tendency to act out sexually the behaviors viewed in the pornography, including compulsive promiscuity, exhibitionism, group sex, voyeurism, frequenting massage parlors…. [Underline added]

Melissa Farley and Vanessa Kelly,“Prostitution: A Critical Review of the Medical and Social Sciences Literature,” Women and Criminal Justice, 11(4): 29-64 (2000):

Women in prostitution have described pornography’s role in their being coerced by pimps or customers to enact specific scenes… Customers show women pornography to illustrate what they want…Thirty-two percent of 130 people in one study had been upset by an attempt to coerce them into performing what customers had seen in pornography.

“A facilitator's guide to Prostitution: a matter of violence against women,” WHISPER [“Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt,” Minneapolis, MN] (1990):
[published at http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/factsheet.html]

80% of prostitution survivors at the WHISPER Oral History Project reported that their customers showed them pornography to illustrate the kinds of sexual activities in which they wanted to engage in.

M. Corwin, “Life on the Street: New Wave of Prostitution With More Violence Is Overwhelming L.A. Authorities,” Los Angeles Times, 12/8/85):

In a room in the back of a Studio City restaurant, about 30 madams and call girls gathered to discuss a significant change in their business…[[A] North Hollywood madam told the women that a number of customers had asked her to procure 12- or 13-year-old girls. And more customers, she said, were beating, torturing and even killing out-call prostitutes.

An increasing number of customers are requesting violent or kinky sexual service and seeking younger girls, prostitutes and call girls say…

Experts have many theories why violence and fetishism are on the rise, but few know what to do about it. Most of the women who have worked the streets for any length of time have also been assaulted and tortured. Although there are no exact statistics on prostitute killings and abductions, most law enforcement officials agree that the problem has worsened.

The sexual revolution has contributed to the change prostitutes have seen, said Dr. Michael Grinberg, a psychiatrist, sex therapist and chairman for the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex…“Prostitutes have always been around to provide any sexual behavior that is not generally available,” he said. “At one time, for many men, that could have been just intercourse or oral sex. But with a lot of sexual freedom, there is no need for those men to go to prostitutes. So many of the men who began seeing prostitutes wanted things that were considered impermissible with other partners.”

There are no definitive studies, but Grinberg is convinced that kinky sexual behavior is generally on the rise…There are several possible reasons for the change, Grinberg said. Our society is more violent now… Pornography is more graphic and readily available and some behavior displayed “can become incorporated in one’s sexual fantasies.”

Silbert, M. and Pines, A., “Pornography and Sexual Abuse of Women,” Sex Roles, 10:857-868 (1984):

The present study…was aimed at studying sexual abuse of street prostitutes both prior to and following entrance into prostitution. Yet…unexpected information emerged…that was unfortunately not studied in a systematic manner…Such was the case in the present study with regard to the relationship between sexual abuse and pornography…Two-hundred juvenile and adult, current and former, women street prostitutes in the San Francisco Bay area participated in the study…The study generated an enormous amount of data, quantitative as well as qualitative documenting stunning amounts of sexual abuse of street prostitutes as part of their job, outside their work environment and in their childhood prior to entering prostitution. Many of the open descriptions of these sexual assaults made reference to the role played by pornography. These references were unsolicited by interviewers…Out of the 193 cases of rape, 24% mentioned allusions to pornographic material on the part of the rapist. This is even more significant when it is understood that these comments were made by respondents without any solicitation or reference to the issue of pornography by the Interviewer. The comments followed the same pattern: the assailant referred to pornographic materials he had seen or read and then insisted that the victims not only enjoyed rape but also extreme violence.

Printed with permission from Morality in Media, Inc.