Pornography and Rape

Economist David Friedman (no the surname is not a coincidence) blogs on a study of whether increased access to pornography leads to an increase or decrease in sexual assaults, or .

It found about a ten percent drop in rape for a ten percentage point increase in Internet access. There was no similar relation for , which suggests that the result is not simply picking up the effect of some third variable that correlates with both internet access and violent .

It's a correlation, not a causative finding, but still very interesting that there is a possibility pornography may be able to act as a substitute for rape. The full 56 page paper is quite comprehensive.

Comments (32)

Login to comment or vote

Add a Comment