runner, how much porn do you think that clergy in the 1950's had access to? At a guess it would be have been very difficult for many of the abusers to have got access to porn in that period. Their vocations, societal values and technology all limited their options.

Any comment on what appears to be a proven link between corporal punishment of children and the likelyhood of them being into sexual violence as adults?

Is the idea that something which many in the church advocate and which the bible encourages a bit too uncomfortable to touch?

- Proverb 13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
- Proverb 22:15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
- Proverb 23:13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
- Proverb 23:14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
- Proverb 29:15 Thy rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

As far as I'm aware there is no proven cause/effect between porn and sexual violence, there does appear to be a proven link between corporal punishment of children and sexual violence.

R0bert

Strangio's article is a familiar small-l liberal response to the question of porn. He castigates feminists such as Norma for endorsing "censorship" and for ushering in a "dark age" of "puritanism", he suggests porn might in fact REDUCE sexual violence, and he suggests that all is well (really!) cos young men are being taught to treat women ethically.

Okay, I agree - there is a problem with suggesting that porn actually causes sexual violence. This suggestion is as problematic as the suggestion that porn REDUCES sexual violence.

I think Strangio overlooks what feminists such as Norma and others are doing - and that is, politically analysing porn. Perhaps there is material that is marketed as 'porn' and is not exploitative or degrading. But there is also the Youtube video of the young mother being raped.

Porn is not the only medium in which violence and sexual violence is eroticised. To be sure, this celebration has happened in EVERY medium. But I feel that to malign those who emphasise the sexism within pornographic material is misguided. I mean, so much for opposing "censorship"!

It is indeed true that there is a correlation between sexual violence and the viewing of pornography.

A negative correlation.

Large-scale empirical studies from Northwestern University (D'Amato, Northwestern Public Law Research Paper 2006), Stanford and Clemson Universities (Kendall, 2006), and Hawaii University with the Japanese Institute of Police Science (Diamond, Uchiyama, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 1999) indicate that an increase in the availability of sexually explicit material has correlated with a decline in sexual violence of comparable significance.

This concurs with prior research from Scandinavia and Western Europe
(Kutchinsky, 1985, 1991).

This is probably not the correlation that some looking for, but the facts remain stubborn regardless.

Perhaps those who can't distinguish between their personal distaste and moral universals would like to return to 1950s, where sexually explicit material was virtually prohibited, and where sexual violence was common but rarely taken seriously or spoken of?

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=913013
http://www.law.stanford.edu/display/images/dynamic/events_media/Kendall%20cover%20+%20paper.pdf
http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/online_artcls/pornography/prngrphy_rape_jp.html

Robert

The subject is on porn not what the perverted priest (many of whom I suspect were homosexuals) did to innocent kids. They certainly were not alone in this. Scout masters, tennis coaches, school teachers, cricket umpires, football players, atheist, politicians all have their fair share of child abusers.

Your link between those willing to discipline their kids and child abuse is despicable. I suspect it is the earth worshippers who believe anything goes except decency that abuse their kids at a far higher rate than those who love them enough to give them a smack when required.

runner,

As always, you present an very interesting point of view. I must admit it does provide me a certain fascination on how individuals like yourself think they way you do.

I wonder if you could care to endorse or disavow the quotations from Proverbs? Do you "love" your children so much that you're prepared to beat your children with a rod (as long as they do not die from the beating)?

I wonder if you always automatically reject research that you find is despicable? Has the presentation of facts ever changed your mind, or are you loyal to eternal truths that have been revealed to you? Do you think that it is better that we do not engage in such studies in the first place? Or is it better that we just don't publish results that people like yourself find distasteful?

You provide a list of a great number of people from all walks of life who have engaged in child abuse. Please explain how come both Australia's Christian churches and the sex industry both employ approximately 20,000 people and since 1990, the courts have acknowledged over 450 child sex assaults against employees of the church and none against the sex industry?

Pornography cannot be portrayed in a positive sense.It is nothing but misues of scientific inventions like the camera.The earlier man could not have done this kind of uncivilised practices as there were no such gadgets.Let us use science to promote good human qualities among our children.It is the youth who get spioled by the pornos.The regard for women and womenhood will be lost for ever in the minds of the youth and it will increase the crimes against women.
The natural sexual instinct is enough and normal people do not need pornos to incite them for sexual inclinations. Sex should be interesting and individualistic and it will be so only when people have not seen others performing it.People in porno business do it for money and they are least interested in the welfare of the society in general and the youth in particular.Rather they make use of the volatile nature of the youth and the poverty and ignorance of women to make money.Let us condemn porno as barbaric and inhuman.