Is pornography an inducement to rape?

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   Is pornography an inducement to rape?

The topic “Is pornography an inducement to rape?’ discusses that whether pornography can be considered as a consequence of rape. In other words, that is to indicate whether some behaviors such watching or reading pornography could encourage people, especially males, to commit sexual assault. This essay involves the discussion of the activity of pornography is positive or negative, necessary or unnecessary, harmful or harmless to those who watch pornography as a significant encouragement of rape or not.  Furthermore, especially on the questions whether any link exists between pornography and sexual assault and what the link might be.

The question consists of three key words. Pornography refers to books, magazines and films that are designed to cause sexual excitement by showing naked people or referring to sexual acts.1The second one is inducement means ‘leads to ‘ or ‘result in’ an action.2 In the question, an inducement to rape would be anything that encourages individuals to commit a sex crime. Additionally, the third rape is defined as the penetration of mouth, vagina or anus by any part of the attacker’s body or by an object used by the attacker, without the consent of the victim.3 This essay will prove the thesis statement which pornography can be considered to be an inducement to rape. Meanwhile it contains some arguments, counterarguments and refutations. The first argument is discussing pornography is related to rape sometimes, the second argument is pornography may effects women normally, and the third argument is about the impact of pornography to its users.

First of all, pornography seems to be linked to rape because a number of sex crimes a after the activity of watching adult videos and magazines. Most sex offenders play a stimulus reaction by pornographic scene and involved action to give vent. Therefore, the role of pornography can be viewed as a serious encouragement of rape. The report (Diana R. 1993) indicated that: 86 percent of convicted rapists confessed to regular use of pornography.4 It is not just that, there is a rapist interviewed by Beneke Timothy (‘Men on rape’ 1999): “I went to a porn bookstore, put a quarter in a slot, and saw this porn movie. It was just a guy coming up from behind a girl and attacking her and raping her. That’s when I started having rape fantasies. When I saw that movie, it was like somebody lit a fuse…I just went for it, went out and raped”.5 The statistics and facts show many sex offenders have the tendency of raping because of  the use of  pornography. Therefore, pornography actually relates rape sometimes. Pornography creates or increases people’s self –generated rape fantasies. In other words, pornography is a cause of rape.

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To counter this argument, it is asserted there is little or no connection between pornography and rape. Pornographic videos may not have effect on male or have negative attitudes for raping. Straus and Baron in 1983 found that “rape rates correlated positively with rates of readership of eight popular male’s sex magazines”. But more recently, it is concluded that intervening variables were responsible for the correlation and that policy toward rape should focus on issue like sexism, economic inequality and social disorganized rather than pornography.6 The finding explain the rape is not always a business of pornography. In a ...

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