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The Effect of Easy Availability of Pornography on the Incidence of Sex Crimes: The Danish Experience
Author(s) -
Kutchinsky Berl
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1973.tb00094.x
Subject(s) - pornography , danish , criminology , psychology , child pornography , human factors and ergonomics , suicide prevention , poison control , social psychology , political science , the internet , law , environmental health , medicine , philosophy , linguistics , world wide web , computer science
The Danish liberalization of legal prosecution and of laws concerning pornography and the ensuing high availability of such materials present a unique opportunity of testing hypotheses concerning the relationship between pornography and sex offenses. It is shown that concurrently with the increasing availability of pornography there was a significant decrease in the number of sex offenses registered by the police in Copenhagen. On the basis of various investigations, including a survey of public attitudes and studies of the police, it was established that at least in one type of offense (child molestation) the decrease represents a real reduction in the number of offenses committed. Various factors suggest that the availability of pornography was the direct cause of this decrease.