Premium
Exposure to Pornography, Character, and Sexual Deviance: A Retrospective Survey
Author(s) -
Davis Keith E.,
Braucht G. Nicholas
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.tb00095.x
Subject(s) - deviance (statistics) , pornography , psychology , developmental psychology , ethnic group , social psychology , clinical psychology , sociology , statistics , mathematics , anthropology , psychoanalysis
Data from 365 subjects from seven types of social groups (jail inmates, college students of three ethnic backgrounds, members of Catholic and Protestant religious organizations) were examined. While amount of exposure was negatively related to the overall index of character, the relationship held primarily for those subjects first exposed after age 17. Amount of exposure to pornography was positively related to self‐acknowledged sexual “deviance” at all ages of first exposure. Exposure was also related to a number of life history variables indicating early significant heterosexual experience and a greater involvement in homosexual and deviant sexual practices. A number of analyses were undertaken to explore the possible causal status which exposure to pornography may have with respect to sexual deviance. The pattern of obtained results leaves open the possibility that early exposure to pornography plays some causal role in the development of sexually deviant life styles or the possibility that exposure is merely part of or a product of adopting a sexually deviant life style.