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Pornography, “Serious Rape,” and Statistics: A Reply to Dr. Kutchinsky

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

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Apparently there are lies, damned lies, statistics, and then Childress's review essay. My essay has “transmitted false information,” as Dr. Berl Kutchinsky puts it (1992:447), as well as fomenting “considerable confusion” about the outcome of various population studies on pornography and violence (ibid.). Yet since Kutchinsky points to no erroneous figures or data that I cited, other than assuming I misunderstood his own studies, at bottom the misinformation is a “false inconclusiveness verdict on the criminological pornography research” (p. 453). Worse, my essay is censorial because it calls for further study when, apparently, such testing wastes everyone's time as the matter has been definitively settled by Kutchinsky's own research.

Type
Response
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 by The Law and Society Association.

References

Childress, Steven Alan (1991) “Reel ‘Rape Speech’: Violent Pornography and the Politics of Harm,” 25 Law & Society Rev. 177.Google Scholar
Donnerstein, Edward, Linz, Daniel, & Penrod, Steven (1987) The Question of Pornography: Research Findings and Policy Implications. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Fisher, William A., & Barak, Azy (1991) “Pornography, Erotica, and Behavior: More Questions than Answers,” 14 International J. of Law & Psychiatry 65.Google Scholar
Kutchinsky, Berl (1992) “The Politics of Pornography Research,” 26 Law & Society Rev. 447.Google Scholar
Kutchinsky, Berl (1991) “Pornography and Rape: Theory and Practice? Evidence from Crime Data in Four Countries Where Pornography Is Easily Available,” 14 International J. of Law & Psychiatry 47.Google Scholar
Kutchinsky, Berl (1985) “Pornography and Its Effects in Denmark and the United States: A Rejoinder and Beyond,” in Tomasson, R., ed., Comparative Social Research, Vol. 8: Deviance 301. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar