Pornography: A training manual for sexual offenders

Though there had been constant criticisms over addiction to pornography, the issues and effects are merely glossed over. Many are yet to understand the role that pornography plays in sexual violence. But research has proved that sexual offenders use pornography to support their deviant and violent fantasies.

Pornography appears in diverse forms and can either be legal or illegal. Legal porn involves partially nude or nude consenting adults engaged in posing or actual sex acts which can range from gentle and mutual sex to rough acts; bondage, sadism and masochism, bestiality and rape; while illegal porn involves minors posing naked or actually engaging in any type of sex act.

Generally, porn is used to satisfy sexual urges and fantasies. People that use porn usually masturbate to it. Users use it as a platform to exploit their deviant and violent fantasies, and most end up acting out. Those fantasies  strengthens impersonal sex and aids selfishness in the sexual act and makes a porn addict view a partner as an object that should not complain or have preferences.

Things are even getting worse because the internet has made access to pornographic material exceptionally easy and tempting. People can access any type of pornography on the internet, including content involving violent sex, child pornography, bestiality, fetishes, as well as general sexual content. Just browsing offers almost unlimited access to any type of pornographic material, including graphic samples of pictures, movies as well as archives.

This easy accessibility creates the problem of being able to view and download pornographic material at any time. The pornographic material supplied on the Internet often, over time, replaces sexual intimacy that would normally occur between  partners.

Majority of pornography addicts have been said to use it to strengthen their predisposition for violence or sexual violence and it has negative and destructive impact on the viewer, which includes child molestation and rape. The undisputed fact which has been proved by findings, in spite of various arguments to the contrary, is that the negative and destructive impact of pornography appears to significantly outweigh any positive benefit.

Many research works have proved that addiction to porn aids and increases predisposition to sexual crimes. Osanka and Johann in 1989 found that pornography played a significant role in physical and sexual violence for physical abusers and sexual offenders Hazelwood and Warren in 1995 indicate that sexual fantasies are an important component of sexual crime, while Zillman and Bryant in 1986 found that after massive exposure to pornographic materials, men found pornography less offensive and less objectionable.

They found that massive exposure to pornography significantly increased men’s sexual callousness toward women. When intoxicated, men found more extreme and violent pornography more acceptable.

To be continued