Lyons: This an In of literature that b ed Researchers many different designs and measures.

In a J o h n and I you look at the without prejudice. When we this speak for 80 showed 90 percent of rape studies showed J o h n and 1 h a v e 20 most of era. D.C..

number of critical things to One getting these findings int o the h a n d s o f regulatory

harm. can't give doses of pornography, let them bate and watch as their behavior kind study unethical and will n e v e r be done. But children are the most vulnerable and most affected, and as both the commissions on p o r n o g r a p h y have pointed children and key consumers of pornography. others c a n n o t . But 1 do the courts and other types of adult p o r n o g r a p h y p e r the harm to the sumer. is masochistic pornography. S o m e people say it perse, without the Why? Because of harm to the consumer and the the same that made child pornography illegal. Lyons: to bp violent There is strong empirical support f o r obscene per s c .

them issues. And I believe the key that unlike most research reviews, say precisely reviewed literature our approach can be replicated. Research should be a b l e to be So should research

policy

would evidence of be helpful a

Rob S h o w e r s : S i n c e the 50s. in Rath through 70s, with Miller v. courts h a v e regulated p o r n o g r a p h y w h e n they found it outrageous and debasing to the T h e y d i d n ' t talk much about the to the performers o r a d d i c t s o f p o r or ot the fects. concentrated on the so-called test of values. the 70s and early 60s. courts began focusing on the harm to the and for nography not illegal per s c . to nography you could prove that it violated the But New York v. in 1982 before the Court in 1984, in federal certain types of pornography were judged so harmful to t h i s case, the community no l o n g e r a p p l i e d . C h i l d pornography was because of its not to the community, b u t to t h e v i c t i m a n d c o n sumers, pedophiles and just in Osborne the U . S . S u p r e m e Court used harm evidence to criminalize pornography. had been illegal to distribute it; fiAhOLY

now it is illegal Just to possess it. to child and the consumer that we're going to ban this, not the and production but every part of chain, from possession to production and everything in between. Why? Primarily because of harm. was a and because of that, the on pornography looked at harm in 1986. But the social science research probably weakest report. First, they could do no original research, and they not to distinguish between g o o d studies a n d b a d . But of be key to the pornography battle in the 1990s. The FCC is in will h a v e a direct effect on the courts and lawmakers. T h e question is, what do we do what J o h n have T h e r e are a

What

you do to that case?

L y o n s : W e ' r e trying to the studies that measure rape myth and aggression and estimate the effect. never been done. D

I S P O R N O G R A P H Y HARMFUL? John Chicago Or. Larson of systematically reviewed all 145 studies on the effects of nography been published since are depictions of behavior as rape. Of those 35, harmful effects or 79 percent of the studies. Of 15 rape-myth studies, showed Ninety one the 145 wed college students as their Only 11 of 145 studies involved or who art thought be more vulnerable to Two effects of earlier researchers tended exclude men who who scored on a test of logical Although the researchers wanted to avoid with pornography their exclusion of these men tended to the effects of pornography. Researchers seldom ured to porOne could reasonably expect that prior exposure would experience effects than those without. Failure to * likely lead to underthe main effects.