Watching violence and porn could reduce violent crime and rape

It’s almost hard to believe such a statement, when it sounds so backwards. Researchers and economists have come out with some interesting correlations, stats and figures that will make you go “hmmm”.

Before we dive into the new research that states watching violence and porn can reduce real crime, let’s take a look at laboratory experiments stating the opposite. The basic conclusion of most laboratory experiments is that watching violent images and video, will in fact cause parts of your brain that suppress aggressive behaviors to become less active.

Studies were done in a Columbia University Medical Center laboratory environment. When exposing participants to violent media their brains were monitored using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). To simplify the conclusions, it came down to two findings of interest. The first finding was that the brain was not stopping violent behaviors as much as it was before viewing violent media. The next finding was that the brain was more active in the area associated with planning behaviors. To get a more in depth view of this study you can find a great description here.

While the laboratory studies are hard to refute, other researchers from the University of California at San Diego and Berkeley found other conclusions using real world data. A major difference between the two sets of data was that one set of conclusions was created in a laboratory while the other uses business and crime statistics.

What do you get when you combine movie attendance and violent crime statistics? Apparently, you get a wild correlation that says due to violent movies showing in theaters, you pull violent crime offenders off the streets and give them something better to do. Instead of committing the violent crimes that these potential offenders would be partaking in, they’re stuffing their faces with popcorn and drinking overpriced coke. The quick conclusion would probably be to assume that as soon as these movie patrons leave their violent movie showing, they’re back to the same old dirty tricks. In reality, up to 6 hours after the violent movie showing, crime is reduced even more than when they were in the movie!

The actual numbers explain more and paint a better picture about how these conclusions were drawn. The biggest time for movie showings is 6PM - 12AM, and it is at this magical time that every one million violent movie patrons seems to reduce crime during this time by 1.1 to 1.3 percent. After people leave the movie, the time-frame of 12AM to 6PM sees an even more drastic drop in violent crime. Interesting to note is that the actual violence isn’t the only thing being focused on that reduces violent crime but the lack of other extracurricular activities. It is said that while patrons are in a movie, they aren’t consuming alcohol thus fueling their violent behaviors. Basically, you’re throwing the dog a t-bone steak while you get a good look around the junkyard. The actual crimes that are said to be reduced during a weekend with a popular violent movie is estimated to be 1,000 violent crimes a weekend. That’s a reduction of 52,000 violent crimes a year, assuming Hollywood can crank out enough violent films to keep everyone occupied. If you want a more in depth look at the full study you can access the PDF version from University of Rochester here.

Now that it’s been unveiled as to how crime is decreasing due to violent movies we can look at porn. Once again this research was not completed in a private laboratory but calculated using real world statistics. The statistics only provide a simple view as to what is really going on because correlation is strongly used. We all should know that correlation does not bring you to causation.

The research that was conducted in this project was done by former consultant to President Nixon’s Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. This consultant holds many titles such as Professor of Law at Northwestern University, J.D. Harvard 1961, Ph.D. Columbia 1968, Social Science Research Council Fellow in Advanced Statistics at University of Michigan, 1968. So for all the die hards focused on accolades, you can rest assured this information has been procured from the top of the pile.

Professor Antony D’Amato came to the following conclusions, which can be scoured more in depth in his guest column here. The first major statistic to take note of is the 85% decrease in sexual violence in 25 years. This statistic is released by none other than the U.S. Department of Justice. The exact figures state that there were 2.7 rapes for every 1,000 people in 1980. By the time 2004 rolled around, the same survey found rape had decreased to 0.4 per 1,000 people.

The interesting details of this study dive into Internet access by state and combine it with rape convictions on the books. The research breaks the states down into two groups of interest. The first group is the states with the lowest Internet Access and the second group is the states with the most Internet access. If you’re curious, the states with the lowest Internet access in 2001 were Arkansas, Kentucky, Minnesota and West Virginia. On a more surprising note, the states with the highest Internet Access in 2001 were Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey and Washington. With all of these states, incidence of rape was tallied for 1980 and then again for the year 2000.

When everything is combined into a nice and easy to understand statistic you find that states that had least amount of Internet access statewide had an increase of rape over the 20 year period. The rape crimes in low Internet access states clock in at a 53% increase. Now looking at the states with the most Internet access statewide you find that they had a 27% decrease in rape cases. While it is hard to get all riled up about these statistic due to potential flaws it is an extremely interesting look at statistics going against common thought. Just because people have more Internet access doesn’t really say they are viewing more porn and satisfying the deeper desires. Nevertheless, you can see how interesting the world can be when looking at the true facts instead of hysteria.

What do you think about these studies? Whether you think all these studies are just hiding the real facts or you see some insight and truth in them, we want to know about it. If it’s a gripe or extra information and research we’d like to hear from you at our submission form. If you want to speak your mind or you are involved in the movie industry, porn industry or you just want to speak your mind we want to hear from you. Tell us your story and thoughts at our submission form.