Pornography and Rape

Economist David Friedman (no the surname is not a coincidence) blogs on a study of whether increased access to Internet pornography leads to an increase or decrease in sexual assaults, or rape.

It found about a ten percent drop in rape for a ten percentage point increase in Internet access. There was no similar relation for murder, which suggests that the result is not simply picking up the effect of some third variable that correlates with both internet access and violent crime.

It’s a correlation, not a causative finding, but still very interesting that there is a possibility pornography may be able to act as a substitute for rape. The full 56 page paper is quite comprehensive.