If you have issues viewing or accessing this file contact us at NCJRS.gov. /, Part 3 PREFACE The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has compiled a comprehensive package of materials related to coopera- tive agreement #84-JN-AX-K007, "Role of Pornography and Media Violence in Family Violence, Sexual Abuse and Exploitation, and Juvenile Delinquency," awarded to the American University School of Education. Due to questions that were raised concerning the soundness of the research, OJJDP is making all three versions of the final report available for public review. The package consists of three parts. Part 1 consists of three volumes (I, II and III) submitted to the grantee, American University, as a draft report by the project's principal investigator. Part 2 also consists of three volumes (I, II and III) that were deli- vered to OJJDP by American University, and submitted as the official final report of the grantee. Part 3 consists of a single volume (I) that was subsequently prepared by the principal investigator as a proposed substitute report for Part 2, Volume I, of the official final report. Only material in part 2 is included in the OJJDP cooperative agreement file and constitutes the official final report of the 4 grantee. OJJDP has decided, with the concurrence of the grantee, to also make the material in Parts 1 and 3 available, upon request, to the public for the purpose of providing full and complete information about the project. Dissemination of this package should not be viewed as an endorse- ment by the Department of Justice or the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the points of view, opinions, or conclusions of the authors, as necessarily represen- ting the official position or policies of the Department of Justice or the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, or as an expressed or implied endorsement or approval of the soundness of the methodology, the accuracy of the data contained therein, or the interpretation of the research findings. I, THE INSTITUTE FOR MEDIA EDUCATION P. O. Box 7404 Arlington, VA 22207 (703) 237-5455 GENERAL CAVEAT November 20, 1986 Complying to the demand by my project monitor Pamela Swain (letter received November 12, 1986) that this report be delivered to OJJDP on November 13, 1986, the attached document was presented to Mr. Verne Spelrs, Acting OJJDP Administrator, at 2:00 PM, November 13, 1986. Based upon the November 27, 1985 Memorandum of Understanding between The American University, OJJDP and the Principal Investigator, all final editing of this document was to have been undertaken by OJJDP. As the production of the attached product was demanded within nine weeks of The American University's September 2, 1986 submission to OJJDP, the report lacks the final proofing and editing normally expected in a formal document. ,.) Whlle the Prlncipal Investigator went to great lengths to ensure overall quallty control, the attached report must be examined with obvious time and resource limitations in mind. It would be preferable to hold the document until final editing and proofing is completed. Yet, the November 14, 1986 OJJDP public rejection of The American University report--and the refusal of OJJDP's research director to read this final product--has forced premature dissemination of the attached volume. The readers' indulgence is thus solicited while technical errors in the document are in the process of correction. / Judith A. Relsman, Ph.D. Principal Investigator Note to Dr. Fotopoulos: Due to the above chronology of events, I am submitting the attached errata to The American University to re,lace ~S~ ~h~ universit~ now has in hand. As you Know, I delivered four copies of my report to OJJDP on November 13, 1986, and expect to have these four copies immediately returned. If The American University insists on retaining a copy, then I require that the new sections replace the OJJDP originals. CHILDRRN. CRIME. AND VIOLENCE IN THE PICTORIAL IMAGERY OF PLAYBOY. PENTHOUSE. AND HUSTLER The Role of Pornography and Media Violence in Family Violence, Sexual Abuse and Exploitation, and Juvenile Delinquency A REPORT IN THREE VOLUMES VOLUME 1: OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT Judith A. Reisman, Ph.D. The Institute for Media Education Arlington, Virginia U. S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention November 1985 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In 1983, when the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention entertained this grant proposal, t~e subject of "soft core" pornography (or erotlca/pornography) was seldom discussed in the popular press. Since the announcement of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography and its subsequent report in July, 1986, the issue of pornography in general and "soft core" pornography in particular has emerged as an issue of national debate. It is with sincere gratitude that I acknowledge the early interest and concern by the past Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Mr. Alfred Regnery for his support of our research on "Images of Children, Crime and Violence in Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler." Special thanks also goes to the past Deputy Administrator of the office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Mr. James Wootton for his continue~ and valued support throughout this project. Additional mention should be made of Mr. Robert O. Heck, police specialist at the office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for his unique contributions as a law enforcement specialist to the development of our overview and subsequent focus of analysis. In the academic sphere, I have had the opportunity to work with a multi-disciplinary team of outstanding professionals. Dr. George Comstock, Samuel I. Newhouse, Professor of Public Communication at Syracuse University has given unstintingly and well beyond the call of duty to this project from inception to completion. Dr. Comstock's guidance has been invaluable and I am especially grateful to have had the opportunity to work so closely with a scholar of his outstanding caliber. Dr. Robert Figlio, Associate Professor of Criminology at the UniVersity of Pennsylvania has provided unique skills and direction ' throughout his tenure on the Peer Advisory Board. His critique of the American University draft was extremely helpful in the identification of issues and data requiring clarification, addition and correction for this final report. Similarly, Ms. Jane Huntington, Juvenile Justice Specialist, has been a source of on-going support and project advice. Her critique of the aforementioned draft was also useful in pinpointing the need for specific material inadvertently eliminated from the September 2, 1986 draft. iii Ms. Laura Lederer, editor of the ground breaking book Take Back the Night: Women on Pornography (1980}, is a colleague of unique stature and perhaps the most oft-cited female in the scholarly literature on pornography. Ms. Lederer not only brought her skillful understanding and a broad feminist perspective to the study at hand, but also contributed an outstanding background on project evaluation based upon her years of grant experience as Program Director at the L. J. and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation. Dr. Richard Zakia, of the Rochester Institute of Technology, provided his knowledge both as an expert in educational psychology and as an expert in the area of photographic information delivery. Dr. Zakia's impressive discussion of photography as a form of communication is gratefully included as part of the final Literature Review. Finally, Dr. Emanuel Landau, past chairman of the American Statistical Association Committee on Statistics and Environment was the outside expert selected by The America~ University to evaluate project methodology. Dr. Landau's~ isolation of the methodological procedures from the university draft and subsequent evaluation of the scientific rigor of this project effort is especially rewarding. Beyond this, the labor and devotion of the project coders merit special acknowledgment. These analysts undertook a difficult and challenging research task. Without exception, they treated their assignment with responsibility, commitment and an integrity which did credit to the serious and scholarly nature of this controversial exploratory effort. iv TABLE OF CORTERTS TRANSMISSION AND SUMMARY LETTER .............. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................... iii I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................ I II • INTRODUCTION ooooooooeooooooooooeoooooooooooo20 III. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................... 22 Research on Erotica/Pornography as an Information Delivery System ..... ~ ......... 22 Research on Mass Media as an Information Delivery System ............... 30 P Research on Cartoons and Humor as an Information Delivery System ............... 39 Research on Photographs as an Information Delivery System ............... 45 Content Analysis as a Mass Media Research Technique ........................ 55 Market Research on Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler ................... , ........... 59 Research on Child Abuse ................... 62 IV. RESEARCH PARAMETERS AND LIMITATIONS (RPL)... 68 Objectives of Research Parameters and Limitations Synthesis of research Parameters and limitations: Parts I and II Research Parameters and Limitations: Part I Research Parameters and Limitations: Part II V V. SELECTED FINDINGS .......................... 116 VI. DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS ..................... 138 VII. PRELIMINARY STUDIES ........................ 161 Child Magnets ...........................