Facts and Figures: Pornography

Pornography and the Economy

• In 1993, the pornography industry grew to the astronomical figure of eight to ten billion dollars a year. This is more than Hollywood’s domestic box office receipts and more than twice as much as major league baseball. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, reported in Hancock, Sharon. "Women Fight Back Against Abuse," Citizen, Focus on the Family, Sep. 20, 1993, p. 7.)
• Pornography is the third largest revenue for organized crime in the United States just behind drugs and gambling. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, reported in "Talking Points: Important Facts About Pornography, Take Action Manual, National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, p. 8.)
• 85% of revenue from pornographic magazines and videos goes into the pockets of organized crime, much of it untaxed. ("Outreach: Facts About Pornography," American Family Association.)
• In 1986, four areas with a concentration of sexually oriented business were studied in Austin, Texas. Sexually related crimes were found to be between 177% to 482% higher than the city’s average. In tracing 81 license plates at sexually oriented business, 44% were from outside Austin. (Adult businesses tend to attract outsiders; law enforcement in cities with sexually oriented business are often burdened with enforcing laws on non-residents, with the expense incurred by the city.) (National Law Center for Children and Families, 1997.)
• A 1979 study in Phoenix, Arizona, found that neighborhoods with a pornography business experienced 40% more property crime and 500% more sexual offense than similar neighborhoods without a pornography outlet. (U.S. Department of Justice, "Child Pornography, Obscenity and Organized Crime," February 1988.)
• Some estimate that as many as 80% of video stores now rent pornography. Many "mom and pop" stores are drawing revenues from pornography in order to compete with the larger video chains. (CLEAN UP Project Survey, 1992-1993.)
• According to Adult Video News, a hard-core pornography industry magazine, adult video rentals increased from 75 million in 1985 to 490 million in 1992. The total climbed to 665 million in 1996, an all-time high. The United States is the world’s leading producer of pornography, churning out about 150 new titles a week or about 8,000 titles a year. Most videos cost just a few thousand dollars to produce. (Schlosser, Eric, "Business of Pornography," U.S. News & World Report, February 10, 1997.)
• There are now more outlets for hard-core pornography than there are McDonald’s restaurants. ("Pornography’s Relationship to Sexual Violence and Exploitation," National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families.)

Pornography and Rape

• Based on U.S. Census estimates of the number of adult women in America, one out of every eight adult women, or at least 12.1 million American women, has been or will be the victim of forcible rape in her lifetime. (National Victim Center, 1992, reported in "Pornography's Link to Rape, Crime and Child Molestation." National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families.)
• In one study, 86% of rapists admitted to regular use of pornography, with 57% admitting actual imitation of pornography scenes in commission of sex crimes. (Dr. William Marshall, Use of Sexually Explicit Stimuli by Rapists, Child Molesters and Non-Offenders, 25 Journal of Sex Research 267, 1988.)
• Rape has risen by 500% in the United States since in 1960, which is a higher rate than non-sexual crimes has increased. This increase directly parallels the increase in availability and the severity of pornography. At the present time, a rape is reported every 46 seconds in the United States. (National Victim Center, reported in "Pornography as a Public Health and Safety Issue, Take Action Manual, National Coalition for the Protection of Women and Families, p. 10.)
• One study showed that states with a high circulation rate of pornography had a higher rape rate than states with lower circulation rates. In 1983, Alaska and Nevada had the highest per capita readership of pornography and the highest rape rate. (Baron and Straus, University of New Hampshire, "Sexual Stratification, Pornography, and Rape," 1984.)
• 82% of rape victims knew the person who assaulted them. (Cachman and Saltzman, Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, August 1995, p. 3.)
• In a 1991 survey, 33% of high school boys said that they think they have the right to rape their date when she is drunk, 40% believe they have the right to rape after dating six months, and 60% think they can rape the girl they plan to marry. (Coalition Against Pornography, Kansas City, 1991 survey of high school boys, reported in "The Harm of Illegal Hard-Core and Child Pornography," National Coalition Against Pornography.)
• 33% of rape victims contemplate or attempt suicide. (Kilpatrick et. Al., Rape in America: A Report to the Nation, April 23, 1992, p. 7.)

Pornography and Children

• The largest consumers of pornography are boys from ages 12 to 17. One in five boys and one in ten girls have had their first exposure to pornography by age 12. (Attorney General’s Commission of Pornography, 1986.)
• At least 27% of girls and 16% of boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18. In most cases, the child will know the sex offender. Of the molesters of girls, 38% were relatives and 41% were acquaintances. Of molesters of boys, 16% were relatives and 44% were acquaintances. (Finkelhor, et. al., "Sexual Abuse in a national Survey of Adult Men and Women," Child Abuse & Neglect, (1990) Vol. 14 p. 19.)
• There are about four million child molesters in the United States, that is about twice the population of Arkansas. (U.S. Department of Justice, 1985.)
• Female adults who are sexually abused as children reported that their abuse lasted 7.6 years on average and began at age six. (Roesler and Wind, "Telling the Secret: Adult Women Describe Their Disclosures of Incest," Journal of Interpersonal Violence (1994) Vol. 9, No. 3: 327-238.)
• No single characteristic of pedophilia is more pervasive that the obsession with child pornography. (Child Pornography and Pedophilia, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, U.S. Senate, 1986, reported in "The Harm of Illegal Hard-Core and Child Pornography," National Coalition Against Pornography.)
• 87% of molesters of girls, and 77% of the molesters of boys admitted to regular use of hard-core pornography. (Dr. William Marshall, Use of Sexually Explicit Stimuli by Rapists, Child Molesters and Non-Offenders, 25 Journal of Sex Research 267, 1988.)
• U.S. Postal Inspectors have found that 80% of the child pornography collectors they investigate abuse children sexually. (NBC News, "Special Report: The Silent Shame," 1986.)
• The all-time most popular hard-core video series is "Taboo," whose primary theme is incest. (Adult Video News.)
• 80% of male survivors of childhood sexual abuse reported a history of substance abuse, 50% had suicidal thoughts, 23% attempted suicide, and almost 70% received psychological treatment. (Lisak, "The Psychological Impact of Sexual Abuse, Content Analysis of Interviews with Male Survivors," Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol. 7, no. 4: 525-548.)
• Sexually victimized children appear to have a nearly fourfold increased lifetime risk for any psychiatric disorder and at a threefold risk for substance abuse. (Finkelhor and Dzinba-Leatherman, "Victimization of Children," American Psychologist, March 1994, Vol. 49, No. 3, p. 181.)