This story about a study is interesting, contending that Internet access in an area is correlated with decreasing rape rates — and concluding that pornography reduces rape by venting sexuality. Steve Sailer has some credible criticisms of it here, and I come down somewhere between the two.

There are two topics here. One is whether rape is really about sex, the other is whether pornography vents that urge or encourages it.

On the first question, I’ve seen studies that show rapists do tend to rape at least partially for sexual satisfaction, and the sheer physics of the male body indicates they must be getting something out of it besides “domination” and “power.” (I am at work and can’t find a way to search for these studies without calling up some really disgusting hits.) So in this regard the theory is plausible.

In the short term it’s obviously true that pornography vents this urge, but as Sailer points out (and every male over 14 knows), over time, it’s more like “a feedback loop” that leads to some degree or another (usually a small one) of obsession.

The question then becomes, is the Internet better for venting short-term hormone fits, or does it do more to contribue to obsession and the general attitude that sex is casual and violent? The study shows the former pretty convincingly, but Sailer points out that, in the ’60s, rape increased as porn became more prevalent. It’s possible that Internet access was correlated with lower rape for some spurious reason.

It’s also likely that the type of porn matters. I doubt thumbing through a Playboy or even Penthouse has anywhere near the effect on pathology that rape or child pornography does, though I’d guess the pornos from Sailer’s example were much more like the former (wasn’t around in the ’60s).

I think a good follow-up study would take place at the individual level. How likely are rapists to have Internet access compared to others, after controlling for the pertinent variables? And what kind of pornography did they enjoy (the correlation-causation thing would be difficult with this though)? The state-level data is suggestive, but I’d say it’s far from conclusive.

Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.