Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best-Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis Update
AUTHOR(S)
PUBLISHED
2010 in Violence Against Women, Vol. 16(10), pp. 1065-1085
KEY FINDINGS
- This study analyzed the content in best-selling pornography videos and found that 88% of scenes contained physical aggression and 48% of scenes contained verbal aggression.
ABSTRACT
This current study analyzes the content of popular pornographic videos, with the objectives of updating depictions of aggression, degradation, and sexual practices and comparing the study’s results to previous content analysis studies. Findings indicate high levels of aggression in pornography in both verbal and physical forms. Of the 304 scenes analyzed, 88.2% contained physical aggression, principally spanking, gagging, and slapping, while 48.7% of scenes contained verbal aggression, primarily name-calling. Perpetrators... READ FULL ABSTRACT
EXCERPTS
- "Many critics of antipornography efforts have suggested that researchers pick out the most violent and aggressive videos available to alarm the public about potential harm or degradation in adult video texts. By selecting top-renting and best-selling videos for analysis, we attempted to provide a picture of what is commonly consumed. Our results suggest that popular pornographic videos contain high levels of both verbal and physical aggression. Compared with prior content analytic studies suggesting that aggression rates of pornographic films vary but rarely rise above 30%, the results of the current study showed much higher rates, approaching 90%."
