Published online in: Archives of Sexual Behavior 30 November This is a pre-publication version. The final publication is available at www. Pavel Kvoriak at PK 62 Inc. This work was supported by grant from the J. Pornography continues to be a contentious matter with those on the one side arguing it detrimental to society while others argue it is pleasurable to many and a feature of free speech.
The advent of the Internet with the ready availability of sexually explicit materials thereon particularly has seemed to raise questions of its influence. This study, following the effects of a new law in the Czech Republic that allowed pornography to a society previously having forbidden it allowed us to monitor the change in sex related crime that followed the change. As found in all other countries in which the phenomenon has been studied, rape and other sex crimes did not increase.
Of particular note is that this country, like Denmark and Japan, had a prolonged interval during which possession of child pornography was not illegal and, like those other countries, showed a significant decrease in the incidence of child sex abuse. One of the most contentious areas of expression and free speech is that related to the presentation of sexual matters. Different factions in many societies object in different ways. Some are opposed to any graphic or open depiction or discussion of topics remotely related to sex; others desire an end to even minor restrictions on such displays.
Certainly, people differ widely on what might be considered pornographic; some people even see popular magazines like Playboy pornographic Asiaone, Extremists in the debate argue that pornography is a catalyst promoting sex crimes and rape in particular. Such persons have their own broad definition of pornography. Among the most prominent expressions against pornography are in the works of Dworkin and MacKinnon and Dworkin These women are so convinced of the negative effects of such materials they believe they ought to be restricted in availability and made illegal.
On the other hand, there are many women in favor of sexually explicit materials SEM or at least against its censorship Newitz, ; Strossen, ; Tiefer, ;. A more fruitful method, started by the Danish researcher Kutchinsky, was to see what actually happened in those countries that transitioned from having a strict ban on SEM availability to a situation where the material was decriminalized.
