Page 1277 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 24 April 1990
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depictions rather than for scenes of rape because they believed that the woman depicted would not want to be raped and that she would resist. This was what most of them wanted.
While the statistics on rape increased throughout America, Oklahoma City, for five years consecutively, from 1984 to 1988, showed a decline in rape statistics by 26 per cent. The rest of Oklahoma showed an increase of 20.8 per cent, and we are told that pornography does not cause harm. Oklahoma City closed its 150 sex shops and banned not just X-rated videos but all pornography. One of the major studies that has been done in the world was a 10-year study from 1964 - - -
Mr Whalan: The Prowse conspiracy, the Collaery conspiracy - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Whalan, the speech that you are making, supposedly to the Leader of the Opposition, is being broadcast and recorded. I suggest you beware. Please proceed, Mr Stevenson.
MR STEVENSON: The 10-year study, from 1964 to 1974, was reported in Psychology Today, "Sex and Aggression - Proving the Link". It was a worldwide study by an ad hoc committee which comprised psychologists, police and criminologists. Where there were no restrictions on pornography, it showed that in the USA rapes had increased 139 per cent, in the UK they were up 94 per cent, in Copenhagen they were up 84 per cent, and Australia was on top of the list with a 160 per cent increase in rape. Where there were some restrictions, in Singapore they were up 69 per cent and in South Africa they were up 28 per cent. Where very tight restrictions were placed on pornography, as in Japan, they went down 49 per cent over that 10-year period. These are the statistics.
In Michigan a study was done of 38,000 sexual assault cases from 1956 to 1979. In 41 per cent of the cases pornographic material was viewed just prior to or during the crime. This agrees with research done by psychotherapist David Scott who found that half the rapists he studied used pornography to arouse themselves immediately prior to seeking out a victim. These are the studies that prove the link, if you are prepared to look at the research.
The Meese report was referred to by Mr Duby. Let us have a look at what it said. It talked about different classifications of sexual materials. The class 2 is the one that comes within non-violent erotica, as it is called, or pornographic X-rated videos. It mentions non-violent materials depicting degradation, domination, subordination and humiliation - non-violence. What was the result of the Meese report? Here it is; it is not something that someone has written down on a sheet of paper for you. I have studied it. Mr Duby said that it does not show any causal
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