NCJ Number
158457
Date Published
1996
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This article compares the methods and conclusions of two national commissions on pornography and proposes future directions in the definition and regulation of obscenity and pornography.
Abstract
The article examines four major issues as they emerged in the 1970 and 1986 Commission reports: trends in the pornography industry, the effects of pornography on behavior, appropriate action to be taken by private citizens, and legislative and law enforcement remedies. Two significant issues that have been omitted or addressed only marginally in past inquiries into obscenity and pornography, and that will define the course for the future, include the move from sex to violence in defining obscenity, and reasons for the entrenched popularity of pornographic materials. 1 table, 1 note, and 21 references