PORNOGRAPHY AND SEXUAL DEVIANCE: A Report of the Legal Behavioral Institute

by Michael J. & Harold S. Kant Goldstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 1973

Goldstein, a psych professor at UCLA, and Kant, a lawyer and Vice President of the Legal Behavioral Institute in Beverly Hills, offer another social scientific investigation of pornography and its psychological effects on users. It's similar, both in methodology and conclusions, to those which have periodically surfaced from the Kinsey Institute (e.g., the 1965 Gebhard analysis of sex offenders) and the some 40 studies conducted for the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography (COP) whose liberal recommendations were rejected -- unread -- by President Nix on that sort of filth. The Goldstein-Kant probe -- an extension of a pilot project conducted for COP -- studied via a lengthy interview questionnaire (appended) the pornography habits, attitudes, and behavior of some 263 persons, sample types including rapists, child molesters, transsexuals, homosexuals, and non-deviants from the general population. Explored were such variables as frequency of exposure, degree of importance, causal effects, relationship of sex fantasies and erotica, and impact of types of material. The results? More support for COP's findings -- more and better sex education is needed, interest, in sex and erotic matter is normal, and the causal link remains elusive (hence unproved). A final chapter discusses the legal-political climate, unfortunately without reference to the recent Burger Court decision (Miller v. California) which, by 5-to-4, moved us another step back to the dark age of Watch and Ward, Banned in Boston, and the randy smut sniffing of Comstock. Supportive data; for specialists.

Pub Date: Nov. 12, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Univ. of California Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION