OVO

What is it that prevents sexual predation? Some people say Christianity prevents rape and sexual molestation of children. But that’s not the case regarding Marshal Seymoure or Larry Joe Crocker or Chris Austin or Henry Edgington or Gilbert Gauthe or James Brzyski or Eleuterio Ramos or any number of other Christian clergymen. Some of these men acted alone, some acted with diplomatic immunity under the supervision of a foreign government. But Christianity prevented none of these men from being sexual predators. Prisons in the United States are full of Christian men (and almost entirely lacking in atheist men). It could be that these men acted on the urge to be sexual predators because their religion condones and celebrates sexual predation. Christianity does not seem to prevent sexual predation.

What does seem to prevent sexual predation is access to the Internet and the pornography it provides. This according to Professor Todd Kendall in his report Pornography, Rape and the Internet. From the report: “The arrival of the internet caused a large decline in both the pecuniary and non-pecuniary costs of accessing pornography. Using state-level panel data from 1998-2003, I find that the arrival of the internet was associated with a reduction in rape incidence. However, growth in internet usage had no apparent effect on other crimes. Moreover, when I disaggregate the rape data by offender age, I find that the effect of the internet on rape is concentrated among those for whom the internet-induced fall in the non-pecuniary price of pornography was the largest – men ages 15-19, who typically live with their parents.”

Professor Kendall’s report may not say much that is flattering of men. But if there are two claimed ways to reduce sexual predation, one that seems to work and one that seems to not work, we can at least do some good with that real world information.