Mini Review
The Role of Pornography in Sexual Offenses: Information for Law Enforcement & Forensic Psychologists
Scott A. Johnson, MA, LP, DABPS*
USA
Abstract
Many police investigators do not fully understand the role that pornography plays in violence. We have come to understand how sex offenders use pornography to support their deviant and violent fantasies which in turn support deviant and violent behavior. In addition, abusers, including those that commit domestic abuse or child abuse, almost all use pornography to feed their deviant and violent fantasies as well. With this understanding, it is imperative for the investigator to not only find the sexual offenders and physical batterer’s pornography but to review the pornography to determine the preference and intent of the offender’s crime. The offender’s pornography (the type, theme, and content of the pornography) is an indicator of what the offender would like to do, and in some cases, what they have already done. In fact, most pornography displays women whose facial expressions clearly are indicative of fear, discomfort, anger, frustration, surprise, or a neutral, void expression. These expressions are contrary to what we would expect of consensual, appropriate sexual partners.
