Does Porn Reduce Rape?

Anthony D'Amato, a Northwestern Law Professor thinks so.
He connects an 85% reduction in reported rapes over 25 years to increased access to porn, especially through video rentals and sales and the internet.

The report itself is here.

I'm impressed by the fact that Dr. D'Amato worked on Nixon's pornography commission, and I confess that since I don't know squat about methodologies of sociological studies, his conclusions sound true. I'd like them to be true. I've seen other studies drawing the same conclusions.

And yet...

Dr. D'Amato's connection seems thin, to me. Not to mention his rationale for why this appears to be the case.

"In my article I mentioned one possibility: that some people watching pornography might 'get it out of their system' and thus have no further desire to go out and actually try it. Another possibility might be labeled the 'Victorian Effect:' the more people covered up their bodies with clothes in those days, the greater the mystery of what they would look like in the nude...But today, internet porn has thoroughly de-mystified sex." (p.6).

I just don't buy the idea that some sexual predator finds himself sitting on the couch after having watched porn and says, "Boy, I'm bushed. I think I'll skip terrorizing women tonight and go straight to bed."

If anything, I think the "De-mystification" angle is closer to the truth. The more people are aware of sex and sexual boundaries, the more they discuss them and are open about them, the more likely it is that there won't be any "misunderstandings" and missed signals. One of my former bosses said of Kobe Bryant that "He confused 'Don't! Stop!' with 'Don't stop!'"

Not to sound like I'm making light of rape and rape victims, but I suspect a significant portion of reported rapes stem out of such "misunderstandings," and don't really fit the "predator lurking in the shadows" model.

In any case, I also think reduced numbers of rapes aren't because of greater access to porn, but both phenomena are connected to greater communication and understanding of sexual issues.

Just my opinion. I could be wrong.