We've always found "Freaknomics" to be decidedly lacking in the "freaking" department. Good thing Todd Kendall, an associate professor at the Clemson University School of Economics, is around. According to Reason magazine, his study "Pornography, Rape, and the Internet," postulates that online porn may actually contribute to the common good:
In a paper presented at Stanford Law School last year, he reported
that, after adjusting for other differences, states where Internet
access expanded the fastest saw rape decline the most. A 10 percent
increase in Internet access, Kendall found, typically meant a 7.3
percent reduction in the number of reported rapes.
The theory is that by watching someone else engage in an act, the impulse to violently perform that act may be bypassed altogether. Actually this is a pretty well documented phenomenon. Did you know that nationwide, incidences of getting hit in the jewels by a child fell 9.5% after the premiere of America's Funniest Home Videos?
