Pornography Use and Sexual Scripts Among Men Who Have Committed Sexual Offenses

Participants and Setting

After the study received ethical approval from the Human Research Protection Program through both the university and the Department of Corrections (“DOC”), semi-structured interviews were conducted with 101 men who were convicted of a sexual offense and were incarcerated in specialized sexual offender treatment units in a Midwestern minimum-security correctional institution. The facility is comprised of 16 dormitory-housing units for men who are 18 years and older and who require the lowest amount of security. There are three specialized housing units dedicated to those who have committed sexual offenses. Each can hold up to 480 individuals and provides in-unit intensive treatment through individual and group therapy. The interviews were conducted over a period of four months, between June and September of 2018.

In these units, individuals must have committed offenses with a criminal sexual conduct (“CSC”) code or that meet criteria for sexually motivated crimes. In the state where the research was conducted, criminal sexual conduct is distinguished by degree. CSC in the first degree is the most serious charge, which involves sexual penetration of individuals under the age of 13, or if the victim is between 13 and 16 years of age and is a family member, lives in the household, or is under care or supervision of the perpetrator. It may also include cases of forcible rape of those who are adults. CSC in the second degree involves criminalized sexual contact with an individual and can include physical contact such as touching and fondling. CSC in the third degree occurs when the individual is between 13 and 16 years of age and uses force, coercion, or the victim is unable to consent to sexual activity. Other criminal offenses included convictions related to child sexually abusive materials (“CSAM”), indecent exposure, and assaults with some sort of sexual element or sexual motivation.

Recruitment for the study was conducted by the DOC correctional and mental health staff. They posted recruitment materials in common areas of the units where individuals could learn about the study and, if interested in participating, could sign up using their prison identification numbers on a public sign-up sheet. Additionally, staff described and promoted the study in group therapy sessions. The interviewer also asked each participant to direct any interested persons to her, and so some participants informally recruited others through snowball sampling.

For those individuals who indicated that they wished to participate, the correctional staff scheduled the interview dates and times. Due to the nature of the setting and the individuals’ incarceration status, the informed consent process included several important clarifications. First, while the correctional staff would have knowledge of which individuals participated in the study, they would not have access to any of the responses or interview data. No identifying information would be collected, responses were confidential, and all data would be anonymized. The location of the interviews was the offices of mental health staff, which were located at the front of the units and were small rooms with a large glass window. Thus, correctional staff could visually monitor for safety and security purposes, but auditory privacy was maintained during the interview. The goals of the research were explained to give participants an understanding of why they were being asked to participate. Participants’ rights were reviewed and emphasized. The researcher made it clear that she was not affiliated in any way with the DOC, who had given access to their space and the participants. Additionally, it was emphasized that participation in the research would not affect any parole or release decisions.

The interviews were conducted by one interviewer, while an undergraduate research assistant took notes throughout the interviews. Several measures were taken to ensure the quality of the data collection. Firstly, it was necessary to address the issue of positionality, or any potential effects the identity of the researcher could have on those being studied. For example, the most salient considerations were power differentials given participants’ status as incarcerated persons, and the gender of the interviewer, a woman in a male-dominated space. These factors were directly discussed with each participant prior to the start of the interview through an informal “script.” Additionally, she emphasized that participation was unrelated to their sentence, the prison, parole, or any legal or punitive matters. She explained the goals of the research, the importance of understanding the topic, and how the information would be used and disseminated. She also stressed that while the study involved questions of a sensitive nature, they were all topics participants regularly discussed in group and individual therapies with prison mental health staff, both men and women.

Rapport-building was achieved through open discussions regarding the purpose of the study, encouraging participants to ask questions or express any concerns, and, when appropriate, the use of humor to put participants at ease. The interviewer attempted to use an empathetic approach and to create a judgment free space where participants could share and discuss their experiences.

Once participants indicated that they understood the purpose of the study, their rights as participants, and verbally indicated that they wished to participate, interviews were conducted that lasted approximately 30 to 45 minutes each. Participants began by giving basic demographic information, such as age, race, religion, marital status, and convictions. A semi-structured interview guide which consisted of 30 questions was used to allow for later comparison across responses. The interviewer solicited feedback on the protocol from several of the clinicians who work directly with this population to ensure the questions were informed by not only empirical evidence but also were relevant to clinical practice. The interview questions focused on their experiences of pornography such as the age of onset, genres watched, frequency of use, and effects on self, sexual relationships, fantasies, and behavior. Pornography was defined as broadly as any visual content or literature that was used to stimulate sexual feelings, to become aroused, or used to achieve orgasms (Diamond, 2009).

The DOC stipulations prohibited the use of any recording devices. Therefore, all interview data was recorded manually by hand using notebooks and pens. As this was a potential limitation to data collection, there were several methods used to increase the validity of the data. First, throughout each interview, the interviewer manually transcribed as best she could the content of what the participant said generally. Verbatim quotes which seemed especially salient to the research questions were recorded. She reviewed responses with participants and reviewed certain quotes to ensure accuracy.

After each interview was completed, the interviewer would provide a quick debriefing with each participant. This allowed an opportunity for participants to provide feedback or ask questions. She reminded each participant that should they need any mental health support after the interview, these services would be made available. She also indicated that her institutional information was on file with the mental health staff should they have any further questions, comments, concerns, or if they wanted to access copies of any publications. None of the participants indicated any discomfort or distress after the interviews, rather, the majority indicated that the discussion was cathartic or that it offered a break from the monotony of their prison schedule. Several participants described the experience as positive, citing that it was “humanizing” having the opportunity to sit and talk to someone and tell their stories.

Upon completion of the interview, once the participant exited the office, the interviewer spent approximately 5 to 15 minutes expanding on the notes, documenting as much as she could regarding the interaction, participant behavior, and any observations made regarding the interview. When interviews were completed for the day, the interviewer left the prison and went to her car, where she stored a recording device. She recorded research memos about each interview which included observations of and interactions with the participant and relevant theoretical insights or questions. Interviews and research memos were transcribed as quickly as possible, either the day of or the day after they occurred, to preserve the quality and accuracy of the information. The researcher intentionally scheduled only a limited number of interviews per day and allowed for at least several days in between interview sessions to provide ample time to record and organize the data. All interview data were transcribed into Word documents and later inputted into the qualitative statistical analysis program NVIVO 12.

Sample

Due to the nature of incarceration and the participants’ status as incarcerated persons, it was necessary to work within a convenience framework, constrained by the goals of the institution. Despite these limitations, the sample was purposive in that the goal of the research was to understand the role of pornography in sexual offense behaviors among those who were incarcerated for these crimes. In terms of the sample size, the investigator made the methodological decision to interview as many people as volunteered and data collection ended when everyone who signed up for participation was interviewed. Due to the nature of thematic analysis, saturation was not employed for sampling, rather, this was a consideration for the data analysis process.

All 101 participants self-identified as male. They ranged from 20 to 68 years with a mean age of 40. White males constituted the majority of the sample (n = 73), Black males represented approximately a quarter of the sample (n = 24), three males identified as Latino/Hispanic, and one as Native American. In terms of CSC convictions, individuals were serving sentences for CSC 3rd degree (n = 28), CSC 2nd degree (n = 20), CSC 1st degree (n = 18), CSAM offenses (n = 17), both contact and CSAM (n = 7), indecent exposure (n = 5), lesser sex crimes (n = 5), and crimes with a sexual element (n = 3). Additionally, reported victims of the participants included both adults (n = 12) and minors under the age of 18 (n = 65) (Table 1).

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Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics of the Sample (N = 101).

Variable name	Count	%	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Median	SD
Sex
Male	101	100
Race
White	73	72.28
Black	24	23.76
Native American	1	0.99
Hispanic	3	2.27
Age	101	100	20	68	40.23	38	12.37
Sexual orientation
Straight	79	78.22
Bisexual	13	12.87
Gay	2	1.98
Pansexual	1	0.99
NA	6	5.94
Offense type
ACIP	1	0.99
AIC	1	0.99
AS	1	0.99
AIP	3	2.97
CSAM	20	19.80
CSC 1st	18	17.82
CSC 2nd	20	19.80
CSC 3rd	30	29.70
FA	1	0.99
FOS	1	0.99
GI	1	0.99
IE	3	2.97
S	1	0.99
Parenting
Has children	63	62.38
No children	38	37.62
Relationship status
Single/N.M.	60	59.41
Married	22	21.78
Divorced	18	17.82
Widowed	1	0.99

Note. Key for Offense type: ACIP = Accosting Child for Immoral Purposes; AIE = Aggravated Indecent Exposure; AS = Aggravated Stalking; AIP = Assault with Intent to Penetrate, CSAM, CSC 1st, CSC 2nd, CSC 3rd; FA = Felonious Assault; FO = Forced Oral Sex; GI = Gross Indecency; IE = Indecent Exposure; S = Surveillance.

Key for Relationship status: Single/N.M. = Single/Never Married.

Analytic Strategy

As part of a larger study on the perceived role of pornography in sexual offending, participants were asked questions related to sexual scripting. Specifically, these questions focused on how they learned about sex, initial experiences with and exposure to pornography, whether they incorporated pornography into their own sexual lives, how it affected their own sexual relationships, if they had engaged in personal porn-making, if and how it played a role in offenses, and how porn affected their sexual beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. The responses from these specific questions were included in the analysis.

The present study employed an inductive thematic analysis, which is a rigorous qualitative method used to identify and analyze themes within data (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Nowell et al., 2017). Thematic analysis allows for the examination of diverse perspectives and experiences of research participants and is especially useful for organizing and summarizing key concepts in larger data sets (King, 2004; Nowell et al., 2017). Qualitative inductive coding and data analysis was performed using the thematic analysis framework developed by Braun and Clarke (2006), which involves six key steps: familiarization with the data, generation of initial codes, generating themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and reporting the findings. Thematic analysis involves several practices which are focused on the qualitative notion of “trustworthiness” of data. For example, Nowell et al. (2017, p. 4) state that to ensure trustworthiness, researchers can partake in practices including “prolonged engagement with data,” “use of a coding framework,” “persistent observation,” “researcher triangulation,” “peer debriefing,” “documentation of team meetings,” “team consensus on themes,” and “themes and subthemes vetted by team members.”

Familiarization and engagement with the data involved multiple readings and re-readings of the raw interview data. Despite the limitations of handwritten interview data, it allowed for a stronger relationship with the data as one of the most critical components of thematic analysis is writing. This allowed the researcher to become immersed within the data through the process of writing, reading, and transcribing the interviews, notes, and research memos. In this initial stage, all of the qualitative data was reviewed, which included not only interview responses but also field notes, reflexive memos, and researcher observations (Crabtree & Miller, 1999).

This familiarization process was followed by the generation of the codes through a coding framework. Codes are “tags or labels for assigning units of meaning to the descriptive or inferential information compiled during a study” (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p. 56). These codes were theory-driven, meaning they were derived from the extant theoretical literature on pornography and sexual scripts, as well as data-driven, or developed directly from the raw interview data. The first step in the coding process was to identify and label important words or groups of words, known as initial or open coding, through line-by-line coding of the interview text. Initial codes are referred to as first-level codes. Some codes were developed at the level of sentence, meaning they were direct quotes from the participants. Additionally, important words or groups of words themselves may also be identified as relevant codes (Holloway & Wheeler, 2013). Other codes were generated at what is termed the level of meaning. The level of meaning refers to more abstract codes derived from paragraphs or the entire narrative itself (DeCuir-Gunby et al., 2011).

After the first level coding was completed, additional research memos were constructed to explore the data and examine relationships. Research memos serve important analytical functions as they can facilitate the organization and construction of key concepts, allow for comparisons, and identify connections and relationships (Charmaz, 1995, 1999). In the present study, memos included references to theoretical perspectives on pornography and sexual scripts. Second-level axial codes were developed from the research memos to establish relationships and to develop categories, which are groups of related codes (Saldaña, 2015).

Data saturation, or when additional data do not lead to any new emergent themes, is frequently utilized in the coding of qualitative data (e.g., Birks & Mills, 2015; Olshansky, 2015). Urquhart (2013, p. 194) defines saturation as: “the point in coding when you find that no new codes occur in the data. There are mounting instances of the same codes, but no new ones.” Categories are considered theoretically saturated when new data analysis returns only codes that fit into the identified and existing categories (Birks & Mills, 2011). These categories were then grouped and developed into meaningful themes or main ideas related to the focused research questions. Interview data, observations, field notes, and research memos were utilized in an iterative process to triangulate the data (Boeri, 2007; Nichter et al., 2004). The analysis was facilitated using the qualitative software program NVIVO 12, which provides tools for the collection, organization, and analysis of rich textual data and allows for theorizing about relationships and theory (LaRossa, 2012).

Qualitative data analysis immerses the researcher as the main tool for analysis (Starks & Trinidad, 2007). It is critical that the qualitative analytical process involves detailed accounts of what was done as well as clarifications as to why and how it was done (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Malterud, 2001; Thorne, 2000). One of the goals of rigorous qualitative analysis is that of “trustworthiness” (Nowell et al., 2017). Rather than quantitative measures of intercoder reliability, trustworthiness includes practices such as prolonged engagement with data, documenting and reflecting thoughts, peer debriefing, documenting team meetings, detailed notes about the development of concepts and themes, themes vetted by team members, and team consensus on themes (Nowell et al., 2017, p. 4). Throughout the analysis of these data, the authors engaged in all these processes to increase the trustworthiness of the findings.

Living the Porn

Participants explained that pornography informed their sexual attitudes, preferences, and experiences. Watching and consuming porn was associated with the acquisition and activation of individual level sexual scripts which were applied to sexual behavior and performance. For example, one participant explained, “I have acted out everything I see in porn. All the time. Every sexual experience I have had has been colored by porn.” For some (n = 41), pornography offered guidance on how they should perform with sexual partners. This included the types of sex, sexual positions, and sexual personas. As one man explained, “I began having sex like a porn star. I would try different positions and try to make sex last awhile.” Pornography was used as a guide which informed how they interacted with their sexual partners:

In my own sex life, I would try to act out positions and the fast pace. I used porn to try to make my fantasies real. Creates these expectations and other people weren’t able to keep up with me.

Magazine stories, I would read one section and the magazine might last me a month. It was more for information than for orgasm. And then I would integrate it into my life with partners. Role play sometimes.

Many (n = 23) watched pornography to learn new techniques and to “spice things up” in their sexual relationships. Pornography was used as a form of education, where techniques could be observed and later incorporated. As one man explained,

My girlfriend liked to watch and we would get ideas. I would watch for the technical part. I would get bored of doing the same thing always.

Another described:

It increased my sex drive and gave me more ideas to spice things up. It influenced my preferences and fantasies a little bit. I felt like I should be the one doing this stuff.

For some participants, pornography reflected the kinds of sex they desired to have in their own lives, impersonal sex which lacked intimacy and closeness:

I would try to act out all of it if I could. I liked that type of sex, not intimate. I objectified sex as a sport. And I got detached from it.

Others described a progression from watching porn to engaging in more “real-world” sexual activities that involved personal contact. For example, webcams and live cams offered more of a thrill than watching pornography online:

I would watch live cams and web cams and I would meet up with people in chat rooms. The people I met up with we would act out fantasies, like orgies, breaking in, swinging. I would do the webcams 2-7 times per week. I looked at porn and was getting bored. I wanted more live, more action. I wanted more live, more action. I would look and get bored. It was harder to find stuff, I wanted more aggressive style. I liked when the woman got off. I would enjoy it if it was wrong, degrading.

For those men who reported living the porn, they relied on sexual scripts espoused in porn to navigate their own sexual encounters and relationships. Far from passive viewers, they actively applied the content they consumed and used it as a guide to real world sex.

Transforming Sex

In some cases (n = 63), rather than simply informing their behavior, pornography played more of a transformative role in participants’ sexual identity and had consequences for their sexual lives. Participants shared how the sexual scripts espoused in porn changed their expectations of real-life sexual encounters, distorted their self-image (i.e., “I wanted to be the cool guy in the video”), and affected their relationships. Not only was porn transforming their own identities, but also how they viewed others (i.e., “porn definitely had an impact on what I am attracted to”). In some cases, this had a negative impact. As one participant shared:

Porn changed what I wanted. I wanted the woman on the screen or the man on the screen. I wanted partners that looked like them. I felt jealousy, that I could never look like that or perform like that.

It 100% affected my relationships because I wanted to be with the people I saw on porn.

Others felt that due to the “acting” they saw in porn, they had unrealistic expectations of what sex should be and had trouble performing when the real-life sex did not match what they saw onscreen. As one participant described, “I watched so much porn it affected real life sex. I couldn’t get aroused.” Others talked about how porn had affected their ability to achieve sexual satisfaction:

Porn definitely influenced my relationships with other people. It caused aggrandizement in terms of how I felt sex should go.

Being high and masturbating wasn’t doing it. My patience was low. I couldn’t get off. I would sit there and try and I would be in pain. I needed risky, crazy stuff to watch when I was high. I got high and I became freakier. I became a little bit weird.

It made relationships boring. I couldn’t relate to her. Porn doesn’t show you that.

Watching porn increased and my sex drive in real life decreased.

Some individuals reported that watching the kind of sexual interactions portrayed in porn led to difficulties in their ability to emotionally connect with romantic and/or sexual partners:

It made me more isolated and it perpetuated the socially awkward and lack of intimacy.

Porn has affected my relationships. I was never intimate with anyone.

I wanted to be the best in bed, and she sometimes asked me to go slow. I didn’t know how to.

Most who used porn were not open with their partners about their consumption. Many discussed how they hid their use from those with whom they were in relationships. In some cases, partners discovered their use and had negative reactions:

“It affected a lot of relationships. I didn’t talk about it but one wife found it and was offended by it.”

Additionally, participants reported that porn negatively portrayed women and this affected both their own expectations of how women should act as well as, in their opinion, women’s perceptions of themselves. Participants shared their concerns regarding how gender stereotypes were reinforced by porn by espousing narratives about how women should perform. As one participant explained:

Porn is portraying a lie. And people believe the lie. Not just men, women too. Women think they have to be a whore in the bedroom and a lady in the world. Shouldn’t be like that. They shouldn’t have to bend over backwards.

Even though participants could articulate that porn was not portraying “real life,” they still struggled with the internalization of these norms. Porn changed their views and expectations of sex and affected their self-images, ability to perform, and their views of women.

Porn as Grooming and Offending

In the minority of cases (n = 4), individuals reported porn was used as a tool to perpetrate abuse in the form of grooming or priming victims for sex. Some used porn to encourage potential sexual relations with their victims and to normalize sex. One participant shared that “. . . I did use porn to groom him and manipulate him into sex.” Another participant used porn to flatter the victim:

My victim was a 14-year-old. I said she looked like my favorite porn star. She was complimented, but that is a horrible thing to say to a girl. And she was abused before.

Others used pornography as an educational tool which informed their abuse of victims:

It gave my ideas to try on my victim. I was learning how to please my victim in order to use them on my significant other. I was learning new techniques and practicing them on my victim. I wanted to make sure my wife enjoyed them.

Many participants (n = 46) disclosed that they themselves had been victimized and that porn was a part of their own sexual abuse. One participant recounted how pornography was used to groom him and his friends:

Around 7 or 8 I stole a Playboy from a store with a friend and looked at it in the woods. I was excited looking at it, aroused, had erections. We played with each other’s penises looking at the pictures. We kept the magazine in the woods. My abuser was a good builder and he built camp houses and they had porn in there. No one went in there except us. The older boys also kept porn there and they would bring us there to molest us. The boys molesting us would use porn to groom us into abuse.

For this participant, porn was part of a cycle of abuse, a tool used to facilitate both the victimization he experienced as well as the perpetration of his own offenses. In other instances, porn itself was the offense, as some individuals were convicted for producing or possession of child sexually abusive materials (n = 24). For these participants, porn was more often framed as an addictive behavior which they could not control, where porn became the driving force in their sexual fantasies and behavior.

Porn as Risk

The last script which emerged from the participants’ narratives was that of the relationship between porn, risk, and harm. These individuals reported that porn may have played some sort of role in their offending not necessarily through individual level scripts, but through cultural scripts about sex. For example:

Porn made me objectify women. Porn made sex the end instead of the means. I think porn is a right. But I shouldn’t use porn. It is like an alcoholic. I don’t want access to it. It is not worth the slip. What I need to do is stay away because it is an addiction. Being without porn hypersensitizes you and porn desensitizes you. I want to stay away from it. Maybe watch it once or twice a week.

I think it changed my mindset. Put me in a more deviant mindset. I mean it could be easier to reoffend. Because of the degradation of women. Calling them names, slapping them, objectifying.

Participants were concerned that should they have access upon release, porn would affect their decision making and allow for future offending (n = 54). Many participants reported that the messages inherent in porn could facilitate offending. For example, one participant explained how he used porn to create abusive situations:

It sets you up, it subconsciously sets you up. Creates images and ideas that play themselves out intentionally and unintentionally.

Thus, many participants expressed concerns about the cultural level sexual scripts inherent in porn and how they might affect their individual level scripts involving sexual attitudes and behaviors. For these participants, the concern was that these cultural scripts could facilitate deviant cognitive processes which could lead to offending. The application of these porn as risk scripts were a way in which participants could attempt to avoid sexually abusive behavior in the future.