Citation

Wilson WC. J. Soc. Iss. 1973; 29(3): 41-51.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1973, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1540-4560.1973.tb00087.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Data are presented from a questionnaire mailed to a random sample of District Attorneys stratified by state and by population of county, achieving a 69% response. Prosecuting attorneys, as a group, vary greatly among themselves in their perceptions of the degree to which obscenity and pornography constitute a problem in their communities. Concern about pornography is very highly correlated with size of community and with changes in the availability of pornography: concern is found in large urban situations and when the availability of pornography seems to be increasing (but not when it is stable). Behavioral indices of concern, such as effort expended in law enforcement and numbers of prosecutions, do not indicate as serious concern as do verbal indices. Those aspects of the distribution of pornography that are verbally reported to be the source of concern are not the aspects of distribution that are prosecuted. The citizenry in general is perceived as somewhat apathetic about pornography. A post hoc analysis attempts to make conceptual sense of these empirical data.

Language: en