The Social Costs of Pornography: A Collection of Papers

The papers in this volume attempt to document, analyze, and explain "The Social Costs of Pornography," building the case that citizens need to revisit this issue and look squarely at a problem many would rather ignore. A companion volume also published by the Witherspoon Institute, "The Social Costs of Pornography: A Statement of Findings and Recommendations," summarizes the case these papers make and offers a modest reform agenda. In this "Collection of Papers," the aim is to provide scholarly consideration of many facets of the issue. The authors differ in their training and often in their approach and perspective (not to mention in their religious backgrounds and political affiliations). They do not all diagnose the problem in the same way, nor would they consent to a single program of reform. But they do agree that there is in the Internet Age a new problem, different in kind from problems of the past or so different in degree as to become different in kind; and they are aware of new evidence, for example from neuroscience, of the character of the crippling harm of pornography.