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June 24, 2006

If This is True, I Want Some of the Credit

A Washington Post article claims that the number of reported rapes in the US has dropped significantly over the last twenty years.

The number of rapes per capita in the United States has plunged by more than 85 percent since the 1970s, and reported rape fell last year even while other violent offenses increased, according to federal crime data.

This seemingly stunning reduction in sexual violence has been so consistent over the past two decades that some experts say they have started to believe it is accurate, even if they cannot fully explain why it is occurring.

Glen Reynolds on MSNBC has the following reflection on this decrease:

Hmm. What's different since 1970? Lots of things, of course, though bared midriffs and short-shorts are back. But probably the most relevant difference is porn. In 1970, some people argued that porn caused rape. Since 1970, though, porn has exploded. In 1970 you had to work pretty hard to find porn. Now you have to work nearly as hard to avoid it.

But rape has gone down 85%. So much for the notion that pornography causes rape — or, at least, if it did have much effect in that direction, it would be hard to explain how rape rates could have declined so dramatically while porn expanded so explosively.

If Reynolds is correct and the increased availability of porn is part of what is driving down the rape numbers then I deserve at least part of the credit.

I haven't written much about my professional career here on Abnormal Interests but it is relevant to this topic. But perhaps not in the way you are thinking. During the late 80s and through much of the 90s I was involved in marketing modem chips for the largest manufacturer of this application specific integrated circuit in the world. If you owned a modem or a computer with a modem in those days there was a greater than 60% likelihood it was from our company. And one thing we knew is that we were enabling internet porn. While we discussed this quite openly among ourselves, we called it the "entertainment market segment" in our written business plans and in all public discussion. In those days, nothing else was driving the ever-increasing need for higher data communications speed the way porn was. Now I wasn't the most important player in all this. The engineering teams, manufacturing teams, their leaders, and a host of other marketing and sales professionals had a larger role than I did. But, I was there and I lead the marketing team as the volume of modems in the market place began to accelerate. So, if the decrease in rape is the result of the increase in the availability of porn then I want part of the credit.

On the other hand, the Washington Post article notes that one should be cautious about the numbers reflecting a decrease in rape.

Not everyone is convinced that things are getting that much better. Many who work with rape victims say they do not believe there has been a widespread decline in the number of attacks. Instead -- despite the years of attempted outreach to rape victims -- they say the crime may be as hidden now as ever.

If it turns out that the numbers are somehow masking some deeper problem and the per capita number of rapes is not down or there are more significant reasons for the down turn, then I had nothing to do with it.

Now I'm a little uncomfortable making light of anything that has to do with such an evil crime but I thought this article and Reynolds reflections were abnormally interesting.

My guess is that Jill at Feministe is on target in pointing out that "feminist efforts to de-stigmatize rape;" "survivor-outreach programs;" "rape crisis centers;" "information campaigns which emphasized to men that rape is not ok;" "the general empowerment of women;" and "a shift in social ideas about women being the property of men" are more important factors than porn if the numbers are indeed down.

If you are a man remember How to Stop Rape!

Posted by Duane Smith at June 24, 2006 12:47 PM | Read more on Odds and Ends |

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Comments

So, was it your job to download certain types of large files from the Internet for the sole purpose of testing your company's products?

Posted by: Aydin at June 27, 2006 8:15 AM

Please don't let anyone else know about this! My boss thought I was developing and implementing strategies to increase our market share and profits and looking for other new products and markets that would exploit our core technologies.

Posted by: Duane at June 27, 2006 8:36 AM

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.
Send me an email if it is important.

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