Link between sex films and rape denied

Press, 25 February 1986, Page 27

Link between sex films and rape denied

PA Wellington No link exists between sex films and rape or incest, according to the Society for the Promotion of Individual Responsibility (5.P.1.R.), which is anti-censorship. A S.P.I.R. spokesman, Mr Larry Timberlake, said there was no causal, let alone statistical, link between the two and yet the Ministry for Women’s Affairs has been “dispensing grants for a propaganda campaign to convince people otherwise.”

Mr Timberlake said his group endorsed the recent call by the Labour Women’s Conference for an independent commission of inquiry to investigate what effects, if any, the availability of pornography might have on society. "The question so far seems to be whether pom causes all of society’s ills, or only most of them. The

real question — whether viewing explicit material does any harm at all — isn’t even being addressed. “S.P.I.R. is amazed that some groups seem to have accepted without question the hysterical claims and pseudo-science of radical feminists.

If there was an inquiry, these people were going to look rather silly because the feminist analysis simply did not square with the facts, said Mr Timberlake.

“We already have the most stringent censorship in the Western world, but our rate of sexual offending is higher than the United States or Denmark. S.P.I.R. is very concerned about violence, but when you start banning material you don’t get less violence. You get more. Sex doesn’t make people angry and aggressive, but censorship does.”