Community Standards of Patent Offensiveness: Public Opinion Data and Obscenity Law

Glassman, Marc

doi:10.1086/268440

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The social scientific literature on attitudes toward pornography is surprisingly sparse, and what does exist generally deals with either problems of law (e.g., Glassman, 1978) or sexual adjustment (e.g., Amoroso, et al, 1971). In the most extensive recent study of attitudes toward pornography, Abelson et al (1971:85) found that education is positively related to tolerance for the availability of sexual materials and that church attendance is negatively related to tolerance.…”

Section: Review Of Empirical Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Religion, Socioeconomic Status, and Sexual Morality: An Application of Reference Group Theory

Bock¹,

Beeghley²,

Mixon

1983

The Sociological Quarterly

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Reference group theory is used t o help resolve an anomaly: the relationships among religiosity, socioeconomic status, and sexual morality. Past research has shown that while SES and religiosity are positively related to each other, SES is related to liberal sexual attitudes and religiosity is related to conservative sexual attitudes. SES and religiosity are therefore working at cross-purposes and represent competing frames of reference for some persons. Specifications of reference group theory helps to pinpoint the conditions under which particular choices are made. The 1972-78 NORC data set is used to test specific propositions extrapolated from Robert Merton's analysis of reference groups. The findings show that religious group involvement has greater impact than SES collectivity. The influence of religiosity is, however, dependent upon a conservative milieu. For generally liberal denominations, there is less necessity for a choice between the competing reference points; thus, neither religion nor SES overwhelms the other. These results and reference group theory suggest areas for future investigation. 0 1 9 8 3 by The Sociological Quarterly. All rights reserved. 0038-0253/83/1500-0545$00.75

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Section: Review Of Empirical Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Religion, Socioeconomic Status, and Sexual Morality: An Application of Reference Group Theory

Bock¹,

Beeghley²,

Mixon

1983

The Sociological Quarterly

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“…(2) The impact of moral rigidity as an explanatory variable. While moral rigidity may have general relevance to acceptance of erotica, the strength of the relationship could as easily be attributed to a low tolerance for nonconformity in the South, including a lack of tolerance for violations of moral codes against swearing in front of women and children and of women smoking in public (see Reed, 1974;Williams et al, 1976Glassman, 1978.16…”

Section: (3) a Significant Influence Of Extracommunity Factors On Resmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another source of difficulty in identifying norms of candor is that public tolerance of sexual matters is influenced by such demographic characteristics as population density and levels of cosmopolitanism (see Abelson et al, 1971; Glassman, 1978). Since regions as well as other standards in the Northern Federal District of Georgia.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes Toward Pornography in a Southern Community

Herrman¹,

Bordner

1983

Criminology

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ABSTRACT* * * The Supreme Court has determined that obscene speech should not be protected under the First Amendment, but an unambiguous definition of obscenity is required if negative legal sanctions are to be enforced without jeopardizing due process. According to current guidelines, a media presentation of sexually explicit materials must exceed limits of sexual candor to be defined obscene. However, establishing such limits requires articulation of a normative standard for a specified population—a population defined by the court as being a community. The present research is designed to identify such limits of sexual candor within a community in the South. The results demonstrate the existence of ambiguity in the articulation of community standards. First, little consistency is found between personal standards and the perceptions of community standards. This lack of consistency presents a problem for jury deliberation since a single frame of reference is not available to guide jurors in reaching decisions on obscenity. Second, both perceptions of community standards and personal standards are significantly influenced by extracommunity factors of sex, age, race, education, religiosity, and moral rigidity. Existence of such effects raises the additional question of jury bias in the event that there is an overrepresentation of any one segment of the community on a jury.

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“…5. See, for example , Lamont 1973;Schauer 1976;Glassman 1978;Beckett and Bell 1979. at UB der TU Muenchen on July 12, 2015 http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from The admissibility of a public opinion poll depends primarily upon what the court in Saliba termed certain "circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness," including whether generally accepted survey techniques were used in conducting the poll and correct statistical methods were utilized in evaluating the results of the poll. 6 The court laid out a specific set of criteria, generally accepted by most social scientists as necessary to ensure a poll's reliability and validity, so as to establish admissibility.…”

Section: Community Standardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating Community Standars: The Use of Social Science Evidence in an Obscenity Prosecution

Linz

Donnerstein

Land

et al. 1991

Public Opinion Quarterly

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Elements of the legal test for obscenity of sexually explicit material indicted in a criminal case are examined. A cross-section of residents of Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, NC) were randomly assigned to view either one of the sexually explicit films and the sexually explicit magazine charged in the criminal case, or a control film. Before and after the viewing, residents judged the materials' appeal to a prurient interest (a shameful, morbid, unhealthy interest in sex) and patent offensiveness (community tolerance for such material). The results indicated that the respondents felt that the films and magazine did not appeal to a shameful, morbid, or unhealthy interest in sex, nor did they perceive these materials as going beyond the level of tolerance regarding depictions of sexual conduct for the average adult in that community. A lower percentage of subjects

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Community Standards of Patent Offensiveness: Public Opinion Data and Obscenity Law

Cited by 13 publications

References 6 publications

Religion, Socioeconomic Status, and Sexual Morality: An Application of Reference Group Theory

Religion, Socioeconomic Status, and Sexual Morality: An Application of Reference Group Theory

Attitudes Toward Pornography in a Southern Community

Estimating Community Standars: The Use of Social Science Evidence in an Obscenity Prosecution

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