The issue broadly stated is: What are the effects of pornographic communications on their audiences? But that is far too general a question, for the issues multiply when the questions become specific.

The kinds of audiences to be considered in assessing effects vary widely in many characteristics and almost certainly in regard to their responses to pornographic communication. Moreover, the kinds of effects that have been suggested are equally variable. Does pornography induce forcible rape? Does it provoke masturbation? And in addition to possible immediate behavioral consequences of pornographic communication, what about effects on attitudes and long-range behavior tendencies? As we shall see, the spectrum of possible effects discussed in the policy literature goes from extreme sexual violence to rather trivial shifts in attitude-questionnaire responses.

Two preliminary points need to be made before we commence analysis of research into the effects of pornographic communication and the conclusions drawn from it by pornography commissions. First, it would be utterly astounding if pornographic communication, a medium-sized industry in the Western world, had no impact at all on its audience. The billions of dollars expended on pornographic materials by willing consumers testify to the capacity of such material to have some effect on human states of consciousness. The question is thus not whether such materials have any effects but whether they have certain specific effects and what value, positive or negative, we associate with the occurrence of those specific effects.

The second reason why specificity is required in discussion of the impact of pornographic communication relates to the methodology and limitations of empirical social science.