Paraphilias in U.S. Pornography Titles: “Pornography Made Me Do It” (Ted Bundy)

Abstract

In 1986, the U.S. Commission on pornography reviewed 3,050 separate magazine and book titles sold in “adults only” pornographic outlets randomly selected in Washington, DC; Baltimore, MD; Miami, FL; Philadelphia, PA; New York, NY; and Boston, MA. Of these, 746 titles could be assigned to a DSM III-R paraphilia category (513 titles if the category partialism is excluded). Incest was listed as a category separately from pedophilia. Thus, 16.8 percent of the titles could be assigned to a paraphilia category (24.4% of all titles, if partialism is included as a category). Paraphilia distribution is discussed. Sadomasochism was by far the most common paraphilia (49.9%) while incest titles comprised 21.4 percent of the perversions. The frequency distribution for the U.S. material is compared with titles reviewed by the Victoria (Australia) State Classification of Publications Board and previously reported by the author.