Prostitution & Pornography: The links between the two

By Robert Peters, President of Morality in Media
October 2008 (Updated and revised, March 2011)

Table of Contents

 

Introduction – 1

In general – 2

Men ‘act out’ pornography fueled sexual fantasies with prostitutes

A.     What professionals say – 5

B.     What prostituted women say – 9

C.     What ‘johns’ say – 11

Pimps use pornography to desensitize and instruct their victims – 13

Women are trafficked into the production of pornography – 15

‘Porn stars’ as prostitutes

A.     ‘Porn stars’ who engage in prostitution through agents & escort services – 18

B.     Production of hardcore adult pornography as prostitution – 19

Introduction

At both the federal and state levels, law enforcement agents and prosecutors are working hard to stop sexual trafficking and are to be credited for doing so.  In large measure, however, these individuals have turned a blind eye towards the proliferation of hardcore adult pornography on the Internet and elsewhere that is stimulating the demand for prostitution, which in turn is stimulating the demand for women trafficked into prostitution.

Hardcore adult pornography does not depict actual children under age 18 but does include depictions of individuals who look younger than age 18 or are made to look younger than 18.  It also depicts (among other things) the degradation of women and sexual violence against women, including rape and torture.  What law enforcement agents and prosecutors fail to see (or acknowledge) is that by ignoring the explosion of hardcore adult pornography, they are undermining their efforts to curb sexual trafficking.  It makes about as much sense as trying to fight a raging fire, started or fueled by a gas explosion, without bothering to turn off the gas.

They are also ignoring other harms that flow from the proliferation of hardcore adult pornography.  Children of all ages are being exposed to hardcore adult pornography on the Internet, which can interfere with their psychological development and lead to sexual abuse of other children.  Addiction to this material is also contributing to the breakup of marriages, to sexual exploitation of children, to sexual violence against women, to on-the-job sexual harassment, and to a decline in worker productivity.  Our nation’s role in polluting the world with pornography is also hurting the war against terrorism.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment does not protect obscene materials; and in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 29 (1973), the Court provided "concrete guidelines to isolate 'hard core' pornography from expression protected by the First Amendment." Today, most commercially distributed “adult” pornography is hardcore.  Congress has also repeatedly strengthened and updated our nation's constitutional federal obscenity laws.   What is now needed is vigorous enforcement of these laws by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The following materials show various links between prostitution and pornography.  The evidence set forth is not intended to be exhaustive; it is the tip of the iceberg.

In general

W.G. Hughes, “San Bernardino County big in human trafficking, expert says,” Press Telegram, 3/15/11:

San Bernardino County is one of the biggest transit points for human trafficking...in the U.S., trafficking expert Marisa Ugarte told an audience...at Cal State San Bernardino.  Ugarte, the executive director of the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition in San Diego...dwelt heavily on the sexual trafficking of women and children locally and through sex tourism.  Domestic sexual trafficking is abetted by pornography and the Internet, she said.

D. Arevalo & M. Regnerus, "Commercialized sex and human bondage," www.thepublicdiscourse.com, 2/11/11:

One of the most significant and persistent barriers to combating human trafficking is widespread insistence on distinguishing between sexual trafficking and prostitution. While linking the two is about as easy as connecting smoking to lung cancer, we continue to decouple trafficking from branches of the commercial sex industry like prostitution and pornography...[M]ost of us want to end sexual slavery, but the commercial sex industry—which is the very lifeblood of trafficking—is increasingly tolerated. Prostitution is seen by plenty as a legitimate, if suboptimal, form of “work,” and pornography is taken to be harmless. And yet the commercial sex market and sex trafficking are symbiotically related; the latter simply would not exist without the former. Women and girls are trafficked into brothels, strip clubs, and massage parlors. They’re photographed and filmed servicing men. Customers—including men who simply click on free porn on the web—do not and cannot distinguish between trafficked women, prostitutes, and porn stars.

L.J. Lederer, "Sex trafficking and illegal pornography -- Is there a link?" Pornography Harms: Capitol Hill Briefing, 6/15/10, available at www.pornharms.com:

There are numerous links between sex trafficking and illegal pornography...1. Some types of pornography actually are sex trafficking...Pornography industry insiders note that the production of pornography often matches the very definition of "severe forms of trafficking," -- force, fraud or coercion are used to prompt the performance of those featured in pornography...2. Some men are trafficking and/or exploiting women and children and recording the acts they perform...In a study by the Poppy Project in U.K., women had photographs taken of them by traffickers/pimps...while a gang-rape was taking place.  Women also reported that in the places where they were trafficked pornography was constantly available to men buying sex...3. Pornography is used in sex trafficking and the sex industry to train women and children what to do...In another survey in the U.K., 35% of trafficked women were exposed to pornography, including being shown pornography to "groom" them into prostitution...4. Pornography creates and provides rationalizations for exploiters as to how and why their sexually exploitive behaviors are acceptable...  Norma Hotaling...believed that pornography...normalize[s] prostitution and commercial sexual exploitation..., allowing men to more freely engage in these criminal activities... 

S. Berg, “New coalition challenges the status quo of ‘Pornland, OR,”’ www.theportlandalliance.org, Feb. 2010:

It is easy to be against trafficking...More difficult by far is to take issue with the trafficker's propaganda machine: the porn industry...Imagine my delight when I walked into Esther Nelson's workshop and encountered a slide depicting pornography as a form of sex trafficking.  Nelson was there representing the Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC), and she did a bang-up job explaining how porn stimulates men's desire to use prostitutes. To separate pornography from prostitution is to deny that women and children are often exploited by pimps who can operate cameras. Men who pay to watch prostitutes be prostituted on film are long-distance johns, and many move on to buying sex locally...Later that afternoon, Soroptimist International of the Americas president Cathy Standiford made a soroptimist out of me when she also pointed a finger of blame at pornography, ‘80% of prostitutes say johns have shown them porn to illustrate what they want.’  Pornography...is used by pimps to train and groom young girls into prostitution... 

J. Matyas, “Prostitution, porn linked to human trafficking,” London Free Press (Ontario, Canada), 5/20/2009:

Some Canadians have their "moral compasses screwed up" on the issues of pornography and prostitution, an RCMP officer who monitors human trafficking said in London yesterday.  If you use prostitutes or buy pornography, "you're probably supporting human trafficking," said retired superintendent Marty Van Doren... And make no mistake about it, most prostitutes are lured or forced into the life, he said.  "Are they victims?... Absolutely," Van Doren said... The United Nations estimates 10 million women, girls and boys are victims of the international sex trade, investigative journalist Victor Malarek, author of two books on the subject, told the conference... Malarek, a Canadian newspaper and TV journalist, has become a passionate defender of the victims of sex trafficking and a busy speaker on the subject... Malarek has called johns who buy sex and people soft on pornography "bozos" and "idiots."  Pornography fuels prostitution and prostitution fuels the sex trade, he said.

"Pornography is prostitution for mass consumption" (Interview with Lisa Thompson, Salvation Army liaison for the Abolition of Sexual Trafficking), www.citizenlink.com, 5/08:

Citizen:  Would you agree with the view that pornography, stripping and prostitution are basically interchangeable parts in the "seamless fabric" of commercial sexual exploitation?

Thompson: Yes. Sex trafficking is...the caboose of the train, where it’s the most egregious manifestation of human rights abuses that involves the commercial sex industry...[M]ost people look at that and say,...“That’s exploitation.”  But as you move up the train, it gets a little harder for people to understand that they’re just degrees of the same problem.  The other cars on this train are going to include prostitution and pornography and stripping...[A]t the head of the train you’ve got that engine that’s completely fueled by demand...

S. Azam, Oral sex is the new goodnight kiss (www.thegoodnightkiss,com, 2008):

The recent Craigslist posting for sex with a minor included photos of a 14-year-old “party girl.”  Recruited into prostitution by Justine, 19, and pimped out until Justine was arrested by the FBI for child trafficking.  Justine’s job as a [hotel] front desk clerk...gave her access to rooms...[S]he had been pimping girls from 2 area high schools…She would text the girls at school with meeting times…Unlimited access to hard-core pornographic images, websites that facilitate “hookups” and chat rooms where sexual bartering take place, shape teen expectations and beliefs about what is normal sexual behavior…The predominance of online porn and the constant soliciting of sex in chat groups have given girls a fast and easy way to make money without ever leaving their bedrooms…[At 63, 65-66]

M. Farley, Prostitution & Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connection, Prostitution Research & Educ., 153-154, 2007:

Pornography is also advertising for prostitution.  Men learn how to use women by looking at and masturbating to pornography, often developing a taste for prostitution [Footnote omitted]…Women have explained that they study pornography in order to know how to perform prostitution: “I watch pornos and act like that in the room [with a john].”  [Footnote omitted]  Men show pornography to women to illustrate what they want them to do.  Strip clubs show video pornography to promote lap dancing and VIP-prostitution.  Legal brothels show pornography in the waiting area to speed men along in their purchase of women…Pimps make more money from johns when they advertise women in prostitution as “adult film stars” who are available as “escorts.”  [Footnote omitted]

Roger Young joined the FBI in 1975, where he worked on obscenity, child pornography, and prostitution cases for more than 23 years.  He now serves as a consultant to both law enforcement agencies and nonprofit organizations.   He recounted the following case:

After I began working as Consultant and Private Investigator I learned of a massive operation in the United States that involves Asian appearing women who are paid to engage in sex acts for live streaming from a web site over the Internet.  Customers all over the world pay with a credit card to watch the sex acts in actual time.  They also have the means to communicate with the participants and tell them what sex acts they want them to do.  This operation, in addition, involves Asian appearing females in various apartments in the United States working as prostitutes to service customers... I am not sure if the women are transported here from Japan, China or Southeast Asia, but they speak the language of the customers or businessmen that fly into the United States for sex with them.

Men ‘act out’ porn fueled sexual fantasies with prostitutes

A.  What professionals say

T. Nassiff, “The evil dynamic to pornography,” Cedars Cultural and Educational Foundation (Preventing Abuse Conferences), March 2011:

Pornography is a key element fueling the demand for human trafficking...Porn stimulates but cannot satisfy. Consequently the lure goes...deeper into hard core pornography...Ultimately the physical, psychological, and human addiction drives them to do things they never thought they were capable...[I]t ultimately leads to acting out the fantasies on human victims. Child molestation, human trafficking, Internet predators...

H.S. Meeks, “Local therapists say sexual addiction isn't just limited to celebrities,” Visalia Times-Delta (Calif.), 5/10/10:

"Sex addiction is huge, really huge," said Rick Froyd, a licensed marriage and family therapist who has been dealing with his patients sexual addictions for 14 years...[T]here just aren't as many resources for the sex addict, said Michael H. Shaffer, a marriage and family therapist and licensed clinical social worker who has provided sex addiction treatment for 30 years... Both therapists said it's a pattern of compulsive sexual behavior that causes problems...Compulsive means they cannot control it...Sexual behavior can include actual intercourse...viewing pornography and having sexual conversations via texting...But the thing about addiction is if it goes untreated it becomes more intense and more frequent, Shaffer said.  "Even the content of the material might become more intense – what worked for me last week doesn't work for me this week," he said...That's when people start getting into trouble, because as their need to get a fix escalates, they start making poor choices.  These include: having sex that puts them at risk of getting a disease, obtaining sex illegally, spending excessive amounts of money on phone sex or pornography and looking at pornography at work.  Shaffer and Froyd said what has really caused an explosion of sexual addiction in recent years is one culprit: the Internet.  "The Internet is the crack cocaine of the sex industry," Shaffer said... There are 400 sting sites set up by the government online to catch people in illegal sexual behaviors such as prostitution.

C. Watson, “Report from Buenos Aires (Prostitute Plaza): The globalization of sex,” CBC News, 6/18/09, available at http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/06/18/f-rfa-watson.html:

Prostitutes hit their peak earning potential by the time they're 25…Which is one reason why recruiters are going after younger and younger girls.  [Canadian sociologist Richard Poulin] says the $100-billion pornography industry is fuelling the appetite for children as well. Teenage girls now make up the biggest slice of viewable porn.

MIM editor’s note: “Teen porn” is promoted on countless hardcore adult pornographic sites with web links provocatively entitled: “Cheerleader,” “School girls,” “Forced teens,” “Petite Teen Girls,” “Hot teens,” “Raped schoolgirls,” “Teen Porn,” “The hottest teen girls from your city...” “Barely legal teens...” “Only Teen Sex,” “Watch innocent teens scream...” “Tamed teens,” “Teens in hardcore action,” “Teens for cash,”  “Extreme Teen Sex,”  “Teen girls getting ABUSED,”  “Teen Gang Banged,” and “Schoolgirls lift their skirts.”

T.M. Vaughn, "House raided, 5 arrested in prostitution case, Daily Press (Newport News, VA), 11/26/08:

James City police and other law officers raided a home...last Friday, making several arrests in connection with a prostitution ring officials believe was tied to a similar operation in Newport News...Police found condoms and sexual lubricants at the home, Spearman [a spokesman for James City Police Dept.] said.  He said they also observed pornography videos being played in a waiting area.  Spearman said officials believe the women were likely being brought across state lines to work as prostitutes.  The raid resulted in charges against 5 people, who police believe were illegally working in the country...  [italics added]

J.S. Crouse, Ph.D., "Pornography and sex trafficking," Statement at National Press Club, 5/19/08, available at www.cwfa.org/content.asp?id=15208:

So it is with...pornography. The johns watch porn, seeing violent and aberrant behaviors on film, then they crave the realization of what they have seen. Those obsessions drive them to the prostituted women and girls to get what they have seen depicted so graphically.

J.W. Kennedy, “Help for the sexually desperate,” Christianity Today, Mar. 2008, available at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/march/18.28.html]:

Viewing pornography is nearly always accompanied by masturbation...Some men never move past this stage...Others progress rapidly to increasingly exotic, perverse, and even illegal sexual behavior: exhibitionism, voyeurism, strip clubs, lap dances, massage parlors, adultery, prostitution, homosexual liaisons, rape, incest, bestiality, or child molestation—anything to feed the craving.  "A major factor in progression is what a guy fantasizes about during sexual release," [Doug] Weiss [executive director of Heart to Heart Counseling Center in Colorado Springs] says. "If a guy masturbates to something it would take a prostitute to do, he's more likely to find one."

 

Testimony of Mary Anne Layden, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Subcommittee on Science and Space, U.S. Senate, Hearing on “The brain science behind pornography addiction,” 11/18/04, available at Subcommittee website:

 

Pornography, by its very nature, is an equal opportunity toxin... The damage is both in the area of beliefs and behaviors.  The belief damage may include Pornography Distortion [and] Permission-Giving Beliefs...Pornography Distortion would include beliefs such as “Sex is not about intimacy, procreation or marriage. Sex is about predatory self-gratification...” ...Permission-Giving Beliefs are a set of beliefs that imply that my behavior is normal, acceptable, common and/or that my behavior doesn’t hurt anyone...In all types of violence and addiction, Permission-Giving Beliefs are involved. Examples would include “All men go to prostitutes”... The consequences of all these distorted beliefs are varied. For the viewer, pornography increases the likelihood of sexual addiction.  Those who use pornography have also been shown to be more likely to engage in illegal behavior as well. Research indicates (and my clinical experience supports this) that those who use pornography are more likely to go to prostitutes...

Statement of Janice G. Raymond, Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities, European Parliament, 1/19/04, Hearing on “The Impact of the Sex Industry in the E.U,” available at http://action.web.ca/home/catw/readingroom.shtml?x=53795:

The sex industry thrives on renaming its sexual exploitation as “sex.” Pornography is called “erotica” or “adult videos;” prostitution is renamed as “sex work” or “sexual services;” pimps are now called “third party business managers” or “erotic entrepreneurs;” and lap dancing or sex clubs are called “gentlemen’s entertainment”... In the U.S., people (mostly men) spend more on pornography every year than they do on movie tickets and all the performing arts combined...The sex industry plays on the ever more transgressive nature of the pornographic content, mainstreaming what in former times would only have been found in seedy, marginal, pornographic emporiums...For many men, however, pornography is not enough. They want to enact the fantasies, the transgressions and ultimately the degradation and violence of pornography with live women.  And the place to do this is in prostitution...

V. Geberth (a retired NYPD Lieutenant Commander of the Bronx homicide squad): Sex-Related Homicide and Death Investigation, CRC Press (2003):

In many cases, the offenders use their girlfriends or prostitutes to act out their sadistic fantasies…This case involved a serial killer who was killing prostitutes…Once he completed the sex act, he stripped and tortured them for hours…The significance of fantasy in this case was graphically revealed when…detectives went to the killer’s home and retrieved a number of items, including one pornographic videotape…This videotape contained a number of scenes that were similar to what the offender was doing to his victims.  The breast assault and paddling activities appeared to be based upon this sadomasochistic videotape, which seemingly fueled his increasingly sadistic activities.

MIM editor's note: In his monograph, “Pornography’s Effects on Adults & Children” (Morality in Media, 2001), Dr. Victor B. Cline states that “a study by FBI researchers of 36 serial killers revealed that 29 were attracted to pornography and incorporated it into their sexual activity, which included serial rape-murder.”

Dr. Victor B. Cline, “Pornography’s Effects on Adults and Children” (Morality in Media, 2001), available at www.moralityinmedia.org (Pornography Effects):

As a clinical psychologist, I have treated…approximately 350 sex addicts, sex offenders, or other individuals (96% male) with sexual illnesses. This includes…compulsive sexual acting-out, plus such things as child molestation, exhibitionism, voyeurism, sadomasochism, fetishism, and rape. With several exceptions, pornography has been a major or minor contributor or facilitator in the acquisition of their deviation or sexual addiction…

FIRST STEP – ADDICTION
The first change that happened was an addiction-effect. The porn-consumers got hooked. Once involved in pornographic materials, they kept coming back for more and still more. The material seemed to provide a very powerful sexual stimulant or aphrodisiac effect, followed by sexual release, most often through masturbation…It is difficult for non-addicts to comprehend the totally driven nature of a sex addict. When the "wave" hits them, nothing can stand in the way of getting what they want, whether that be pornography accompanied by masturbation, sex from a prostitute, molesting a child, or raping a woman. These men are consumed by their appetite, regardless of the cost...

SECOND STEP - ESCALATION
The second phase was an escalation-effect. With the passage of time, the addicted person required rougher, more explicit, more deviant, and “kinky” kinds of sexual material to get their “highs” and “sexual turn-ons.”  It was reminiscent of individuals afflicted with drug addictions...[T]here is nearly always an increasing need for more of the stimulant...

THIRD PHASE - DESENSITIZATION
The third phase was desensitization.  Material…which was originally perceived as shocking, taboo-breaking, illegal, repulsive, or immoral, in time came to be seen as acceptable and commonplace. The sexual activity depicted in the pornography (no matter how anti-social or deviant) became legitimized. There was an increasing sense that “everybody does it” and this gave them permission to also do it, even though the activity was possibly illegal and contrary to their previous moral beliefs and personal standards…

FOURTH PHASE - ACTING OUT SEXUALLY
The fourth phase was an increasing tendency to act out sexually the behaviors viewed in the pornography, including compulsive promiscuity, exhibitionism, group sex, voyeurism, frequenting massage parlors, having sex with minor children, rape, and inflicting pain on themselves or a partner during sex. This behavior frequently grew into a sexual addiction which they found themselves locked into and unable to change or reverse... 

P. Carnes, Don’t call it love, Bantam Books, 1992:

A classic trait of addiction is that the addict will require more and more of the substance or activity in order to maintain the same level of emotional relief...The experience of Steve illustrates this classic pattern:

When I left home and went into the Navy, what was a normal pattern of masturbation with soft-core pornography became escalated into a pattern of sex shops and bookstores where I could see hardcore pornography.  I began to also to use prostitutes...I would much rather have spent fifty or so bucks on sex than getting myself decent clothes...

Steve married in his late twenties.  He hoped marriage would be a solution to his problem.   Within months, however, it became worse in terms of both pornography and prostitution.

M. Corwin, “Life on the Street: New wave of prostitution with more violence is overwhelming Los Angeles authorities,” L.A. Times, 12/8/85:

In a small banquet room…about 30 madams and call girls gathered to discuss a significant change in their business...[A] North Hollywood madam told the women that a number of customers had asked her to procure 12- or 13-year-old girls. And more customers, she said, were beating, torturing and even killing out-call prostitutes...Most madams refused to accommodate the more violent customers and would not supply the young girls, [Name omitted] said.  But because the customers were willing to pay so much more, a few madams complied…This new wave of prostitution is overwhelming Los Angeles law enforcement agencies, officials say…An increasing number of customers are requesting violent or kinky sexual services and seeking younger girls, prostitutes and call girls say...The sexual revolution has contributed to the change prostitutes have seen, said Dr. Michael Grinberg, a psychiatrist, sex therapist and chairman for the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex…There are several possible reasons for the change, Grinberg said. Our society is more violent now than in the past. Pornography is more graphic and readily available and some of the behavior displayed “can become incorporated in one's sexual fantasies.”

B.  What prostituted women say

S. White, "Prostitute tells of surviving 'Crossbow Cannibal,'" BBC News, 12/21/10:

Lisa Thompson says Stephen Griffiths – who has pleaded guilty to murdering three sex workers in Bradford – showed her violent internet pornography of women being attacked...Although Griffiths pulled Lisa's hair and pinned her on the bed, leaving bruises, she wasn't concerned for her safety until two months before his arrest. It was then that he started to show her even more violent internet pornography. "I was shocked, I actually threw up," she says. "He was getting a kick out of it."  Lisa says that Griffiths then got violent, and she wanted to leave his flat.   "I was trying to get out of his flat, it got a bit forceful. He had his hands around my neck.  Luckily, I managed to get away...”

M. Zelinka, “Women are victims of prostitution,” www.gazettetimes.com (Oregon), 4/7/08:

Prostitution in its many guises – including stripping, lap dancing and pornography – is on the increase... At the Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence, serving Linn and Benton counties, most women we work with say their abusers are heavily into pornography...

M. Farley, “Renting an Organ for Ten Minutes: What Tricks Tell Us About Prostitution, Pornography, and Trafficking,” in Pornography: Driving the Demand in International Sex Trafficking 145 (D.E. Guinn & J. DiCaro, Esq. eds., 2007):

Interviews with 854 women in prostitution in 9 countries…made it clear that pornography is integral to prostitution.  In 9 countries, almost half (49%) told us that pornography was made of them while they were in prostitution.  Forty-seven percent of our respondents were upset by tricks’ attempts to make them do what the tricks had previously seen in pornography.

“When women are trafficked: Quantifying the gendered experience of trafficking in the UK,” Poppy Project, April 2004, available at www.eaves4women.co/uk:

Although asking questions about pornography has not ever been part of our key working procedures, nine women have incidentally disclosed unwanted exposure to pornography as part of the trafficking process (35%).  Of these nine women, two were shown pornography to ‘groom’ them into prostitution; two women had photographs taken of them by traffickers/pimps while naked, in one case while a gang rape was taking place; and two men worked in flats where pornography was constantly available to men buying sex.   A further two women’s traffickers watched pornography regularly.   Both of these women were repeatedly raped by these two men...These figures are very high, particular when the fact that we do not routinely screen for unwanted exposure to pornography is considered.

M. Farley and V. Kelly, “Prostitution: A Critical Review of the Medical and Social Sciences Literature,” Women and Criminal Justice, 11(4): 29-64 (2000):

Women in prostitution have described pornography’s role in their being coerced by pimps or customers to enact specific scenes… Customers show women pornography to illustrate what they want…32% of 130 people in one study had been upset by an attempt to coerce them into performing what customers had seen in pornography.

“A facilitator's guide to Prostitution: a matter of violence against women,” WHISPER [“Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt,”}, Minneapolis, 1990, available at http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/factsheet.html]:

Eighty percent of prostitution survivors at the WHISPER Oral History Project reported that their customers showed them pornography to illustrate the kinds of sexual activities in which they wanted to engage in…Fifty-two percent of the women stated that pornography played a significant role in teaching them what was expected of them as prostitutes.  Thirty percent reported that their pimps regularly exposed them to pornography in order to indoctrinate them into an acceptance of the practices depicted.

M. Silbert and A. Pines, “Pornography and Sexual Abuse of Women,” Sex Roles, 10:857-868 (1984):

The present study…was aimed at studying sexual abuse of street prostitutes both prior to and following entrance into prostitution.  Yet,…unexpected information emerged, important information…Such was the case in the present study with regard to the relationship between sexual abuse and pornography…Two-hundred juvenile and adult, current and former, women street prostitutes in the San Francisco Bay area participated in the study…The study generated an enormous amount of data…documenting stunning amounts of sexual abuse of street prostitutes as part of their job, outside their work environment and in their childhood prior to entering prostitution.  Many of the open descriptions of these sexual assaults made reference to the role played by pornography.  These references were unsolicited by interviewers…Out of the 193 cases of rape, 24% mentioned allusions to pornographic material on the part of the rapist.  This is even more significant when it is understood that these comments were made by respondents without any solicitation or reference to the issue of pornography by the Interviewer.  The comments followed the same pattern: the assailant referred to pornographic materials he had seen or read and then insisted that the victims not only enjoyed rape but also extreme violence.

Statement of Sue Santa, Minneapolis City Council, December 1983, published in “The Minneapolis Hearings, December 12-13, 1983"; in Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin Eds., In Harm's way: The pornography Civil Rights Hearings; 1997:

I work with a local nonprofit private organization in Minneapolis called Minneapolis Youth Division. My position there is outreach worker working exclusively with adolescent females involved in prostitution. Over the course of the years, 6 years that I have been there, I noticed a direct correlation between pornography and prostitution with my clients... In addition, out on the street when a young woman is plying her trade, as it were, many of her tricks or customers will come up to her with little pieces of paper, pictures that were torn from a magazine and say: I want this. As one client put it, it is like a mail order catalogue of sex acts, and that is what she is expected to perform...

C.  What ‘johns’ say

V. Malarek, The Johns: Sex for sale and the men who buy it (Arcade Publishing, 2009):

Porn and johns go hand in hand.  Porn is often what turns the men on, revs up their sex drive, and sends them out into the night…  [At 193]  The Internet is rife with postings by johns admitting addiction to or love for porn…For Bull Rider, “porn and mongering go together like peas and carrots.  Many times…I start out watching porn; next thing I know I am in my car looking for the real thing”…A john called The Man says he only watches porn when he’s planning an encounter.  “I watch the positions; find a girl who looks like one of the performers and make porn the build up to the…party.”  [194-195]  And the john’s interest is not lost on those hoping to sell their services.  Ads placed by “call girls”…tempt prospective johns with promises of the “PSE” – porn-star experience.  The message is clear: if prostitution is the main act, porn is the dress rehearsal.  [195-196]  

M. Farley, J. Bindel & J.M. Golding, “Men who buy sex: Who they buy and what they know,” Eaves (London), 2009, available at www.eaves4women.co/uk:

Fifty-eight percent of these London men used pornographic film and/or videos at least once a month.  Fifty-one percent used Internet pornography once a month or more often...Thirty-two percent...used pornography in magazine form once a month or more often.  Twenty-four percent of the men frequented ‘sex shops’ once a month or more often...One man explained the impact of pornography on his sexual behavior, generally: “The more I’ve watched pornography, the more specific my wants have become.  Watching pornography has also shaped my sexual desires.  I watch pornography and I discover, ‘hey, that really turns me on’ and I want to recreate what I’ve seen in porn.”

J. Macleod, M. Farley, L. Anderson and J.M. Golding, “Challenging Men’s Demand for Prostitution in Scotland,” Women’s Support Project, April 2008, available at http://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk]:

We found a statistically significant association between these punters’ [johns’] pornography use and the frequency of their use of women in prostitution.  We compared men who were high frequency users of prostitutes (once a month or more) to those who were low frequency users (once or twice, ever) with respect to their use of print, video and Internet pornography.  Those who were the most frequent users of pornography were also the most frequent users of women in prostitution.

F. Rohrer, “The men who sleep with prostitutes,” BBC News Magazine, Feb. 22, 2008, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7257623.stm]: 

Having visited prostitutes for 18 months, Pete says he was attracted while surfing on the Internet.  “I’ve been leading up to it; using pornography and looking at various websites.  Rather than being a fantasy it was someone you could have sex with.”

M. Coy, M. Horvath & L. Kelly, “‘It’s just like men going to the supermarket:’ Men buying sex in East London,” CWASU, London Metropolitan University, 2007, available at: http://www.toynbeehall.org.uk:

Once the study was underway, the research team added a question about the use of pornography to the telephone interview schedule.  A total of 85 men answered this question.  Nearly two thirds (62%) reported using pornography, and 47 respondents specified frequency of pornography use.” 

Declaration (4/19/06) filed by Denise Richards in her divorce case against TV actor Charlie Sheen (“Two and a Half Men”), available at www.thesmokinggun.com:

Respondent promised that he would not be with prostitutes; however, he told me that he was not going to give up his...pornography habit and that I had to accept it [p.10]...Respondent came into the house...I told him that I discovered some pornography websites that he belonged to which I found very disturbing...I also discovered that the Respondent belonged to several sex search type sites, which he looked for women to have sex with...When I confronted Respondent with this information, he did not deny it.  I told him that as a mother, I found this information very disturbing because we had two young daughters and that I believed he had a serious problem...Respondent and I spoke...on April 9, 2006...I told [him] that I was very concerned about the children spending the night at his house because of the activities he was involved in with prostitutes...and pornography...I confronted him with information...that he was still having prostitutes at his house.  He did not deny this [p.15]...

M. Monto and N. McRee, “A Comparison of the Male Customers of Female Street Prostitutes With National Samples of Men,” International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 49(5), 505-529 (2005):

Repeat users reported greater participation in all aspects of the sex industry than did non-customers.  They were much more likely to report having purchased sexually explicit magazines or videos, and they were more than twice as likely to have visited nude establishments.

P. Paul, Pornified: How pornography is transforming our lives, our relationships and our families, Henry Holt, 2005:

Miles, the 33-year-old military man...saw his first nudie magazine at 6 and never looked

back.  When he got to the Internet, his tastes shifted to scene depicting humiliation and degradation.  'The specificity online is unbelievable,' Miles says...In addition to soaking in online pornography, Miles frequented strip clubs; soon he was paying escorts to strip for him, and ultimately hired prostitutes.   When he got married, he didn's stop... [p. 225]

Donovan, 55, the former CEO of a large international corporation, was between marriages when he confessed to a friend his frustrations with dating. "Why bother?" the friend advised him.  "Just go online."  He referred Donovan to call girl Web sites.  Over the next couple of years, going online and ordering prostitutes became a weekly endeavor.   On several occasions, he hired prostitutes to have sex with dogs in front of him, having cultivated a taste for bestiality online...  [p. 228]

K. Morrison, “Battling Sexual Addiction,” Dateline, 2/24/04, available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4302347/:

To anyone who knew him, it would have seemed incomprehensible. [Mark] Laaser, a minister and counselor, was married with children and an icon of respect. But that wasn't enough… It was a high Laaser started experiencing at a young age.  When he was 11, he says he discovered pictures – what he'd call soft porn now… Laaser was so fixated by what he saw, he started stealing Playboy magazines from the local drugstore…In high school, Laaser hoped his behavior might stop when he met Debbie, the girl he thought could change him.  “There was a part of myself that she just didn't know because I wasn't revealing it to her or anybody for that matter,” says Laaser. He wasn't revealing that he was now doing more than looking at magazines. He was watching porn videos and masturbating daily.

Debbie, unaware of Mark's double life, trusted him and they got married. Mark hoped that married life would bring an end to a life preoccupied by sex… “All this crazy stuff in the past, that will be over now. I’m getting married. I'll have a regular sexual partner and so forth,” says Laaser. “But I was amazed early on, even in the first year of marriage, that my temptation to masturbate and look at pornography returned rather quickly.”… “I wanted to experience it. I wanted to act it out.  Eventually I had a lot of preoccupation with planning or doing or thinking what it would be like.”  Laaser soon was no longer planning, but doing, paying monthly visits to massage parlors, having sex with so-called “masseuses,” all the while hiding it from his wife Debbie, whom Laaser says he still loved deeply.

Pimps use pornography to desensitize and instruct their victims

AP, “Police investigating sex trafficking in Wichita,” Kansas City Star, 5/24/09:

Wichita police say the cases of teenage girls being forced into sexual slavery are increasing in the city.  Police and social workers…blame the increase on street gangs…The gangs lure the children with food, money, shelter, and romance, police said.  Gang members train their victims in sex acts, often using pornographic movies as ‘training manuals.’”

J. Tomassini, “Hotels target of police sting,” Gaithersburg Gazette, 12/24/08, available at http://www.gazette.net/stories/12242008/montnew114835_32483.shtml, where we read:

Within the binder that [Assistant State’s Attorney] Lynch brought to the December 16 community meeting was a litany of offenses that have occurred at the hotels…Another case outlined the use of the motel by [Defendant], who was convicted of illegal sex trafficking throughout the Metro area in 2006.  [Defendant] used girls as young as 14 to conduct a prostitution ring…[A]ccording to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which prosecuted the case…[Defendant] would drive around the streets surrounding the hotels showing the girls pornographic DVDs in order to illustrate how to perform sex acts…They would then meet men inside the hotel rooms.

J.S. Crouse, Ph.D., "Pornography and sex trafficking," Statement at National Press Club, 5/19/08, available at www.cwfa.org/content.asp?id=15208:

Many pimps and traffickers use pornography to initiate their innocent victims into their new life of sexual slavery. The victims are shown pornographic films, over and over again for days at a time, so that they get hardened to accept the inevitable and learn what is expected of them.  The pattern of behavior is familiar; it follows the teaching technique of "translating image to action." Teachers and coaches instruct the student to intensely visualize a desired outcome, act it out in the mind, and then it will become permanently imprinted on the psyche. With that technique, the teachers say, visualization leads to realization...

“When women are trafficked: Quantifying the gendered experience of trafficking in the UK,” Poppy Project, April 2004, available at www.eaves4women.co/uk:

Although asking questions about pornography has not ever been part of our key working procedures, nine women have incidentally disclosed unwanted exposure to pornography as part of the trafficking process (35%).  Of these nine women, two were shown pornography to ‘groom’ them into prostitution...These figures are very high, particular when the fact that we do not routinely screen for unwanted exposure to pornography is considered.

A. Sanders, “Heartland daughters for sale,” San Francisco Examiner, 5/8/02:

Each year in the United States 400,000 children are lured or forced into prostitution, according to a Justice Department report…Pimps are masters at psychological control who can smell attention-starved teens states away. They often pretend to be a young girl's boyfriend, using her romantic devotion to put her on the streets…To desensitize the girls to street life, pimps expose them to increasing amounts of pornography and violence.

“A facilitator's guide to Prostitution: a matter of violence against women,” WHISPER [“Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt,”}, Minneapolis, 1990, available at http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/factsheet.html]:

Eighty percent of prostitution survivors at the WHISPER Oral History Project reported that their customers showed them pornography to illustrate the kinds of sexual activities in which they wanted to engage in…Fifty-two percent of the women stated that pornography played a significant role in teaching them what was expected of them as prostitutes.  Thirty percent reported that their pimps regularly exposed them to pornography in order to indoctrinate them into an acceptance of the practices depicted.

Statement of Sue Santa, Minneapolis City Council, December 1983, published in “The Minneapolis Hearings, December 12-13, 1983"; in Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin Eds., In Harm's way: The pornography Civil Rights Hearings; 1997:

I work with a local nonprofit private organization in Minneapolis called Minneapolis Youth Division. My position there is outreach worker working exclusively with adolescent females involved in prostitution. Over the course of the years, 6 years that I have been there, I noticed a direct correlation between pornography and prostitution with my clients...For some young women, that means they are shown pornography--either films, videotapes, or pictures--as, this is how you do it, almost as a training manual in how to perform acts of prostitution... [Chairman Van White asked her: "Excuse me. You are saying they are pimps training them with those kinds of messages?"] [She answered:] That is correct...

Women are trafficked into the production of hardcore pornography

R. Peters, Presentation at “Free the Captives: Houston Human Trafficking Conference,” 2/26/11, available at www.moralityinmedia.org [Prostitution (trafficking) page]:

In June 2002, Morality in Media launched the www.obscenitycrimes.org tip line to enable citizens to make complaints about possible violations of federal Internet obscenity laws.  In 2002, MIM also retained the services of two retired law enforcement agents to follow up on complaints and to prepare detailed written investigative reports of what they observe on websites.  The complaints and the investigative reports are forwarded to the U.S. Justice Department in Washington and to local U.S. Attorney Offices.  Over the years, I have read most of the investigative reports that the two retired agents have prepared.   The degrading, perverse and violent sexual conduct depicted on some of these websites is so horrific that it defies the imagination that the women voluntarily consented to participate for pay.

D.M. Hughes, "Sex trafficking of women for the production of pornography," Citizens Against Trafficking, 7/1/10, available at www.citizensaginsttrafficking.org:

Women used in the production of commercial pornography in the U.S. are often subjected to violence and coercion during filming.  Often they protest and try to stop the filming or back out before filming begins.  Their protests are ignored, or they are pressured by their agent or the director to continue.  Their experiences of coercion or trickery often meet the criteria for sex trafficking...Since the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, almost all federal trafficking cases have involved prostitution.  The use of adult victims in the production of pornography has not been investigated.  I believe that this is an area that needs much more attention by activists and law enforcement...

MIM editor’s note: On college campuses, if a young man doesn’t stop when a young woman tells him to, it’s called rape.   In the production of hardcore adult pornography, if a man doesn’t stop when a female “performer” tells him to, it’s called “adult entertainment.”

United States v. Marcus, 628 F.3d 36, at 39-40 (2^nd Cir. 2010):

From October 1998 through approximately June 1999, Marcus and the complaining witness, Jodi...engaged in a consensual relationship that involved bondage, dominance/discipline, submission/sadism, and masochism ("BDSM")... This included being considered Marcus's "slaves" and being subjected to various physical and sexual "punishments." At Marcus's direction, Joanna maintained a membership BDSM website called "Subspace," which contained pictures of Jodi and other women participating in BDSM activities and fantasy diary entries written about these activities...By October 1999, the nature of this arrangement changed. Because Jodi refused to recruit her younger sister to become one of Marcus's "slaves," Marcus inflicted upon Jodi a "punishment" that was the most physically severe that she had experienced to date. Jodi testified that she cried throughout the incident and that thereafter her relationship with Marcus became nonconsensual...In January 2000, Marcus instructed Jodi to move to New York...Jodi testified that upon her move to New York, Marcus directed her to create and maintain a new commercial BDSM website called "Slavespace"...Marcus received all revenues from the website...Marcus created and fueled Jodi's fear by physically and sexually "punishing" her when he was unhappy with her work on the website...These punishments were photographed, and the pictures were posted on Slavespace... Although Jodi's relationship with Marcus had become nonconsensual, she remained with Marcus out of fear of his reaction if she left. Specifically, at one point, when Jodi told Marcus that she was unhappy and could not continue with the arrangement, Marcus threatened to send pictures of Jodi to her family and the media.

United States v. Bagley, et al., INDICTMENT, U.S. District Court, W. Dist. of MO, 9/7/10:

The Grand Jury charges that: Count One (Conspiracy)...C.  Manner and Means...

Defendant Edward Bagley, Sr. (Defendant 1) advertised and publicized FV[the victim] over the internet and in live cam sessions as his slave who would engage in sexual acts and could be tortured during live online sessions, or in person...Defendants 2-5 [names omitted here] provided Defendant 1 with benefits and things of value including, but not limited to cash...sadomasochistic videos...Defendant 1 accepted the benefits and things of value and coerced FV to engage in sexual acts and torture sessions with Defendants 2-5...Defendant 2-5 engaged in sexual acts with FV, including sexual torture...D.  Overt Acts...Defendant 1invited FV, a 16-year-old minor, who grew up in foster care homes, into his residence after she ran away from home and promised her a great life...Defendant 1 showed FV, while she was still a minor, images of pornography and sadomasochistic activities on the internet and TV...Defendant 1 had FV sign a ‘sexual slavery contract..., shortly after her 18^th birthday and instructed FV that the contract legally bound her to him as his ‘sex slave’...Defendant 1 performed the following sexual acts, mutilation and torture, any one of which constitute an overt act...Defendant 1 tortured FV on live web cam over the internet...Defendants 2-5 communicated with Defendant 1...regarding sexual and torture activities involving FV...Defendant 3 tied FV up, strapped her to a wooden pony, whipped her...Defendants 1 & 3 transported FV...to Calif. with the intent that FV perform sexual acts during a photo shoot.

MIM edtior's note: According to an AP article (B. Draper, “Questions about accuser surround sex slave case,” www.msnbc.com, 10/23/10), FV also “appeared on the cover of the July 2007 issue of Taboo, a publication owned by Larry Flynt's Hustler Magazine Group, and was the subject of a story and multipage photo spread inside.”

A.B. Williams, "Man said to enslave girl, 15," News-Press (Ft. Myers, FL), 3/4/10:

An Immokalee man is charged with enslaving a Guatemalan girl and forcing her into a multistate ordeal of rape, beatings, field work and pornographic films...The girl's nightmare began in 2007 in Guatemala, she told Collier County sheriff's Detective Charlie Frost, who works in the human trafficking unit...The following month, they returned to Florida and Domingo took her to a house...where there were five other girls from Mexico and Guatemala between the ages of about 13 and 17, though she wasn't allowed to speak to them. The house was equipped as a makeshift pornography studio. The girl was photographed naked and videotaped having sex with Domingo and other men. When she protested, she was hit with a belt or slapped in the face, the report says.  For several months, Domingo shuttled her between [houses]....where she was filmed and forced to speak scripted lines.

Expatica News, 1/27/05, available at http://www.expatica.com/be/news/local_news/men-sentenced-for-rape-and-animal-porn-horror-16282.html#:

A Dutch court has imposed sentences...on four people found guilty of kidnapping asylum seekers and forcing them to take part in pornography.  During the trial, the prosecutor claimed the three North African victims escaped a brutal death in which they would have been disfigured and murdered for a "snuff" film...The three men were arrested...after the asylum seekers were kidnapped and forced to have sex with men and animals in a farm shed. The sex acts were filmed.

P. Landesman, “The Girls Next Door,” N.Y. Times Magazine, 1/25/04:  

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the Cyber Crimes Center in Fairfax, Va., are finding that when it comes to sex, what was once considered abnormal is now the norm. They are tracking a clear spike in the demand for harder-core pornography on the Internet. "We've become desensitized by the soft stuff; now we need a harder and harder hit," says I.C.E. Special Agent Perry Woo. Cybernetworks like KaZaA and Morpheus -- through which you can download and trade images and videos -- have become the Mexican border of virtual sexual exploitation.  I had heard of one Web site that supposedly offered sex slaves for purchase to individuals. The I.C.E. agents hadn't heard of it. Special Agent Don Daufenbach, I.C.E.'s manager for undercover operations, brought it up on a screen. A hush came over the room as the agents leaned forward, clearly disturbed. "That sure looks like the real thing," Daufenbach said. There were streams of Web pages of thumbnail images of young women of every ethnicity in obvious distress, bound, gagged, contorted. The agents in the room pointed out probable injuries from torture.  Cyberauctions for some of the women were in progress..."With new Internet technology," Woo said, "pornography is becoming more pervasive. With Web cams we're seeing more live molestation of children."

‘Porn stars’ as prostitutes 

A.  ‘Porn stars’ who engage in prostitution through agents & escort services

S. Lubben, “Prostitution in the ‘adult entertainment industry,” 3/14/11 (see also, “Truth behind the fantasy of porn,” available at www.shelleylubben.com):

Pornographic performers also engage in prostitution through their agents or online escort agencies such as [Names omitted here] where they risk physical abuse or death and spread sexually transmitted diseases to clients.  Surprisingly, porn performers usually prefer escorting because the pay is much higher and sex acts are usually not as degrading or physically demanding. They receive approximately $100 an hour for working in pornographic films...or they can be paid approximately $1500 an hour for “escorting,” also known as prostitution. Porn star prostitutes get paid higher than other prostitutes due to their celebrity status and can book 2-3 hour appointments and make approximately $3000 a day.  While I was a pornographic performer in 1993-94 I was flown to different parts of the United States by porn companies where consumers of pornography paid me thousands of dollars to spend a weekend with them where we engaged in unprotected sex...

J. Molloy, “Pay to play is just one more amenity at posh hotels,” N.Y. Daily News, 10/29/10:

Charlie Sheen's sexcapade with a naked porn star in The Plaza hotel shone a light on the naughty hookups that go on...in some of New York City's premier hotels... Most paid sex dates don't just happen, though. They are arranged by escort services with fancy names and websites featuring pouting, nearly naked women..."Regular girls go for $500 an hour," said the former madam [Heidi Fleiss]. "We booked porn stars for $2,000 to $3,500 an hour."  A rep from [Name omitted], the top agency representing porn actresses, says most "high-priced escorts are usually also porn stars, models, or actresses working UTR - under the radar.  The girls...may do a three-day 'tour' in Manhattan, seeing anywhere from one to six guys in one day.   They can pull in anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 a day.”

T. Zambito, "2 plead guilty in 13M prostitution ring," N.Y. Daily News, 1/7/06:

A MAN AND his girlfriend have pleaded guilty to raking in $13.5 million over the last four years from a prostitution ring that promised porn stars as escorts, Manhattan federal prosecutors said yesterday.  [The two Defendants] pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges...Federal prosecutors say that from 2000 to 2004, the operation advertised New York Elites and Exotica 2000 as escort services on the Internet. "In reality, however, the service offered...was simply sex in exchange for money," said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia.  The ring's Web site touted popular adult film stars as escorts for $500 to $1,500 an hour. It also promised to send escorts for trips outside New York.

Editorial by Mark Kernes, "Pros & Cons," Adult Video News (AVN), August 1999:

Dennis [Hoff] owns three brothels in...Nevada...Dennis has long been interested in

increasing his business, and he figured that networking with other areas of adult entertainment would be the way to do it.  His first foray was opening his Madam Kitty's Cathouse for Arrow Productions [a producer of hardore adult pornography] to shoot a feature there with Dennis's ladies and some porn studs from L.A...Then along came Sunset Thomas.  Sunset is a...veteran of about 150 XXX titles...Both she and her husband/manager Zack have always been open to new possibilities in adult entertainment...[O]ne of those possiblities led to Sunset spending a couple of weeks at Hoff's Moonlight Bunnyranch, sexually satisfying pretty much anyone willing to pay the...freight.  And to guarantee a fruitful stay, she and Hoff took out an ad in AVN to let all her fans know where she was going to be and what she was going to be doing.  It's the Porn-Star-As-Prostitute, Take Two. And while it may be too early to say that the 'floodgates' have opened, Hoff's July ad included such familiar past and present porn names, as [Names omitted here]...Not all, of course, appeared there that month...So why do it?  Numerous explanations come to mind.  For one, while talent pool numbers are up, video sales appear to be down...and too much of what is currently being released are compilations, which pay no scene rates at all...And then there is the philosophical answer.  Prostitution is, in a sense, the ultimate sexual liberation... Historically, prostitutes have periodically enjoyed high status, from the temple courtesans of ancient Greece...There's nothing to say porn performers can't also be prostitutes...

B.  Production of hardcore adult pornography as prostitution

V. Malarek, The Johns: Sex for sale and the men who buy it (Arcade Publishing, 2009):

[P]orn addicts may want to sit in the director’s chair themselves, but most will never have the opportunity...What’s their solution?  Web cams.  A new breed of johns – cyberjohns...

seeking out Web sites that let them create XXX from afar.  They sit alone…and order up a woman…They order the woman to perform sex acts, in real time...[A]s for the women in front of the cameras...[m]any are from impoverished regions of the world...So what is this phenomenon?...Without a doubt, it is an extension of prostitution.  These men are paying to use women for their own sexual pleasure and perversion.  The women may or may not be willing participants, but the preponderance of Eastern European and Asian women – typical targets of traffickers – should set off alarms...Cyberprostitution – if it needs a name – is just as harmful as the traditional kind, and any man who orders up these women online is just as much a john as the ones prowling the streets or scurrying into brothels.  [pp. 202-204]

"Pornography is prostitution for mass consumption" (Interview with Lisa Thompson, Salvation Army liaison for the Abolition of Sexual Trafficking), www.citizenlink.com, 5/08:

Citizen: As Melissa Farley says, why is it not prostitution just because there’s a camera in the room?  Thompson: Exactly. The primary difference between pornography and buying prostitution in person is the vehicle by which you are consuming that sex act...With one-on-one exchanges, the people who are exchanging the sex acts are right there in person, doing it with each other.  But pornography is prostitution for mass consumption.  I didn’t invent that, but I’m happy to repeat it.  Commercial sex acts are involved, somebody’s receiving something of value for that sex act – so, how is that not prostitution?  People who are sitting at home looking at [their] pornography magazine might as well think of [themselves] as a buyer, as a john. I don’t like using the term ‘john’ because I think it’s too normalizing of the behavior that these men are engaging in...I like to call them ‘sex exploiters.’

D.M. Hughes, "Welcome to the Rape Camp” (Sexual Exploitation and the Internet in Cambodia), Journal of Sexual Aggression, 2000:  

In October 1999, an American living in Cambodia announced that he was adding a live bondage sex show to his Internet site...His pornography web site, “Rape Camp,” featured “Asian sex slaves” who were used for “bondage, discipline and humiliation.” The women on the web site were blindfolded, gagged and/or bound with ropes while being used in sex acts...Viewers were encouraged to “humiliate these Asian sex slaves to your hearts content”...Expanded service was to feature live interactive Internet transmission of bondage sex shows from Cambodia with pay-per-view access in which customers could relay requests for torture that would be fulfilled within seconds... His web site also promoted prostitution tourism to men visiting Cambodia...He rationalized his “Rape Camp” by saying, “They’re selling these women anyway in prostitute houses...”  The broadcasting of the “Rape Camp” by live videoconferencing or live video chat is a high tech niche in the online sex industry market. This technology enables live person-to-person video and audio transmission...Viewers...can either watch the broadcast without interacting or communicate and even direct the sex shows...Live videoconferencing brought about the electronic merger of pornography and prostitution to create online prostitution...

MIM editor’s note:  According to the article, the Cambodian Minister of Women’s Affairs called for the American “to be charged with violating a Cambodian law prohibiting sexual exploitation and trafficking of women.”  He was arrested but “escaped prosecution for trafficking and sexual exploitation charges through assistance from the U.S. embassy.”

People v. Kovner, 409 N.Y. S. 2nd 349 (S. Ct. N.Y. Co. 1978):

The defendant...is charged with two counts of promoting prostitution in the second degree and nine counts of obscenity in the first degree. These charges arise out of the production, wholesale promotion and sale of several films which depict explicit sexual conduct (i.e., intercourse and sodomy)...Section 230 of the Penal Law defines prostitution as follows:  "A person is guilty of prostitution when such a person engages or agrees or offers to engage in sexual conduct with another person in return for a fee."...Essentially, the defendant contends that the production of motion pictures is constitutionally protected...and that the receipt of money by actors and actresses for the express purpose of participating in such films and engaging in filmed sexual conduct, cannot constitute prostitution within the meaning of Section 230.  This court disagrees...Neither the statute itself..., nor any decisions interpreting it, exclude explicit sexual conduct by a paid performer from the definition of prostitution. That the fee paid for the sexual activity was provided by a nonparticipant or that the defendant's object was to photograph the activity creates no legal distinction...As noted in People v Fixler...: "The fact that a motion picture of an actual murder, rape or robbery in progress may be exhibited as a news film or a full length movie without violating the law does not mean that one could with impunity hire another to commit such a crime simply because the primary motivation was to capture the crime on film."

MIM editor’s note: The courts are divided on the question of whether prostitution laws can be enforced against those involved in the production of hardcore adult pornography.  The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the matter.  In the landmark 1973 obscenity case, Miller v. California (413 U.S. 15, 20), the Supreme Court noted:

The material we are discussing in this case is more accurately defined as "pornography" or "pornographic material."  “Pornography” derives from the Greek (porne, harlot, and graphos, writing).  The word now means "1: a description of prostitutes or prostitution..." Webster’s Third International Dictionary [Unabridged 1969].