Adult Pornography, Male Peer Support, and Violence against Women: The Contribution of the “Dark Side” of the Internet

It is estimated that there are over a million pornographic sites on the Internet, with as many as 10,000 added every week. In addition to having a major financial impact, adult pornography is strongly as- sociated with various types of violence against women, especially sexual assault. Some studies have found that the contribution of pornography to woman abuse in dating, marriage, and during or after separation/divorce is related to male peer support, which refers to the attachments to male peers and the resources they provide that perpetuate and legitimate woman abuse. The main objective of this chap- ter is twofold: (1) to review the extant social scientific research on the relationship between violence against women, male peer support, and adult Internet pornography and (2) to suggest new directions in empirical work on the association between these three social problems.