Comments: Study reported that the 18–30 year-old group reported the highest mean of deviant sexual fantasy followed by those 31–50, then those 51–76 years of age. Put simply, the age group with the highest rates of porn use (and who grew up using tube sites) report the highest rates of sexual deviant fantasies (rape, fetishism, sex with children). Excerpt from the discussion section suggests that porn use may be the reason:
Additionally, a possible explanation for why those under 30 years of age endorsed more deviant sexual fantasies than those over the age of 30 could be due to increased pornography consumption among younger men. Researchers found that pornography consumption has increased since the 1970s, rising from 45% to 61%, with change over time being the smallest for older age groups for which pornography consumption decreases (Price, Patterson, Regnerus, & Walley, 2016). Additionally, in a study of pornography consumption among 4339 Swedish young adults, less than one third of participants reported viewing deviant sexual pornography of violence, animals and children (Svedin, Åkerman, & Priebe, 2011). Although pornography exposure and usage were not assessed in the current study, those under 30 years in our sample could be viewing more pornography, as well as more deviant forms of pornography, than those over the age of 51 years as pornography usage in young adulthood has become more socially accepted (Carroll et al., 2008).
Tiffany A. Harvey & Elizabeth L. Jeglic
Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, DOI: 10.1080/13218719.2020.1719376
Abstract
Deviant sexual fantasy is identified as a risk factor for sexual offending, yet no study has examined deviant sexual fantasy across the lifespan in nonoffending adult males. To bridge this gap, this study examined the frequencies of normative and deviant sexual fantasies among 318 nonoffending adult males in the United States. Participants were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk™. Participants took two inventories that assessed demographics and types of sexual fantasies. Normality tests, means tests, Kruskal–Wallis 1-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs), binary logistic regressions, and odds ratio post hoc analyses were conducted. Deviant sexual fantasies progressively declined across all three age groups, while normative sexual fantasy did not. Results suggest that deviant sexual fantasy changes across the lifespan. Applicability of the findings to applied settings, such as sexually violent predator evaluations, is discussed. Limitations and future considerations are addressed.
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