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The commission's conclusions were couched amid careful clauses that only partly tempered the strong attack on pornography: the panel stated that there is a causal link between violent pornography and aggressive behavior toward women. Furthermore, it said that exposure to sexually explicit material that is not violent but nevertheless degrades women -- a category that "constitutes somewhere between the predominant and the overwhelming portion of what is currently standard fare heterosexual pornography" -- bears "some causal relationship to the level of sexual violence." The Meese panel's findings are diametrically opposed to those of the 1970 report of the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, which asserted that pornography was not a significant cause of sexual crime and recommended better sex education in schools. The 1970 analysis, the new report claims, is now "starkly obsolete." Since 1970, according to the Meese panel, pornography that is far more violent and explicit has flooded the market, and this has been accompanied by a commensurate increase in the number of sex crimes.
In addition to being a catalyst for violence, the report said, sexually violent pornography "leads to a greater acceptance of the 'rape myth' in its broader sense -- that women enjoy being coerced into sexual activity, that they enjoy being physically hurt in a sexual context." The commission was less certain about material it labeled nonviolent but "degrading"; such items, it said, foster a similarly lax and accepting attitude toward rape, but do not necessarily arouse violence. A third category, erotica that is neither violent nor degrading, proved to be the most problematic; the commission acknowledged that there was no evidence to suggest it promotes violence, but did say that "none of us think the material in this category, individually or as a class, is in every instance harmless."
Although the panel rejected any efforts to expand the legal definition of obscenity (which the Supreme Court has declared depends partly on the "community standards" of each locality), it did call for the enactment of federal laws to make it easier to seize the assets of those involved in the trade. It also proposed that Congress enact unfair-labor-practice laws to be used against producers who pay performers in pornographic films. The Federal Communications Commission, it said, should restrict pornographic cable television shows and "Dial-a-Porn" telephone services. It also recommended that peep-show booths not be equipped with doors, so that the occupants can be clearly seen, thereby discouraging sexual activity.
The commission placed a special emphasis on the problem of child pornography, which it says has undergone the greatest growth since the 1970 commission. To combat what it calls the rise of the "kiddie-porn industry," the commission proposed that the knowing possession of child pornography be considered a felony.