Obscenity and pornography have long been notoriously difficult to define, but legal scholars such as the British authority William Blackstone (1723–80) have tried to do so. In his Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–70), Blackstone denounces “the sale of immoral pictures and prints” as a “grossly scandalous and public indecency,” noting that “the punishment ‘at common law’ is by fine and imprisonment.” Or, as Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart (1915–85) famously retorted in Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964), “I know it when I see it,” adding that the motion picture involved in this case “is not that.” A billboard in Sioux Falls, S.D., paid for and sponsored by Citizens for Community Values, a Cinncinnati-based group, illustrates the group's attempt to pressure LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation to stop offering pornographic titles through its in-room pay-perview service. [Source: The U.S. Constitution A to Z; Obscenity]
obscenity
psychology of criminal behavior
nonviolent crimes
cross-cultural perspectives
community, culture, and change
legal topics
constitutional issues
social issues
crimes in America
concepts
crime and deviance
media effects