Obscenity Law

Description

Obscenity laws are regulations that can be used to determine whether subject matter is inappropriate and whether it should be removed or subject to strict circulation rules. Obscenity Laws have led to many pieces of literature being confiscated, burned, or banned altogether in regions of the world. These laws were established through three different Supreme Court cases that determined certain topics, like pornography, are not protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

The term "obscene" is nuanced. Each person has a different opinion on what is considered obscene. For the most part, obscene is defined as something disturbing, extremely graphic, or violent. Courts choose whether a book can be banned under the Obscenity Laws, so the decision can be changed depending on the personal opinions of the jury or how invested the community is in the literature. While the Miller Test acts as a basic guideline, it is used in the context of the current contemporary community standards, so the status of the literature can change with the community.

Standards

One community will have different values compared to a neighboring area. This is why literature can be banned in one nation and welcomed openly in another. Typically, there are four regions with community standards: Urban, Conservative, Rural, and Liberal. These are the most common kinds of communities, but an area can fall outside these categories or decide against their norms.

An urban area will focus on artistic and cultural diversity, allowing more acceptance for explicit content. Conservative areas are restrictive and focus on moral and social norms. Rural communities lean on the conservative side, with an emphasis on social norms and traditional values. A liberal community will focus on artistic expression and personal freedoms, making it more permissive towards explicit content.

Pros of the Obscenity Law

The Obscenity Law protects vulnerable groups like children from being exposed to inappropriate material that could affect their physical and mental well-being. Having strict rules about what can and cannot be published based on the community is a way to uphold the morals and values of that community.

Cons of the Obscenity Law

Since the community can decide whether literature falls under the obscene category, many books or pieces of literature can be wrongly banned due to prejudice against the themes or the author of the literature.

Cases

The Roth v. United States case of 1957 led to the Roth test, which was the predecessor of the Miller Test. The Roth test established that a work was obscene if its dominant theme correlated to prurient interest, and if the contemporary community agreed on it. Prurient interest would be any work with an inappropriate or excessive amount of sexual content. The community had the final say on whether something passed or failed the Roth Test.

The 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case Miller v. California was a turning point for deciding whether or not a piece of literature should be banned. The Courts created the Miller Test to act as a framework for detecting obscenity in literature. This test looks at the literature as a whole and decides if the book has prurient interest, has offensive sexual conduct, and if it lacks scientific, artistic, literary, or political value. This framework creates guidelines for courts and communities to follow when deeming literature too obscene to be publicly distributed. It is still used in the U.S. today.