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Abortion has prevented many children that would have been born into abusive homes from being born in the first place.  As childhood abuse is a major factor in becoming a serial killer, many simply may have been created and subjected to those environments.

In countries with abortion long before the internet, there was still much higher violent crime. There is still the same reduction in violent crime in countries where porn is legal and abortion isn't.
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Leaded gasoline causes serious mental issues in those exposed. The discontinuing of leaded gas may have stopped people with the propensity to become killers from getting the chemical "nudge" they needed to cross the line.

I've never heard this position. I'd need some more materials provided. I don't know that children are spending much time huffing gasoline, and I'm not sure there's much evidence to suggest that serial killers are necessarily gas huffers.

Criminology and forensics is much better than it was before. Getting away with murder isn't as easy these days, and law enforcement agencies share information better than they did in the past. Serial killers still exist, but they are caught before they can become "serial."

I don't think that getting caught would necessarily prevent someone from acting on these impulses. The level of sexual repression they've often suffered is at such a severe level that their impulses often over take their logical consequence assessing part of the brain. All of the known serial killers that I've studied, began with an initial act of explosive impulsivity after a life of sexual repression, followed by a period of trying desperately to recreate that sensation again (the serial part). Porn provides a "release" valve for sexual frustration, that they can open periodically to reduce the likelihood that they would act out of sexual frustration.
You talk about the "net" benefit to society from porn, but do not talk about the negative effects it has. Porn has a few major downsides as it works today. 
First, the porn industry itself sucks. There is a ton of trafficking, even more taking advantage of vulnerable people, and most of the money goes to terrible people. A lot of former pornstars have called out the industry for it's problems, but nothing has really changed. We need a lot of regulations and updated ethical standards for porn production that have not been happening. Second, while porn does cause a needed release for some, it also leads to addiction and negative outcomes in others. People who consume too much porn definitely suffer for this in their personal relationships and social situations. And, on top of that, it can teach some pretty terrible lessons about sex ed and general expectations for sex. 
Now, I'm not going to say that due to all this that porn is bad and should be banned or anything. But I think it is at least enough to say that it's not a "huge net benefit". The benefits you pointed out are real and definitely big, but the weight of the negatives should be acknowledged as well. Porn is complicated, both good and bad, and discussions about it's impact on society need to be kept in that perspective if they want to be productive. >

In reference to your first point: you’re describing issues that happen w most industries as long as it’s possible. The clothing industry is (in a lot of instances) reliant on things like child labor and even people in work camps.
The issue of powerful people taking advantage of others isn’t really specifically an issue with porn, and while I absolutely think it’s something that needs to change, if you set that bar for “bad” as that a giant amount of (if not the majority) of industries are net negatives because people suck and will usually fuck others over for personal success >

While I agree that as currently organized, a lot of business currently sucks, no other industry has such a problem with human trafficking as porn does. Human trafficking is, at least in my opinion, a crime that can be talked about in the same breath as murder and rape in terms of severity. It's basically slavery, and since it involves forcing people into sex work it's also rape. Until we can cleanse porn of that problem, there is no way I can feel comfortable saying the porn industry is comparable to clothes or whatever else. Nor can I say it has a huge net benefit to society. >

I mean my point was that you basically have people in concentration camps forced to make clothing (realize that specific label has a lot of other connotations so I was trying to use other terms)
Now this doesn’t make issues of human trafficking/SA in porn any better, but I do feel like it’s really inconsistent to say they’re not even comparable and just leave it at that >

Okay - so say I concede that point. The terrible things done in service of making our clothes is bad. I certainly do agree with that, child labor and sweat shops are abhorrent. The benefits of getting clothes are still numerous, from modesty to keeping warm to personal expression. So, when we talk about the clothing industry, we should be nuanced and acknowledge both the good and the bad.
Same goes for porn. Just because it has similar problems to other industries does not mean we should sweep it's issues under the rug. We should put greater protections in place for the people making our clothes, and we should put greater protections in place for the people making our porn. Again, I hold that there is no clear net benefit. >

Yeah I’m not trying to convince you there’s an indisputable net positive, I’m just pointing out a smaller issue with what you were saying. I agree that we need a lot more regulations around porn, like we do with tons of other businesses >

Porn is one potential reason that serial killer populations have decreased, but it is not the only one.  The three that spring to mind are:


Abortion has prevented many children that would have been born into abusive homes from being born in the first place.  As childhood abuse is a major factor in becoming a serial killer, many simply may not have been created and subjected to those environments.


Leaded gasoline causes serious mental issues in those exposed.  The discontinuing of leaded gas may have stopped people with the propensity to become killers from getting the chemical "nudge" they needed to cross the line.


Criminology and forensics is much better than it was before.  Getting away with murder isn't as easy these days, and law enforcement agencies share information better than they did in the past.  Serial killers still exist, but they are caught before they can become "serial."


Can you argue that your theory is more valid than any of the three I proposed?