Ariel Castro and addiction to pornography

In the wake of Ariel Castro being sentenced to prison for the next millennium (literally), James D. Conley (an American Roman Catholic bishop) wrote a column of the "what does this represent about the culture" variety in First Things. 

Conley's thesis:

Pornographic addiction is powerful, destructive, and all too typical. Ariel Castro’s addiction is no excuse for his actions, but it points to a deep and sobering reality: Free, anonymous, and ubiquitous access to pornography is quietly transforming American men and American culture.

Are Ariel Castro's crimes the direct or indirect result of contemporary American porn culture? Readers posting in the First Things "comments" section raised a lot of thoughtful and pertinent objections to Conley's analysis. I summarize here and add my own thoughts:

1. Are incidents of sexual assault in fact on the rise, and, if so, in a way that correlates with a rise on the use of pornography? Is it possible that incidents of reported sexual assaults are on the rise (as opposed to the absolute number of sexual assaults), because law enforcement officials and the public have started to turn away from a 'blame the victim' mentality and institutional support for victims of sexual assault has improved?
2. Should we take the assertions of a sociopath at face value? Isn't it rather self-serving for Ariel Castro, like Ted Bundy before him, to blame what he did on pornography?
3. There is no evidence that addiction to pornography, let alone heavy pornography use, prompts people to commit sexual assault. Sexual assault by men against women has been endemic in human history, before the advent of easy-access Internet porn-- just under-reported, explained away, or justified through a blame-the-victim culture. If addiction to porn prompted criminal behavior of the Ariel Castro variety, wouldn't we be hearing more about it? I don't believe professionals who counsel people with addiction to pornography have issued warnings about criminal tendencies spawned by such an addiction. 
4. Is it possible that the causal arrow is the other way? That people who have the desire to commit rape consume pornography because it stokes their desires or fantasies? Put another way, is it possible that use of pornography could be an effect of a person's attitudes towards other people rather than a cause of those attitudes? 
5. Sexual assault and changes in its prevalence over time, if any, are likely not related to a single and easily identifiable variable. So the fact that, in this particular case, Castro claimed or admitted to a pornography addiction does not mean that it is the primary variable affecting his behavior.
6. I don't recall an addiction to pornography being raised in connection with any other recent perpetrators of kidnap-and-enslave-type crimes (Elizabeth Smart's kidnappers, for example). If addiction to pornography is likely to lead to this type of crime, then why do we have only this one case from which to draw a connection? 

Conley's column reveals more about his worldview and that of his intended audience than it does the criminology of rapists who consume pornography. His thesis fits in with the view that sex unbound from married, procreative-centered love is harmful and dangerous and results in the objectification of other people, which (Conley suggests) is a prerequisite for one person to desire the sexual assault of another. Pornography, according to this view, is one facet of a broader deadening of the subjective connections between human beings that are necessary for civilization. The danger pornography presents to society is of a piece with the dangers of contraceptive-based sex, premarital sex, and the right of abortion.

There are, of course, many alternative views of pornography and its social impact. One is that pornography is not harmful per se. Instead, much of pornography socializes young men to objectify women and degrade them because the pornography reflects and reveals traditional gendered attitudes about women-- that their primary value is as vessels for the sexual gratification of men and vessels for child-bearning and child-rearing. 

From this perspective, then, the problem with the bulk of pornography is not that sexual relations are insufficiently bounded, traditional, and hidden. The problem is that a lot of pornography reflects-- and amplifies-- traditional views of women as inferior to men. 

Therefore, the solution to the pornography 'problem' is not to suppress the medium or put sex back in the box of tradition but to socialize young men (in particular) to see women as fully equal creatures who are ends in themselves rather than mere means to achieving a sexual or social goal.

Arial Castro is simply not relevant to the issue. He is only representative of his own depravity. 

Links:

Column in First Things by James D. Conley, STL (August 6, 2013): Ariel Castro's Addiction