Snuff porn is violent sexual content that purportedly shows the murder of another person. Snuff porn is a genre of snuff film, which is a type of film showing someone’s murder.
Origins of the Term Snuff Porn
Snuff has long been a term meaning to kill someone in the English language. It’s thought that Ed Sanders was the first one to use the term "snuff film" in his 1971 book, "The Family: The Story of Charles Manson’s Dune Buggy Attack Battalion." In this expose of the Manson family, he wrote about how the Manson family reportedly filmed themselves murdering someone in 1969 and buried the original snuff film in the desert.
It’s unclear when people began using the term snuff porn as a separate genre. However, this term may have originated during the 1980s, when the porn industry began creating snuff-style videos.
Why People Are Interested in Snuff Porn
While snuff porn can seem abhorrent to many, people may be interested in snuff porn because it allows them to imagine being in extreme scenarios they are unlikely to experience in real life. Most people interested in snuff porn imagine themselves as the murderer. However, some get turned on by the idea of being murdered. Some people empathize with the murderer and victim simultaneously. Through watching snuff porn, viewers can see a murder come to life more vividly than it might in their imagination. Watching snuff porn can be a way for people who identify as sadists or masochists to satisfy their kinks. A victim and their murderer also have a dynamic based on extreme submission and dominance that may appeal to people interested in BDSM, especially edgeplay.
“People enjoy snuff porn because there is an adrenaline rush of showing someone getting murdered on camera,” added Dr. Lee Phillips, a psychotherapist and certified sex and couples therapist. “When we become sexually aroused, vasocongestion happens, where we get the swelling of bodily tissues caused by increased vascular blood flow and blood pressure. Therefore, this can certainly happen to a person while watching someone get murdered in porn.”
People may also be attracted to snuff porn if they feel desensitized to other forms of pornography. It’s natural to move to increasingly more extreme forms of porn in search of a new thrill. Watching snuff porn can also be a way for people to test their boundaries.
Legality of Snuff Porn
Snuff porn sits in a bit of a gray area in the kink world. “In the kink world, we do not want to yuck someone else’s yum, but the person has to be careful with the porn they are consuming," Dr. Phillips said. According to Phillips, the following are just some of the legal issues people need to be aware of when it comes to snuff (or any) porn:
- An act that threatens a person's life
- An act which results, or is likely to result, in serious injury to a person's anus, breasts or genitals.
- An act that involves sexual interference with a human corpse (necrophilia).
- A person performing an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal (whether dead or alive) (bestiality).
- An act that involves the non-consensual penetration of a person's vagina, anus, or mouth by another with the other person's penis or part of the other person’s body or anything else (rape or assault by penetration).
If someone creates, distributes, possesses, or views pornography featuring these acts, such as authentic snuff pornography, they may be prosecuted. However, while there is pornography that advertises itself as "snuff," the fact-checking site Snopes.com states that this and other snuff films are more urban legend than reality. Rumors of such films have circulated since the 1970s, but all those investigated have turned out to be fake. While the films appeared to show real-life murder, in all cases the "victims" were found to be alive and well after the fact. Without any real victims, the creators, distributors, and owners of these films are not violating any laws.
As snuff content is usually fake, online sources say the authorities don’t tend to investigate snuff pornography. Without a victim’s body, it’s difficult for authorities to confirm whether a snuff film is real or made with excellent special effects.