ABSTRACT
More than six years ago, in 1973, in a series of decisions popularly labeled the Miller decisions, the Supreme Court of the United States provided a new set of standards for the legal treatment of materials alleged to be obscene. In a marked departure from previous rulings, the Burger Court reinterpreted the test of community standards to be the “local” community and placed on the accused the burden of proving redeeming social value. It was widely predicted that the decisions would introduce an era of increased censorship. The purpose of this study is to test whether that prediction has come true with regard to a set of printed materials among the most likely to be affected by the activity of the censor, erotic magazines.
