As protests swept the United States, sparked by the tragic demise of African-American George Floyd in police custody, a particular type of pornography witnessed an upsurge of popularity online, Vice reports.
According to the media outlet, searches for terms like "cop," "police," and "jail" on xHamster, one of the biggest porn websites, increased by 39 percent in the US and 25 percent online between the first week of May and the first week of June.
But xHamster vice president Alex Hawkins reportedly said that this surge “has since died down”, adding that people's interest in "cop porn" has been declining during the past five years.
"With so much news about police and policing these days, it's not surprising to see a sudden uptick in searches," Hawkins said. "In my experience viewers fantasize about what is already on their minds. They fantasize about the figures they fear or loathe and the figures they love in equal parts."
While Hawkins suggested that this decline in popularity might be “a matter of investment”, as filming a scene with “convincing uniforms” and “dedicated sets for jails” require a budget, the media outlet also mentioned a possibility that “as more stories of violence at the hands of the police are uncovered as commonplace, the fantasies of 'good cops' and 'bad apples' have been exposed as just that: unrealistic fantasies that mask the reality oppressed communities face”.