In the matter of siblings, the homosexual offenders vs. adults are distinctive in two respects. First, a relatively large number (14 per cent) were only children. Second, if there were siblings, the homosexual offender vs. adults tended to be the youngest, the proportion far exceeding statistical probability. In all our comparative groups the usual picture is for some percentage to be the youngest of several siblings, some the eldest—the majority are intermediate, being neither the youngest nor eldest. Only two groups, the peepers and the homosexual offenders vs. adults, depart from this pattern: more of their members were the youngest rather than the intermediates. On the assumption that youngest children, only children, or children reared alone receive preferential, or at least special, treatment, it is interesting to note that nearly half of the homosexual offenders vs. adults fall into these categories. This percentage is exceeded only by the peepers.
To be specific, 18 per cent of the homosexual offenders vs. adults were reared without the presence of other siblings in the home; this is the second largest percentage recorded. They also had the next fewest number of siblings, 3.7. They were equally deficient in brothers and sisters: 35 per cent lacked brothers and the same percentage lacked sisters. No other group had as many brotherless members, a fact that may be significant in the light of the offense. Nevertheless, these homosexual offenders still had more brothers than sisters, the ratio being 114.3 brothers for every 100 sisters.
We have seen that homosexual offenders are typified by a poor relationship with their fathers, and this is especially true of the homosexual offenders vs. adults. More got along poorly (36 per cent) with their fathers than well (33 per cent); they had, in fact, one of the worst paternal relationships.
The relationship with the mother was better, but still below average. As in the case of other homosexual offenders, there was a preference for the mother—a more extreme maternal partiality than existed among the other homosexual offenders. Fifty-eight per cent got along better with their mothers and only 27 per cent got along with both parents equally well. This is not surprising, since of all the homosexual offenders the offenders vs. adults had the best maternal relationship, poor though it was.
Fifty-one per cent also came from broken homes, a lower percentage than obtains among the other homosexual offenders. However, as in the case of the others, there is a tendency for the breakup to have occurred when the child was under five years of age. In fact the average (median) individual was 4.6 years old, the youngest age recorded.
The homosexual offender vs. adults shares with the other homosexual offenders the misfortune of interparental friction. When they were between fourteen and seventeen years old, 35 per cent had parents who did not get along well together, a percentage exceeded by only two groups, one of which is the homosexual offenders vs. children.
Since fewer homosexual offenders vs. adults than other homosexual offenders came from broken homes, one finds a relatively large number (over two thirds) who lived 15 or more years in a home where both a husband and wife were present. While this percentage is well below that of the control group, it is exceeded by only four sex-offender groups, and only by one or two percentage points. Conversely, there is nothing distinctive about the homosexual offender vs. adults in the number of years he spent in an all-female household.
At ages ten to eleven the homosexual offenders vs. adults had a good social relationship with other children and the best social relationship of all with female children (despite their relative lack of sisters)—an extreme example of the general tendency of homosexual offenders, who rank first, second, and third in the number and proportion of female companions. Their excellent relationship with girls may foreshadow the later development of an adult homosexual pattern; it is, so to speak, too good. Forty-one per cent of the men reported having had many female companions, and 66 per cent reported having had many male companions (the lowest percentage recorded). Among the control and prison individuals, however, the difference in percentages is much greater.
As one would expect, the homosexual offenders vs. adults have a high percentage (68 per cent) who had prepubertal homosexual play; 57 per cent had heterosexual play; altogether some 81 per cent had some sort of prepubertal sex play. In brief, more future homosexual offenders vs. adults engaged in sex play than the members of most other groups; an above-average number had heterosexual play, and a very large number (second only to the homosexual offenders vs. minors) had homosexual play.
As with the other homosexual offenders, a relatively high percentage (nearly one quarter) confined their sex play to other boys. In terms of homosexual exclusivity, the homosexual offenders rank first, second, and third. Among those with heterosexual play only, the homosexual offenders vs. adults rank next to last with 14 per cent. Still, the largest group (43 per cent, third position in a rank-order) had both hetero-and homosexual play.
Their predominantly homosexual orientation is shown more clearly in measurements of the duration of sex play, their heterosexual play lasting chiefly for one year or less, while 59 per cent continued their homosexual play for three years or more.
Sexual techniques also mirror the same situation. The homosexual offenders vs. adults reported relatively few instances of heterosexual mouth-genital contact and coitus, but numerous instances of homosexual oral and anal techniques. For example, of those with heterosexual play only 4 per cent had mouth-genital contact with girls whereas 42 per cent of those with homosexual play experienced this technique with boys. The prepubertal homosexual anal coitus of these homosexual offenders (37 per cent, the second largest percentage having had this experience) is quite unusual in that nearly one third were solely recipient, receiving the penis in the anus. This is by far the largest proportion recorded. Conversely, very few (6 per cent) had inserted their penes in other males while never having been recipients.
Like other homosexual offenders, the homosexual offender vs. adults was apt to have had sexual experience with adult males before puberty. A third had been approached by men and 27 per cent had had sexual physical contact with men. In this latter respect, the future homosexual offenders rank first, second, and third. On the other hand, both relatively and numerically, few homosexual offenders vs. adults (4 per cent) had any sexual experience with adult females. While it is true that an existing pattern of homosexuality predisposes a preadolescent boy toward contact with adult males, it is also true that such contact serves to reinforce the homosexual pattern.
The homosexual offenders vs. adults had the least healthy childhood of any group. Only 58 per cent reported good health (no group reported less) and 17 per cent reported poor health (no group reported more). It is interesting that their relatively poor health did not, insofar as we can determine, interfere with childhood socialization and sex play.
The homosexual offenders vs. adults are distinctive in yet another way. They reached puberty at an earlier age than any other group of sex offenders—no less than 47 per cent before they were thirteen, the highest percentage of any group and one well above the equivalent figures for the control group (24 per cent) and the prison group (31 per cent). This trend toward early puberty is even more striking if one notes the percentages who reached puberty by age eleven. Fifteen per cent of the homosexual offenders vs. adults did so; again this is the highest percentage and almost double that of the control and prison groups. Whereas early adolescence reduced the number of years of prepubertal life, it did not, as we have seen, hamper the prepubertal sexual activity of the homosexual offender vs. adults.
The early age at puberty for this group is accounted for partly by the fact that the homosexual offenders vs. adults include the largest proportion of individuals from the upper socioeconomic level, and males from this social stratum reach puberty earlier than those of the middle and lower socioeconomic levels.
About half had masturbated before puberty, a percentage exceeded only by the homosexual offenders vs. minors. Of those who did, 60 per cent began before age ten—an early beginning typical of homosexual offenders. Their masturbatory history, when coupled with the relatively large amount of prepubertal sex play, makes the homosexual offenders vs. adults, along with the other homosexual offenders, one of the sexually most active groups in childhood.
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