HOMOSEXUAL OFFENDERS VS. ADULTS: HETEROSEXUAL PETTING
That the homosexual offenders vs. adults were the most homosexually oriented of any sex offenders is borne out by an examination of their heterosexual petting. While nearly 92 per cent petted, this is the next to the smallest percentage manifested by any of our groups numerically large enough to afford statistical comparison. By age twelve they had die smallest proportion (24 per cent) of individuals with petting experience, which is not unexpected. It is, on the other hand, ominous that their excellent socialization with females reported for ages ten to eleven did not result in their being high in rank-order of those with petting experience by age twelve. Relatively few began to pet between the end of the twelfth year and the end of the fourteenth year; indeed at age fourteen they retain die lowest place (40 per cent) in the rank-order of those with petting experience. They rise a bit by sixteen but by eighteen have dropped back to the bottom of the rank-order with only three quarters of their members having ever petted.
Despite the fact that the homosexual offenders vs. adults reached puberty at an earlier age than other sex offenders, the median individual had his first postpubertal petting experience at 15.7 years of age, which is rather late.
In terms of age-specific incidence, the percentage with petting experience within given age-periods, the homosexual offenders vs. adults display the smallest percentages of any group from age sixteen on. Note that in age-period 16-20 all three homosexual groups occupy the lower three ranks in the rank-order. From puberty to fifteen, when the other homosexual offenders occupy middle ranks, the homosexual offenders vs. adults are near the bottom, 11 percentage points less than the homosexual offenders vs. children.
As one would expect, they also had relatively few partners. Ten per cent (the largest proportion of any group) had had no partners and nearly 15 per cent had but one. The average (median) individual had petted with 9.5 partners, the smallest number recorded and half as many as reported by the control group.
This comparative paucity of petting partners is interesting in view of the fact that before puberty the homosexual offenders vs. adults had the largest number and proportion of female playmates of any group, and had a substantial amount of sex play with them. Moreover, at ages sixteen to seventeen they were still reasonably well off as far as female friends and companions were concerned—more so than the other homosexual offenders. One is left with the general impression that here is a group of individuals who always got along well with females but who, because of their homosexual interests, did not take advantage of their ability.
The proportions of homosexual offenders vs. adults who reached orgasm in heterosexual petting are small in all age-periods, never more than 19 per cent, and the accumulative incidence figures are also low (23 per cent by age thirty).
The ambivalent position of the homosexual offender vs. adults in getting along well with females but not having much to do with them sexually is again illustrated in the frequency with which they reached orgasm while petting. As we have seen, relatively few petted at any time, and, of course, still fewer had an orgasm; nevertheless, those who did reach orgasm did so with considerable frequency. For the average (median) individual it was a matter of about 3 to 4 times a year, which ranks him with most other sex offenders from puberty to age thirty. The average (mean) frequency was also stable for some time: between puberty and twenty-five it amounted to about once a month, a frequency similar to that of the control group. In the following age-period this frequency was more than halved. To put it briefly, our sample of homosexual offenders vs. adults contains a small number of men who, while they had very little coitus, did reach orgasm in heterosexual petting with frequencies similar to those of other groups, including the controls.
At this juncture it is worth mentioning that some predominantly or exclusively homosexual males exert a singular attraction for certain females. These are women who become tired of continually fending off sexual advances and are pleased to find a man with whom they do not have to be perpetually on the defensive. Often they become intrigued by his lack of sexual response and, after a time, make sexual overtures toward him. This has not infrequently resulted in the homosexual male’s having heterosexual activity that he did not particularly desire. In other cases the relationship remains mutually agreeable but platonic.
In their premarital lives only 76 per cent experienced genital manipulation on or by a female; this is the next smallest percentage recorded. Seventy-nine per cent, a figure exceeded by only three groups, had never at any time placed their mouths on female genitalia. For the one quarter of these offenders who married, the percentages with marital, extramarital, and postmarital cunnilingus are moderate. In terms of cunnilingus with premarital partners (17 per cent) and with prostitutes (4 per cent) the homosexual offenders vs. adults maintain middle positions in the rank-orders.
As usual, more had been fellated by a female (38 per cent) than had performed cunnilingus on a female (21 per cent). Even so, the 38 per cent who had been fellated is a somewhat small percentage and near that of the control group. Moderate proportions of these offenders had been fellated by their wives or by extramarital or postmarital partners (33 and 16 per cent). Of those who had patronized female prostitutes, nearly half (a moderate proportion) had been fellated.
One other form of oral activity merits a brief note—the nibbling or biting of the sexual partner. The homosexual offenders vs. adults were more given to this time-honored mammalian technique than were die members of any other group. Nearly one half had done so, and nearly one quarter had done so frequently, but unfortunately we did not differentiate in our question covering biting whether the recipient was male or female. In the absence of any predisposition among the homosexual offenders vs. adults toward sadistic dreams or masturbatory fantasies, this predilection for biting cannot be, as it was in the case of the heterosexual aggressors, construed as evidence of sadism or aggressiveness.
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