HOMOSEXUAL OFFENDERS VS. CHILDREN: MASTURBATION
Masturbation was a more important source of sexual outlet to the homosexual offenders than to other types of offenders, but the homosexual offenders vs. children are to some extent an exception to this generalization. In terms of accumulative incidence, the proportion who had ever experienced postpubertal masturbation by a given age are moderate, beginning with 92 per cent experienced by age twelve.
In age-specific incidence the single homosexual offenders vs. minors and adults tend to occupy the top of the rank-orders at various ages; the single homosexual offenders vs. children, however, have relatively moderate percentages from puberty through age twenty-five. After age twenty-five they too rise (as the more heterosexual individuals marry and leave the unmarried sample) and rank second in every age-period from twenty-six on, with nine out of ten masturbating. The idea that this high age-specific incidence is linked to homosexuality is reinforced by the examination of the age-specific incidence among the married (therefore less exclusively homosexual) homosexual offenders vs. children: here the incidence figures are moderate and never more than those of the control group.
Again, like the other homosexual offenders, the offenders vs. children tend to have a relatively large number of their members with high maximum frequencies of masturbation and relatively few with low. The maximum of the average (median) homosexual offender vs. children was 5.3 per week, a frequency substantially less than that of the other homosexual offenders, but sufficient to earn him sixth place in a rank-order.
The frequency of masturbation among the unmarried homosexual offenders vs. children is relatively high, ordinarily exceeded only by the other homosexual offenders. During the various age-periods the average (median) homosexual offender vs. children holds from second to fourth place in the rank-orders with frequencies ranging from nearly once a week to nearly twice a week.
Since, as we shall see, there is a strong positive correlation between homosexuality and frequent masturbation, it is not surprising to see the homosexual offenders vs. children ranking high in this respect. However, inasmuch as they are the least homosexually oriented of the three homosexual-offender groups, it is also not surprising to see them occasionally drop in the rank-orders to an intermediate status.
Interestingly enough, this trend toward high frequencies is evident also among married homosexual offenders vs. children: in the two age-periods for which we can calculate medians and means, they rank fourth or higher.
The high frequencies of masturbation are reflected in the proportions of total outlet derived from this activity. In fact, the unmarried homosexual offenders vs. children derived more of their outlet from masturbation than did any other group. They rank first in three age-periods, second in another, and fourth in yet another. Even in their late thirties and early forties these men were obtaining half of their orgasms through self-masturbation. This reliance on the self may have something to do with their interest in sexual partners of “inappropriate” gender and age; one might say they have made the job of finding a sexual partner doubly difficult and consequently fall back on masturbation. Note that the percentage of total outlet from masturbation always exceeds that derived from homosexual activity. The importance of masturbation is, not unexpectedly, less among the married, but even here the proportion of total outlet derived from masturbation is sometimes rather high.
Among the separated, divorced, or widowed there is a powerful resurgence of the importance of masturbation. From thirty-one to thirty-five the proportion of total outlet from masturbation is greater among these postmarital males than among the never married. This sort of recovery or bounce-back phenomenon suggests both heterosexual difficulties and a minimal influence of marriage on sexual pattern.
As one would expect, the homosexual offenders vs. children rank high (third with 69 per cent) in having homosexual fantasy while masturbating, being exceeded only by the other homosexual groups. This is in accord with their general psychologic responses: 55 per cent were sexually aroused by thinking of or seeing males, and one third reported their response was strong. Correspondingly, they rank low (86 per cent) in heterosexual fantasy. The only other point to note is a tendency to rank high in fantasy of sexual contact with animals; in this they are unlike the other homosexual offenders.
The homosexual offenders vs. children were not inclined to be concerned over the possible bad effects of masturbation; they worried about it in only slightly over one third of the years during which they masturbated.
These homosexual offenders rank second highest (40 per cent) in the number who learned of masturbation by being masturbated by someone else, exceeded only by the offenders vs. adults who had 47 per cent of their members having learned in this fashion. This is to be expected of a group with a considerable amount of prepubertal sex play that was strongly homosexual. A far below-average number had learned from talking, reading, or observation (25 per cent). It is somewhat unexpected that they also rank high in self-discovery of masturbation; here they are second in rank-order with 17 per cent. The explanation is that a large proportion (nearly half) masturbated before puberty, and of this number some 60 per cent (again a high figure) began before age ten—at such an early age the chances of self-discovery are greatly enhanced.
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