By far the commonest variety of offender, comprising slightly over half of all our cases, is the pedophile. We include under this term not only males who prefer children, but also those who, while preferring older persons, nevertheless find children sexually desirable. The great majority of pedophiles were attracted only by male children, but a few seemed interested in both sexes. The fact that the pedophiles are so numerous is in keeping with our findings concerning the offenders vs. female children, where they also constituted the commonest variety.
A number of the pedophiles attempted to explain their attraction to young boys, and their explanations make it clear that the major factor is their inability to be at ease with adults. Some men made explicit statements to this effect, e.g., “I’m more comfortable with boys,” while others expressed themselves less directly, saying that boys are less demanding and critical. A few of the men who were insecure with their peers phrased their explanations in terms of dominance, pointing out that they could feel superior when with boys and that boys were easier to influence than adults.
The second commonest explanation, given by perhaps one quarter to one fifth of the men, centered on the emotional and sexual responsiveness of the young. Boys were valued for their reported ability to express emotion and affection unreservedly, spontaneously, and often intensely. The inhibitions and cold calculations that often mar adult relationships are, they felt, less common among the young.
Finally, about one eighth of the explanations concerned physical attributes. Some of these were expressed positively—for example, that boys have smooth soft bodies—but more were negative, listing the unpleasant attributes of adults that boys lacked.
The great majority of the pedophile variety of offenders had had considerable previous homosexual experience; only three or four appeared to have had little.
While the pedophile offenders vary considerably, the following case could be duplicated in essence many times. This man, twenty-eight years old, had had a considerable amount of prepubertal sex play, chiefly homosexual. Perhaps in consequence his postpubertal masturbatory fantasy and his sex dreams centered chiefly on boys. His overt homosexual activity extended a year or so beyond puberty and then stopped, but he did have homosexual relations with adults a few times during his military service overseas. On his return at age twenty he had a moderate amount of homosexual activity with one male aged sixteen, and some heterosexual coitus as well. The latter was chiefly with a fourteen-year-old girl (note the pedophilic trend) whom he impregnated and married. For four years thereafter he had no homosexual contacts, but his married sexual relations deteriorated and the coital frequency dropped to about once a month. He had strong moral objections to extramarital coitus and reverted, instead, to homosexuality, seeking strange young males to whom he offered money. He ultimately had four homosexual contacts, one with a boy of eleven, which resulted in his conviction.
Some of the pedophile variety of offenders were sexual polymorphs —persons not especially concerned about the species, gender, or age of their sexual partners. One example was a man in his late thirties, of average intelligence but small education. Between age five and puberty he had had sexual contact with adult females, but had never achieved coitus because he was not aroused enough to maintain an adequate erection. He also had a small amount of contact with adult males. He had had numerous brief marriages—the first one at age eighteen—with females from two years his junior to 21 years his senior. All through his life he also had sporadic homosexual experiences. While most of his heterosexual and homosexual contacts were with adults, he had also engaged in sexual practices with seven boys aged eight to fourteen and four girls aged eight to eleven, and was convicted twice for his behavior. The age of his ideal sexual partner, female or male, would be fifteen years.
A great percentage point gap separates the pedophile variety from the next commonest varieties, the mental defectives and the drunks each constituting about 10 per cent of the homosexual offenders vs. children. The mental defectives, it will be recalled, are also the second commonest variety of heterosexual offenders vs. children.
The mentally defective homosexual offenders vs. children reported extremely little homosexual experience; only one man had more than an incidental amount, and three denied any homosexual activity including the offense. Three young males aged sixteen to twenty-four, with IQs ranging from 46 to 64, had had extremely little contact with either sex, but the remaining mentally defective offenders had had at least a modicum of sociosexual life. The offenses of the “sexless” three were childlike not only in choice of object but in the behavior involved. The more experienced offenders also showed little evidence of being physically dangerous; only one, a man of thirty-five with an IQ in the 50s used violence, slapping an older boy who refused him. On the other hand, there were some attempts at anal coitus which can be physically damaging to children.
As common as the mentally defective variety are the drunks. All but one of these nine men were confirmed alcoholics, and most had long records of arrests for drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and vagrancy. Unlike the pedophiles they were very apt to commit nonsexual crimes, over half having felony arrests, chiefly for larceny of one sort or another. They also are a more violent group. They seem, however, considerably less homosexual than the pedophiles: three denied any homosexual experience including the offense, three had little homosexuality in their histories, two had a substantial amount, and data are incomplete for one individual.
The next commonest variety, consisting of five individuals, was the situational variety. Four of the five were predominantly homosexual males who under unusual circumstances had contact with boys whom they would ordinarily have avoided as too young. The fifth case—that of a male without previous homosexual activity or inclination-stemmed from marital stress, sexual deprivation, and emotional upset.
The remaining four classifiable cases were judged to be three amoral delinquents and one psychotic.
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