1.       Quoted by Lindy Burton in Vulnerable Children, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1968, p.91.

2.       There is the further problem that genital arousal may occur as an involuntary reflex, without conscious pleasure-seeking on behalf of the child: male children often have an erection at the moment of their birth, and a wide range of stimuli - such as the rhythmic movement of a train - can induce an unsought genital response, which may or may not be experienced as sufficiently pleasurable for the child to attempt to reproduce the feeling by self-stimulation. I believe it is meaningful to talk about a child's 'sexual behaviour' in relation to genital pleasure-seeking via masturbation, and that it is reasonable to infer from certain behaviour (e.g. rhythmic, repeated stimulation of the genitals) that such pleasure-seeking is in fact present. 

This pleasure-seeking usually has a social dimension, which is well developed in adulthood: generally speaking, there is a desire to be sexually involved with another person, and even solitary masturbation tends to be stimulated by fantasies of sex with someone, or by the attraction of another's body.

       It may be felt that in talking about 'childhood sexuality', there is a danger of falsely imputing to children a set of clearly formed socio-sexual desires and expectations, when in fact these cannot exist prior to having gained some knowledge, through experience, that specific forms of sexual contact with other people (digital stimulation, penetration, etc.) are possible and could be pleasant. Freud himself falls into the trap: in speaking of an infant boy's desire to sexually possess his mother, he positively invites a literal interpretation, as though the child were aware of the possibility of penetration and consciously desired it. On the other hand, it should be realised that from very early in life children can come to enjoy socio-sexual experiences, if they have access to them, and having had such access, they need no longer be strangers to many of the meanings that such experiences have for adults: in particular, just like adults, children who have experienced a pleasurable socio-sexual act are capable of anticipating pleasure in a future occurrence, and may fantasise it, or seek a repetition. Nor need such contacts be merely a matter of genital gratification. Children are aware right from the kisses and cuddles they receive in infancy that the body is the most potent of all media for the expression of affection, of love. 

3.       A. Kinsey et at., Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male, Saunders, Philadelphia, 1948; Sexual Behaviaur in the Human Female, Saunders, Philadelphia, 1953. The Kinsey reports were the subject of a great deal of emotionally charged debate at the time of their publication, and much was written contesting the validity of the statistical data advanced in them. I myself place no absolute reliance on the data – it will be seen later in this chapter that I quote from a study by Ramsey, which gives higher, and I believe more valid, figures than Kinsey's for boys' pre-adolescent masturbation – but it is worth noting that in the long run the reports have earned themselves widespread acceptance as an important (though not definitive) source. 

4.       Kinsey, Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male, op. cit., p. 177.

5.       B. Malinowski, The Sexual Life of Savages in North West Melanesia, Halcyon House, New York, 1929.

6.       Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female, op. cit., pp. 104-5.

7.       Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male, op. cit., p. 178.

8.       Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female, op. cit., p. 116.

9.             Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male, op. cit., p. 179.

10.       Clellan S. Ford and Frank A. Beach, Patterns of Sexual Behaviour, Harper & Row, New York, 1951, pp.201-2.

11.       B. Malinowski, The Sexual Life of Savages in North West Melanesia, Halcyon House, New York, 1929.

12.       Ibid., pp. 48-9.

13.       Ford and Beach, op. cit., pp. 202-4.

14.       Ibid., pp. 139-40.

15.       A detailed and humorously related account of several disaster-strewn attempts to shed his virginity (embarrassments and failures being caused simply by the sexual ignorance of either partner) is given by one man in. Money and P. Tucker, Sexual Signatures, Little Brown, Boston, 1975, pp. 210-13.

16.       C. M. Johnston and R.W. Deisher, 'Contemporary communal child rearing: a first analysis', Pedjatrics, Vol.52, No.3, 1973, pp. 319-26.

17.       Ibid., pp. 324-5.

18.       Ibid., p. 326.

19.      Bermant and J.M. Davidson, Biological Bases of Sexual Behaviour, Harper & Row, New York, 1974, Chapers 5 and 8.

20.       Kinsey, Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male, op. cit., p. 195.

21.       A. Moll, The Sexual Lift of the Child, Macmillan, London, 1912, p. 134. Moll describes the case of a boy of seven who felt a passion for adult men, especially soldiers.

22.       L. Bender and A. Blau, 'The reaction of children to sexual relations with adults', American Journal of Orthopsychriatry, Vol.7, 1937, pp. 500-18. 

23.       Ibid., p.503.

24.       I believe Bender and Blau meant simply that he was introduced to anal intercourse. There is no suggestion, nor ought there to be, that this experience would determine his future sexual orientation. See Chapter 3.

25.       Bender and Blau, op. cit., pp. 509-10.

26.       J. Weiss et al., 'A study of girl sex victims', Psychiatric Quarterly, Vol.29, 1955, pp. 1-27.

27.       Ibid., p.7.

28.       Wilhelm Stekel, in his Patterns of Psychosexual Infantilism, Liveright, New York, 1952, objected to this term on the grounds that the word 'perverse' could not properly be used in connection with a normal attribute. He preferred the word 'panerotic', which certainly has a less pejorative ring to it.

29       Lindy Burton, Vulnerable Children, op. cit.

30.       G.V. Ramsey, 'The sexual development of boys', American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 56, 1943, pp. 217-33.

31.       Kinsey's own study yielded much lower figures, but these were based on interviews with adults recalling their childhood and, as Kinsey himself suggested, memories may have faltered.

32.       Paul Gebhard el al., Sex Offenders: An Analysis of Types, Harper-Hoeber, New York, 1965.

33.       The Gebbard study was of male adults only.

34.       Gebbard et al., op. cit., p. 299.

35.       Leroy Schultz, 'Psychotherapeutic and legal approaches to the sexually victimized child', International ,Journal of Child Psychotherapv, Vol. 1, No.4, 1972, pp. 115-28. 

36.       Quoted in Burton, op. cit. Reifen's proposals for dealing with offences that come before the courts are considered in detail in Chapter 6.