II
Social Background and
Sexual Behaviour
This
chapter summarises the results obtained with the Paedophile
Questionnaire described in the last
chapter. Whenever possible, quantitative tabulations have been compiled showing
the number of subjects giving responses that fall within certain pre-selected
categories. For the most part, these are presented as the absolute number of
subjects out of the 77 who gave each kind of answer, though it would not be
difficult for the reader to convert these into percentages if this was desired.
This has been done for occupation in Table 3 and it can be seen that the figures
are all slightly larger when expressed as percentages (by a factor of just less
than one-third).
Apart
from this quantitative analysis, it was thought useful to give an
impressionistic insight into the data by presenting some of the more typical and
interesting replies verbatim. This is done throughout the chapter by following
the quantitative table with a second table of selected quotations for each of
the questions in the survey. All of the information presented in this chapter is
derived from the tailor-made Paedophile
Questionnaire with the exception of the subject’s age and occupation which
are requested by the standard form of the Eysenck
Personality Questionnaire.
Occupation
The
main occupational groups of the 77 PIE members are shown in Table 3. A fairly
high proportion of the sample were in professional-level occupations (a higher
proportion than for the British population at large). Particularly interesting
is the fact that many were in professions that would bring them into regular
contact with children (e.g. teacher, social worker).
Presumably
they gravitated towards these occupations because of their liking for the
company of children. To what extent they take sexual advantage of these
positions of responsibility is not answered by these data. Three subjects
reported that they were no longer able to pursue the occupation of their choice
and training following discovery of their paedophile interests or actual court
proceedings. Even so, the proportion who were unemployed or unable to hold down
a job appeared to be quite low (given the high level of unemployment in Britain
at the time of the study). Perhaps an organisation such as PIE, with
intellectual aims and pretensions, is more visible and appealing to
well-educated paedophiles than to those at lower occupational levels.
TABLE
3
Occupations
of 77 PIE Members
Professionals
38%
N
%
Teacher
10
13
Lecturer
2
3
Social
worker nurse 3
4
Student
3
4
Other
professionals
11
14
White
collar 35%
Clerk/civil servant
16
21
Engineer/technician 5
6
Sales
6
8
Blue
collar 14%
Skilled
workers
4
5
Unskilled
workers
7
9
Unemployed
6
8
Not
given
4 5
Age
Figure 1 shows the age distribution of the PIE men who answered the
questionnaires. Although the modal age range is between 35 and 40, there is a
fair representation of all age groups between 20 and 60. No subjects were under
20, and only two were older than 60. This age profile is rather younger than
that found for members of clubs for fetishists, sadomasochists and transvestites
(Gosselin and Wilson, 1980).
Sex
and age of preferred partners
The majority (71 per cent) of the sample said that they were mainly attracted
to boys, 12 per cent preferred girls, and 17 per cent were attracted to both
boys and girls. Figure 2 shows the distribution of ages of ideal partners. There
is a fairly clear peak at the years immediately preceding puberty in boys (12,
13 and 14). Rather surprisingly, a few subjects claimed to prefer partners over
the age of 16. Although still illegal in Britain (the age for homosexual male
consent being 21), this would not qualify as paedophilia in the definitions of
many researchers and clinicians. They may, of course, regard themselves as
paedophiles because the age range of partners to whom they are strongly
attracted extends downwards several years.
The preferred age of partners for the minority who were attracted mainly
to girls was noticeably younger than that of the boy-oriented men. Here the ages
of 8, 9 and 10 were most frequently cited as optimally attractive. The
preference for younger females is confirmed by two bisexual subjects who gave
separate optimal ages for boy and girl targets. In both cases, girls were found
attractive at an age two or three years younger than boys.
The theoretical significance of this difference is not clear, although it may
have something to do with earlier puberty in girls. A certain degree of
attraction to well-developed thirteen-and fourteen-year-old girls is very
common, if not endemic, in the male population. Certainly, many readers may
wonder why the man who described his ideal target as sixteen-year-old girls
should regard himself as a paedophile at all.
Basis
of attraction
Item
4 of the Paedophile Questionnaire
asked subjects what it was in particular that they found attractive in children.
The results are shown quantitatively in Table 4 and some of the more interesting
and illuminating replies are presented verbatim in Table 5.
TABLE
4
Aspects
of children that paedophiles find attractive
(Numbers
out of the sample of 77 that mentioned the characteristic)
A. PHYSICAL
TRAITS
Good looks (unspecified)
12
Smooth skin (hairlessness)
11
Eyes
5
Slim stature
5
Face
3
Physique (unspecified)
3
Bottoms/buttocks
3
Smallness
2
Complexion (clear)
2
(Mentioned once: firm body, smile, feminine features, health, muscles,
genitals, black and oriental, unbroken voice, blond hair, school uniforms)
B.
PERSONALITY
Innocence
17
Openness
7
Curiosity
7
Spontaneity
6
Vitality/enthusiasm
5
Lack of inhibition
5
Honesty
5
Warmth/affection
5
Conversation/companionship 4
Charm
4
Friendliness
4
Sense of humour/fun/mischief 3
(Mentioned once or twice: softness, simplicity, energy, vulnerability, modesty,
nostalgia, kindness, understanding)
TABLE
5
Aspects
of children that paedophiles find attractive
(Selected
quotations)
S7 ‘Ask
a sexually orthodox man what he finds attractive about adult women - how does he
answer? Not with a cerebral definition! Long legs, a sweet smell, a secret and
overwhelming beauty perceived by my indefensible loins.’
S13
‘Mine is a purely physical attraction. I am sodomy oriented and so have
a strong overriding buttock fetish. Otherwise the characteristics that stimulate
me are smooth, hairless skin, feminine facial features, rounded limbs, unbroken
voice, and an unselfconscious sensuality.’
S14
‘I like their sense of enjoyment; their mixture of modesty (not
necessarily sexual) and vitality; their loyalty and wish to please without
reference to material concerns; above all, their affection.’
S24
‘Their smallness, superb skin texture, absence of pubic hair,
affectionate nature, curiosity, naivety, boldness and a million other things.’
S35
‘Quality of freshness - especially complexion of skin and hairless-ness
of pubic area. Also I associate smallness and youngness with a need for
affection: perceive children as wanting to be hugged and cuddled. See my own
feelings as quasi-maternal.’
S39
‘Difficult question! Their youth, their physique, everything that makes
them different from adults.’
S41
‘They are as I was. I’m looking for love for myself as child.’
S46
‘Slimness; vulnerability; capacity for spontaneous expression of
feelings; vivacity; mischievousness; dawning sexual interest and eagerness;
sense that life has yet to be discovered; ready response to an adult prepared to
listen and take them seriously.’
S5O
‘I like the young male physically because I am homosexual. But I think
I like young boys because they have little or no body hair and their bodies are
more effeminate, and more loving.’
S71
‘Qualities of beauty; freshness, directness, lack of guile; the great pleasure
they can derive from a relationship, and my own pleasure in evoking theirs.’
S74
‘Able to handle without feeling shy, and seeing the look of pleasure in
their eyes.
S75
‘Softness, vivacity, gentleness, no make-up, freshness, spontaneity,
lack of cynicism, lack of obsession with the future and practicalities of
life.’
S76
‘The clear complexion, shining eyes and smiling picture of youth and
innocence — “period of blossom”. Their bodies are beautiful and the chirpy
voice. Exactly the same points that men* find attractive about women.
*
I include myself in this category.’
From Table 4 it can be seen that both physical appearance and personality
characteristics are claimed as important determinants of the appeal of children
to the paedophile, with personality descriptions being given slightly more
commonly than physical descriptions. The most important personality trait that
the men find attractive in children is their innocence and openness, this being
expressed in a variety of different ways (lack of inhibition, honesty,
simplicity, curiosity, openness to experience, willingness to learn,
spontaneity, etc). Their warmth, affection, friendliness, charm, softness and
understanding were also mentioned, although this might have referred to the
particular children with whom the men were able to establish some relationship.
Other descriptions related to energy level, e.g. vitality, vivaciousness,
enthusiasm, mischief, liveliness.
The
most attractive physical characteristic is apparently a lack of pubic hair. This
ties in with the age distribution of preferred child partners which shows a
dramatic fall-off after the age of fourteen (by which time puberty is well
established). There was also some interest in the face and eyes, stature (slim
and small) and the bottom.
A
study of these details along with the more complete answers from the more
verbally expressive subjects given in Table 5 suggests the importance of three
major factors as basic to the attraction of children:
(1) Although the majority of
these men are homosexual in orientation, they paradoxically seek feminine
characteristics in their male partners. It appears that for many of them women
are first of all ruled out as potential sex objects, but thereafter preferences
amongst homosexual targets are determined by the extent of their femininity in
appearance and temperament. This might help to explain why body hair is seen as
unattractive: it is a male characteristic as much as an adult one. Similarly, a
soft complexion, unbroken voice, feminine features, warmth and affection, and
modesty (Table 4) are all feminine characteristics. Subject 50 is fairly
explicit in stating that although he is homosexual, he likes young boys because
‘they have little or no body hair and their bodies are more effeminate’.
(2)
There are strong suggestions in some of the replies that children were
preferred as sex targets because these men felt more comfortable in approaching
them than they would with adults. There was reference, for example, to their
‘ready response to an adult prepared to listen and take them seriously’,
their ‘wish to please without reference to material concerns’, and their
‘lack of obsession with the practicalities of life’. Such comments could be
read as reflecting an expectation that children are more receptive to advances
both social and sexual. Adults, by contrast, are seen as relatively threatening,
and of course, given that most of the paedophiles are homosexually oriented, it
might be true that there are dangers associated with miscalculated sexual
advances to adult men. Even if they do not begin that way, adults are bound
eventually to become associated with the punitive society that reacts vehemently
to the paedophiles’ sexual interests.
(3)
It has frequently been pointed out in the literature on homosexuality
that homosexual men are not generally effeminate in the sense of being like
women in their sexual preferences. Rather they react like normal men, with the
one difference that they prefer male sex objects. Within that restriction they
have the same lust for variety, interest in pornography and concern for the
physical characteristics of their sex partners that typify heterosexual
masculinity. One outstanding characteristic of male sexuality is an emphasis on
youth in the partner; women may be attracted to middle-aged men, but men of all
ages are usually attracted primarily to girls in their late teens. Models,
pin-ups and beauty queens are usually about nineteen. The evolutionary reason
for this has been traced to the concept of reproductive fitness (Symons, 1979).
Now since it seems to be a typically male trait to take pleasure from
initiating, seducing, or ‘corrupting’ young, virginal sex partners, it is
perhaps not surprising that homosexual men are also interested in young boys. It
appears that an exaggeration of this ‘natural’ tendency for males to seek
young partners is a partial root of paedophilia. This point of view is supported
by the importance assigned to ‘innocence’ and ‘freshness’ as an
attractive personality trait, and certain comments such as ‘dawning sexual
interest and eager-ness’, the ‘period of blossom’ and ‘the great
pleasure they can derive from a relationship, and my own pleasure in evoking
theirs’. Also implicit in these comments is the belief that people whose
sexuality is just ‘awakening’ derive the most intense experience from sexual
contact and therefore show the most erotic reactions.
Attitudes
towards sex with adults
In
answer to the question about how they regard sex with adults, the majority gave
replies that indicated indifference (Table 6). However, 18 per cent registered
disgust or some equally powerful negative emotion such as ‘revulsion’ or
‘repugnance’ and a similar proportion of the sample claimed that it was
perfectly enjoyable (though not of course as attractive a prospect as sex with
children). Interestingly, a further 12 per cent of the sample misunderstood the
question as applying to sex between children and adults, which could be
interpreted as meaning that these subjects found the idea of sex with adults so
ego-alien that they had difficulty in conceptualising it at all. Quite a few
subjects took the opportunity to express their belief that in matters of sex one
should ‘live and let live’; therefore they said it was fine for other people
who liked it, but not for themselves.
TABLE
6
Summary
of attitudes to sex with adults among PIE members
N
%
Negative feelings
14
18
(e.g. disgust, fear, horror)
Indifferent
33
43
(e.g. pointless, tolerable,
OK for others)
Positive feelings
14
18
(e.g. enjoyable, exciting)
Misunderstood as applying to
9
12
sex between adult and child
No response or unclassifiable
7
9
TABLE
7
Attitudes
towards sex with adults
(Selected quotations)
S11 ‘Although
I never had sex with a woman, I would very much like to, but I am too fearful of
the unknown. I prefer at present sex with boys over the age of 17 years, my
taking the passive role.’
S12
‘Pretty good. I have had sex with an adult. He was hairy -UGH!!! I
belong to various gay groups. I am still coming out. But sex to me is homosexual
and I still prefer boys.’
S14
‘Almost all adults make me unhappy and mildly frightened by excessive
demands and practices I don’t like. Occasionally I have been happy with really
affectionate people.’
S18
‘I could not do it with adults. I don’t like men sexually, and
although I’ve been out with women I’ve never had sex with them. Being
brought up a Catholic, all sex has been classed a mortal sin. Therefore I’ve
bypassed this with women.
S35
‘With complete indifference. For me, sex with a woman (or a man) is
merely a mechanical performance, and an arduous one at that. Find no pleasure in
touching adult bodies and find it difficult to understand that an adult partner
might take pleasure in my body (though my body is passable enough, and I’m
facially good-looking).’
S53
‘As a gay person, I can relate to older women and even girls of my own
age - only on a non-sexual basis. I cannot relate to men very well, yet I am at
ease with guys of my own age and younger.
S59
‘With a nubile young woman the idea is enormously attractive. With
females generally, the idea appeals in inverse ratio to their age, becoming
repulsive at middle age. With adult males, quite unthinkable, revolting in the
extreme.’
S62
‘With little interest - have had sexual encounters with women and men
but only really enjoyed them when I fantasised that they were boys.’
S67
‘I feel that adults have developed prejudiced and preconceived opinions
of themselves and other people to the extent that they are no longer capable of
being truthful even in love.’
S72
‘For my part the idea of sex with an adult female would not abhor
me.’ After the age of about 22 I have not felt any strong desire to so engage.
I feel no desire at all to liase with an adult male.’
S76
‘I want to get married and have a family and I want to have sex with a
woman. The idea of sex with an adult male disgusts me (although I do believe
that those in favour of this should be able to do so). I agree with the saying
“A woman for necessity and a boy for pleasure”.’
S77
‘If I have a relationship with a boy, as he gets older I still feel the
same about him, but I cannot feel attraction for an older person any other way.
Some
of the more interesting replies to this question are given in full in Table 7.
Of some theoretical interest is the finding that quite a few of the sample
(approximately 10 per cent) were homosexual in their paedophile interests but
were heterosexual as regards their adult sexual preferences. That is, they liked
boys and women, but not adult men. This ties in with the suggestion made earlier
that boys are sometimes sought as sex targets paradoxically because they are
feminine compared with adult men. For these individuals, adult men are perceived
as excessively muscular, hairy and ‘macho’, and therefore presumably too
threatening to be considered as sex objects. Other subjects, however, claimed to
be totally gay; they would consider sex only with men but preferred them young.
Several
paedophiles reported that they had a good relation-ship with their wife and no
extramarital experience with other women. There was even a hint of pride in this
claim, as though extramarital sex with boys was viewed as less morally
reprehensible than adultery with a woman. That moral inhibitions were of some
relevance to these subjects was suggested by occasional reference to strict
religious upbringing. (‘Being brought up a Catholic, all sex has been classed
as a mortal sin. Therefore I’ve bypassed this with women’.) A few subjects
said they had not been interested in women at all until meeting their particular
wife and she remained the only woman to whom they felt they could relate
sexually.
While
some paedophiles appeared to have a jaundiced view of adults in general, many
others cited particular categories of adults that they could find attractive or
special circumstances under which sex with an adult might be contemplated. Some
would consider sex with young adults if they were sufficiently slim, athletic
and good-looking; others treated adults as poor alternatives that they would
resort to if sufficiently frustrated or frightened of prosecution. One subject
said he could manage sex with an adult only if he fantasised about boys in the
process. Another said he sometimes adopted the passive role with adult men but
would not like to participate actively.
Attitudes
towards parents
The
way in which their parents were perceived by the 77 PIE members is shown in
Tables 8 and 9. Quite a high proportion of the group (about 17 per cent) had no
real contact with their father since he died or became separated from the mother
when they were very young. This is somewhat lower than the figure of 27 per cent
absent fathers reported by Ingram (1979) but still very high compared with a
figure of 6 per cent absent fathers found in a sample of 4,000 readers of the
Sun newspaper who were representative of the British population as regards
occupational status (Wilson, 1981).
Apart
from geographical absence, the most common descriptions of the father were those
that indicated some kind of psychological separation (remote/aloof/distant).
Certain difficulties in relating to or identifying with the father are also
suggested by the next most common descriptions (submissive/ weak/ineffectual,
and strict/puritanical/intolerant). Altogether there were 62 negative
descriptions of the father compared with only 18 positive descriptions. (Note,
this adds up to more than 77 because some individuals gave mixed evaluations of
their father.) Referring again to the Sun survey, which used similar questions
with a ‘normal’ population, only 22 per cent gave negative descriptions of
their father. This suggests that our paedophile sample did not enjoy very close
relationships with their fathers compared with the rest of the population.
However, it would be premature to arrive at any conclusions concerning the
direction of cause and effect. Inability to relate to; the father could be a
contributory cause of the sexual difficulty of our subjects. On the other hand,
it is not impossible that the sex orientation of the son was partly responsible
for the father’s coolness and hostility and the difficulty in communication.
TABLE
8
Descriptions
of Father ( Numbers out of 77 giving each description)
Absent (due to death or separation)
13
Remote, aloof, distant
18
Submissive, weak, quiet, ineffectual
15
Strict, firm, puritanical, intolerant
15
Violent, temperamental, frightening
7
Otherwise objectionable (e.g. pompous, 7
contemptuous, unpredictable, dirty, drunken)
Loving, helpful, kind, caring
13
Hardworking/respectable
5
OK, normal
9
TABLE
9
Descriptions
of Mother (Numbers out
of
77 giving each description)
Domineering, overbearing, strong-willed 15
Overprotective, possessive, suffocating
5
Strict, narrow-minded, prudish 15
Otherwise objectionable (e.g. petty, interfering, 18
inconsistent, hysterical, lesbian, prostitute)
Religious (to excess)
4
Shy, introvert, inhibited, passive
4
Loving
15
Otherwise caring (gentle, kind, warm, etc.) 12
Well-balanced, OK, normal
7
Practical, hardworking, intelligent
7
Active, energetic, ambitious
6
Died when young (one suicide)
6
Raised by step or foster mother
4
Attitudes
towards the mother were almost as negative as those towards the father. The most
common complaints about mother fell into three main groups:
Adding descriptions in these categories with
other negative opinions we find that no less than 57 subjects disliked their
mother in some respect, whereas only 27 reported that they had enjoyed a loving
or otherwise caring relationship with their mother. This is again a very much
less favourable attitude towards the mother than that displayed by the Sun
sample, where only 14 per cent expressed a dislike of their mother. It is
perhaps also significant that the mothers of six paedophiles died when they were
very young (one as a result of suicide) and that four were raised by a step or
foster mother.
While
the adequacy of the control data cited above might be questioned on various
counts, it nevertheless seems that these paedophile subjects had on average a
fairly bad relationship with their parents compared with the rest of the
population. It is tempting to conclude from this that experience of the parents
was in some way responsible for creating the paedophile preference in the
children (e.g. lack of a satisfactory father model through geographical or
psychological unavailability or insufficient tenderness on the part of the
mother to permit imprinting upon adult women as sex objects). Some paedophiles
even claim that they are seeking to reconstruct vicariously a more beautiful
childhood experience by bestowing warmth and love on their child partners (whom
they say are usually deprived in the same way that they were).
Such
explanations are quite appealing in the current environmentalist zeitgeist
within psychology, but there are at least three other types of explanation that
cannot be ruled out with the present evidence. One is that the behaviour of the
parents occurs as a reaction to the way in which they perceive their
(paedophile) children as developing (i.e. a result rather than a cause of the
paedophilia or the characteristics which predispose to it). For example, the
father may become aloof or hostile towards his son because he regards him as
unmanly or
otherwise
inadequate, and the mother may become dominant and overprotective in order to
compensate for the rejection of the father. Another possibility (which is in a
way the most parsimonious) is that of a genetic connection between the parents
and the children such that certain traits such as instability and social
communication difficulty run in the family. Finally, the paedophiles may be
generating negative descriptions of their parents in order to account for their
condition to themselves or to others, i.e. as a kind of ‘excuse’ for their
socially unacceptable preferences.
Unfortunately,
it is not at present possible to choose among these differing explanations of
the relationship between the paedophile preference and the way in which the
parents were perceived and recalled. It is, however, quite striking that the
pattern of weak and absent father combined with a dominant, overprotective
mother that has so often been implicated in homosexuality and other sexual
difficulties emerges once again within this group of subjects.
Parents’
attitude towards sex
Another
finding that recurs frequently in the literature on sexual deviation and
dysfunction is that of a sexually restrictive upbringing. Table 10 shows that
this was also characteristic of the upbringing of our paedophile sample. The
vast majority reported that their parents were secretive about sexual matters
—that sex was hardly ever mentioned and that nudity and even physical embraces
were rare phenomena in the home. Some said that they had ‘no idea’ what
their parents’ attitude towards sex might be, since the topic was never
raised. Others had no doubt that their parents held a strongly negative view of
sex, which they described variously as Victorian, prudish, strict, severe,
puritanical or based on religious taboos. One reported that the only advice he
was ever given was ‘If you ever get a girl into trouble I’ll kill you’.
Another said that his parents’ attitude was very moralising and full of
warnings about V.D., cleanliness, etc.’. One mother slept separately from the
father allegedly because he was ‘dirty’. One subject could not associate sex
with his parents at all; the two ideas were apparently quite incompatible.
Another subject recalled that he was once thoroughly spanked in childhood for
lifting up a girl’s skirt. Only six of the 77 subjects described their
parents’ attitude towards sex as positive or tolerant.
TABLE
10
Parents’
attitude towards sex (Numbers out of 77 giving description)
Never or seldom mentioned (secretive)
44
Victorian, prudish, strict, severe, taboo
26
Based on religious premises
9
Otherwise
negative (e.g. naive, inconsistent,
5
embarrassed)
Liberal, tolerant
6
Although
this paints a picture of very restrictive and puritanical attitudes towards sex
in the home of the average paedophile, the same problems of interpretation that
were discussed above arise here also. We don’t really have adequate control
data that would allow us to say that this group perceived their upbringing as
significantly different from normal. No doubt quite a high proportion of people
with ‘healthy sexual adjustment’ also perceive their parents as
old-fashioned and secretive with respect to sexual matters. There is also the
problem that some of the paedophiles may be trying to explain or justify their
unusual predilection to themselves or others by invoking childhood restrictions.
Finally, we should consider the possibility that a few paedophiles call their
parents restrictive and intolerant because they (along with most of society)
disapproved of the paedophile and/or homosexual orientation of their son.
Whatever
the interpretation, however, it does seem reason-able to conclude (1) that few
of the paedophiles learned their / predilection or were directly encouraged in
it by their parents, and (2) that a strict, religious upbringing is certainly no
safeguard against the development of paedophile interests. Rather, the
impression is that an overly negative attitude towards heterosexual playfulness
may be one predisposing factor in the development of paedophilia (and perhaps
other deviant sexual outlets).
Early
sexual experiences
Table
11 shows a broad categorisation of the earliest remembered sexual experiences.
Typically the first sexual experience was reported as occurring between the ages
of six and eleven, although a few subjects recalled sexual feelings dating from
the age of four, and there were one or two very late starters. One man claimed
to have had only one sexual experience in his lifetime (an episode of sodomy
that he did not enjoy), and another did not have his first ejaculation until the
age of eighteen, and then it occurred while he was doing physical exercises.
By
far the most common first experience was some form of homosexual exploration or
masturbation, usually involving school-friends or peer-age neighbours. Next most
common was heterosexual play or voyeurism (swapping looks) that sometimes
involved a sister or female relative. A similar number of subjects cited solo
fantasies and self-masturbation as their earliest sexual memory. Only six
subjects gained their introduction to sex as the ‘victim’ of another
paedophile, although this could well be a significantly higher proportion than
normal. We do not have control data against which to compare this figure.
Although
it is not uncommon for heterosexual men to pass through a phase of homosexual
exploration with school-friends in childhood, one thing that was quite striking
in the questionnaire responses was a tendency for the homosexual or heterosexual
orientation of the subjects to correspond with the nature of their first sexual
experience. The minority who reported a heterosexual initiation were much more
likely to be heterosexually oriented paedophiles as adults. This probably
represents an early manifestation of sex targeting set from childhood, though i1
could also reflect selective memory for childhood events that were experienced
as particularly exciting and enjoyable.
Table
12 gives a sample of the verbatim answers, including some that were fairly
typical and others that were thought interesting or illuminating in some way.
TABLE
11
Earliest
remembered sexual experiences (Numbers out of 77
declaring
each type of episode)
Homosexual masturbation (with approx. age peer)
35
Solo masturbation
11
Heterosexual sex play
13
Initiation by adult man
6
Other, or no answer
12
TABLE
12
Earliest
sexual experiences
(Selected
quotations)
S2
‘It was with a boy a year older than myself; he was 14. We just
stripped naked and cuddled each other.’
57
‘Playing with dolls; telling them they must go to the lavatory and if
they refuse they will be punished. A big erection. Age 4 years.’
S11
‘When I was approx. 11 years of age a boy played with my private parts
which I enjoyed without knowing what he was doing and I was thereafter unable to
continue this “enjoyment” on my own.
513
‘I used to contrive situations from the age of 14/15 where I would
spank younger boys, often naked, though only once did this produce an orgasm. My
sexual roots can be traced back as early as 8 however.’
S15
‘I never experienced ejaculation till 18 (when doing physical
exercises). As a child I had no sexual relations of any kind with adults nor
anyone else.’
S16
‘Only had one - sodomy with another man in my 20s. Not very
enjoyable.’
S20
‘Typical, “you show me yours - I’ll show you mine” encounter with
little girl up the street — had traumatic repercussions with parents as
someone saw us.
S38
‘About 8 years old I was assaulted indecently by a man of 60, but I was
a willing participant, and allowed it to go on for some years.
S45
‘At age 9 I went to a “children’s village” in Switzerland for two
years. The “housefather” (British) invited me to his room, exposed himself
and me, inviting mutual masturbation. Being ignorant of sex, I didn’t
understand what he meant and he sent me away again.’
S53
‘I was 13 when I became attracted to a boy in my class. He was the
smartest and the friendliest. My introversion and shyness prevented me from
forming any real relationship or sexual activity.’
S56
‘Looking at the legs and petticoat of a young barmaid at our pub
— not
aware it was sexual. Protective feelings towards the youngest boys in prep.
school when I was 10 or 11. Fantasy thoughts about them.’
S68
‘At 4 years getting frequent erections, when scolded, or on seeing
policemen. Having penis examined by our doctor, “Uncle Jim” (a cousin of
mother’s) in the presence of parents. At 13 encouraging other boys to “toss
me off’.’
S77
‘When I was about 10 or 11 years old I fell in love with a boy at
school. We kissed and cuddled only. First actual sex experiences at school at
about 12 years old, masturbation in class with another boy nicknamed Kipper.’
