HETEROSEXUAL OFFENDERS VS. ADULTS: EXTRAMARITAL COITUS
One might expect of the offenders vs. adults a rather extensive history of extramarital coitus, but actually this characterized only a moderate number (63 per cent). This is not the contradiction it seems: as we have pointed out in an earlier volume, those who have extensive premarital activity ultimately become more monogamous in later married life than those whose premarital life was sexually restrained. This fact has long been recognized by the public (if not by behavioral scientists) and expressed in folk sayings about young men sowing their wild oats before settling down to monogamy.
In general, moderate proportions of these offenders have extramarital coitus with companions during the various five-year age-periods. Up to age thirty between 38 and 44 per cent were so involved; after age thirty the proportions decline to 20 to 30 per cent. The age-specific incidence figures for extramarital coitus with prostitutes are similarly moderate in most instances, generally being 10 to 16 per cent. However, among those who did have extramarital coitus (from one third to nearly half in various age-periods), the average (median) individual exhibits the highest frequencies from age thirty on, and fairly high frequencies prior to that, being at or near a 0.3 per week level until age thirty-six when an increase to 0.4 occurs. In brief, the premarital pattern of high coital frequency carried over into extramarital activity. The great majority of the coitus was with nonprostitutes.
From 1 to 12 per cent of the total sexual outlet of these married offenders came from extramarital coitus with companions, and never more than 3 per cent from prostitutes. However, this latter figure (actually 2.8 per cent in age-period 46-50) is the highest recorded by any group; when we couple this with the fact that they ranked third in the two preceding age-periods we see dimly reflected in these married males the increasing importance of prostitution among the single men in this offender group.
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