HETEROSEXUAL OFFENDERS VS. CHILDREN: EARLY LIFE
As compared to the control group the heterosexual offenders vs. children are not particularly distinctive in terms of whether or not they were only children or youngest or oldest in the family. However, they are one of the four groups that had fewer brothers than sisters. Most sex offenders display a mild to strong bias in favor of male siblings.
We asked everyone we interviewed how he got along with his parents between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, the years when rebellion and emancipation generally begin. The adjustment of the offenders vs. children to their fathers was inferior to that of the control group, but not remarkably so. However, when they are compared with other offenders, an interesting trend is seen: the offenders vs. adults (whose female partners were aged sixteen or over) had an excellent adjustment with their fathers; the offenders vs. minors (whose female partners were aged twelve to fifteen) got along somewhat less well, though they were still in this respect superior to the control individuals; but the offenders vs. children had, relatively, a distinctly poorer adjustment.
A similar situation is seen when one examines the adjustment with the mother—the offenders vs. adults and minors had a good adjustment while the offenders vs. children had a poorer (but generally average) adjustment.
All persons interviewed were also asked with which parent they got along better. The majority of the control group (51 per cent) replied that they got along equally well with both, some got along better with their mothers (39 per cent), and very few (10 per cent) got along better with their fathers. This order, as will subsequently be shown, seems to be the “normal” one. About the same number of offenders vs. children, on the other hand, reported getting along better with the mother (43 per cent) as reported getting along equally well with both parents (44 per cent). This relative maternal preference is seen among all heterosexual offenders whose partners were under twelve years of age.
Half of the heterosexual offenders vs. children came from broken homes; among sex offenders this is a common percentage, but far greater than the percentage in the control group (30 per cent). The breakup by separation, death, or divorce occurred when the average offender was around eight years old—a relatively late date—and about the same age as the average control-group individual from a broken home.
In answer to the question how the parents (or parent surrogates) of the offender vs. children got along with one another when the future offender was between fourteen and seventeen, we find them in a middle position in a rank-order: about half of the various types of sex offenders had parents who got along with one another better than did the parents of the offender vs. children, and about half, worse. Evidently interparental friction is no factor in predisposing one toward becoming an offender vs. children, although it is characteristic of sex offenders in general.
Despite the incidence of broken homes, nearly two thirds of the offenders vs. children had spent 15 or more years of life, out of their first 18 years, in a home with a husband and wife present. The couple were not necessarily the genetic parents of the offender but were, at least, surrogate parents. This is somewhat more years than most other types of offenders spend in an intact home and far more than the prison group. In comparison to the control group, however, for whom the figure is about three quarters, the offenders vs. children do not make so good a showing.
Eight per cent of the offenders vs. children spent ten or more years (before age eighteen) in a household in which the adults were all women. This is a relatively high percentage for a rare phenomenon, being exceeded by only four other sex-offender groups; however, the differences in percentage points are not great, the control group having nearly the same (5 per cent).
It is of interest to see how the heterosexual offenders vs. children adjusted to people outside the family circle. In terms of the number of companions at ages ten to eleven and the ratio between male and female companions, they occupy an intermediate position among the other groups, and are often within a few percentage points of the control group. Like all offenders against children, they tend to have had more female companions than those who offended against older persons, although again the percentage differences are small.
Turning to the more specifically sexual aspects of prepubertal life, we find that roughly 70 per cent of the heterosexual offenders vs. children had prepubertal sex play with other children—a percentage which is in no way unusual, and one not far removed from that of the control and prison groups. Similarly, the percentages with heterosexual and homosexual play are moderate and near those of the control group. This same “middle of the road” trait is evident when one examines the techniques employed and the number of years the play continued. It is evident that there is nothing we have measured in the prepubertal sex play with other children that is diagnostic of the heterosexual offender vs. children.
One might, however, anticipate some significant findings when one studies their prepubertal sexual experiences with adults, but the fact is that as far as their experiences involved women the figures for offenders vs. children are not unlike those for a number of other sex-offender groups. However, the percentage (nearly 10 per cent) is much higher than that for the control group (about 3 per cent). For nearly half of that 10 per cent, the sexual experience included coitus. This is rather high relative to other sex-offender groups and much higher compared to the control group, of whom only 1 per cent had had such prepubertal coitus.
A more pronounced tendency toward contact with adults is seen in the homosexual area: 18 per cent of the future offenders vs. children had had sexual contact with adult males, a figure essentially equal to that of the prison group and exceeded only by the homosexual offenders. Eighteen per cent represents nearly three quarters of those who had ever been sexually approached by adult males: a large proportion compared to other groups. But while their subsequent adult offense was heterosexual, the important thing is that the early experience may have impressed them with the realization that adult males do sexually approach children. Nevertheless, this prepubescent experience did not apparently result in an undue incidence of homosexuality in later life.
The majority of heterosexual offenders vs. children (72 per cent) enjoyed good health in their childhood, a figure below that of the control-group individuals; another 12 per cent (a relatively large percentage) had poor health, so that compared to the other groups the offenders vs. children rate as having had rather poor health.
Some 44 per cent of the heterosexual offenders vs. children had masturbated before puberty, a percentage comparatively neither high nor low. Since the term “masturbation” has been used rather loosely, especially in describing childhood activity, it is appropriate to define our sense of the word. Masturbation is deliberate self-stimulation producing sexual arousal. In the case of prepubescent males, such stimulation is almost always specific manipulation of the genitalia resulting in penile erection and, occasionally, in orgasm. The heterosexual offenders vs. children who engaged in prepubertal masturbation began relatively early, slightly over half before age ten.
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