PREMARITAL COITUS: FREQUENCY
Among those who had premarital coitus with companions, the heterosexual offenders vs. adults usually lead in the tables showing median frequency, followed by the prison group and offenders vs. minors. The aggressors vs. adults also tend to rank somewhat high. A considerable frequency gap usually separates the offenders vs. adults from the second ranking group; aside from this, the order reveals a reasonably gradated sequence with the control group in the middle. At or near the bottom are the homosexual offenders. However, the peepers, who were low in incidence of premarital coitus, are not low in terms of frequency. This is because we are dealing with “active” frequency, much of which consists of the coital frequencies of the sexually active subgroup of peepers. The same appears true of the incest offenders vs. adults in the one age-period for which we have data. In brief, the incest offenders vs. adults and the peepers who had premarital coitus had it with moderate frequency.
In mean frequency of premarital coitus with companions, a similar situation prevails. The offenders vs. adults generally lead, with the prison group and offenders vs. minors following, and the aggressors vs. adults sometimes close behind. Unlike the median frequency, in the mean-frequency calculations the control group moves from a low rank up to second rank between ages twenty-six to thirty, when the offenders vs. adults inexplicably pause in their coital activity (resuming their usual frequency later) and the offenders vs. minors and aggressors vs. adults also curtail their activity.
As usual one sees the homosexual offenders low in mean frequency of premarital coitus with Companions—particularly later in life when, so to speak, the sexual die has been cast—but they are joined by two unexpected groups. The frequencies of the aggressors vs. children can be calculated only for age-periods 16-20 and 21-25, and in both this group occupies the lowest rank; their incidence figures gave no warning of this. The incest offenders vs. minors also are at, or second from, the bottom in the rank-orders wherever data for them exist.
At this juncture it is necessary to make explicit one of our assumptions. We have felt that a positive correlation should exist between incidence and frequency. Thus if the incidence figure of a group is high for a certain sexual activity, we feel that this probably indicates a high interest in die activity, and logically a high interest should result in high frequencies. In a rough way this assumption can be justified by our data. For example, the homosexual offenders vs. adults have both low incidences and low frequencies of premarital coitus with companions whereas the heterosexual offenders vs. adults and the prison group have high figures. However, in particular groups and at particular ages this correlation between incidence and frequency is weak or absent.
The frequencies of premarital coitus with prostitutes are less than the frequencies of premarital coitus with companions. The frequency data concerning premarital coitus with prostitutes often do not agree with the incidence data. The highest median frequencies are displayed by the homosexual offenders vs. children, and the heterosexual offenders vs. adults and minors. The highest mean frequencies are those of the heterosexual offenders vs. adults. By and large there are no cohesive tendencies or outstanding trends; the tripartite groups are usually scattered through the rank-orders, and the age-of-object (child, minor, adult) categories are similarly distributed. One gains the impression that the frequency of coitus with prostitutes often depends upon paradoxical and sometimes fortuitous factors. It can be on one hand a sort of “spillover” on the part of a very active heterosexual group, representing a psychologically and numerically unimportant part of life; on the other hand, for another group, it may represent a substantial or major part of their heterosexual activity and be of extreme importance. One means of telling which of the two possibilities is applicable is to consider simultaneously the ratio between the proportion of total outlet derived from premarital coitus with companions and that derived from prostitutes, and die median frequency of total premarital coitus. Taking age-period 21-25, one finds that the four groups with the highest frequencies of premarital coitus have total outlet ratios wherein coitus with companions outweighs that with prostitutes by 5 to 1, 7 to 1 (two groups), and 8 to 1. For these groups, prostitution may be assumed to represent a “spillover.” The four groups with the lowest frequencies of premarital coitus have total outlet ratios of 4 to 1, 2 to 1 (two groups), and one group derived more outlet from prostitutes than from companions. These groups would exemplify those wherein prostitution was an important part of sexual life.
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