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Gebhard P.H., Gagnon J.H., Pomeroy W.B., Christenson C.V.

Sex Offenders: An Analysis of Types

Harper & Row, New York (1965)


investigated criminal cases. He asked the men serving prison sentences for sexual deliquency with boys what kinds of acts they performed.
                  with boys 0-11           with boys 12-15
                    (N=109)                    (N=175)
--------------------------------------------------------
Touching body
but not genitals      8.2 %                     7.4 %
Masturbation         45.0 %                    19.4 %
Oral practices       37.6 %                    48.6 %
Oral and anal int.    2.8 %                     3.4 %
Anal int. only        3.7 %                    10.3 %

Brongersma 1990, p.371

Under the pressure of police questioning, the child often minimizes his own part in initiating the sexual activities, and the questioning officer is inclined not to challenge it. The figures, then, are clearly distorted to the disadvantage of the adult. Nevertheless Gebhard (1965, p. 821), whose subjects were prisoners sentenced for sexual offenses and thus a sample likely to include some of the worse cases (all of which distorts the statistics even more), came up with the figures shown in this table:

             Boys of 0-11 years    Boys of 12-15 years
---------------------------------------------------------
Encouraging      52.3 %                70.3 %
Passive           6.8 %                11.0 %
Mixed             0.0 %                 2.2 %
Resistant        40.9 %                16.5 %

(Brongersma, p.134f)

review from Garland 1990

Gebhard at al. (1965) investigated the prevalence of self-reported childhood sexual contact with adults among a number of groups, including non-offenders, nonsexual offenders, and a variety of sex offenders. Among their findings concerning the prevalence of prepubertal sexual contact with adults (including sexual approaches, exhibitionism, and actual physical contact) were the following: (a) nonoffenders - 3% heterosexual contact, 8% homosexual contact; (b) nonsexual offenders - 10% heterosexual contact, 31% homosexual contact; (c) rapists - 10% heterosexual contact, 22% homosexual contact; (d) nonincestuous offenders of female children - 10% heterosexual contact, 24% homosexual contact; (e) incestuous offenders of female children - 8% heterosexual contact, 19% homosexual contact; (f) sex offenders of male children - 8% heterosexual contact, 32% homosexual contact; (g) nonincestuous offenders of female adolescents - 16% heterosexual contact, 14% homosexual contact; (f) nonincestuous offenders of male adolescents - 6% heterosexual contact, 35% homosexual contact; (h) incestuous offenders of female adolescents - 6% heterosexual contact, 13% homosexual contact;