HETEROSEXUAL OFFENDERS VS. ADULTS: MARRIAGE

Three quarters of our sample of heterosexual offenders vs. adults had married before we questioned them, which is a sizable proportion considering the average (median) married offender vs. adults was not quite thirty-two years old at the time of the interview. Our accumulative incidence data show them as being marriage-prone: nearly two fifths had married by age twenty, four fifths by age thirty, and ultimately some 93 per cent had married. Aside from the incest offenders, who by definition had to have married (we have no case of a never-married male convicted of incest with an illegitimate daughter), the offenders vs. adults hold the marriage record. The average individual in this group married first soon after he was twenty-one—a low age in comparison to other groups.

Like the offenders vs. minors, they were moderately monogamous: two thirds of those who married did so but once, relatively few (21 per cent) twice, and a moderate number (12 per cent) three times or more. In the number of brief marriages ending in separation or divorce the offenders vs. adults are not distinctive.

While the offender vs. children hastened into marriage on short notice and the offender vs. minors was inclined prudently or fearfully to delay, the offender vs. adults occupies an intermediate position in a rank-order of how long an acquaintance he had with his future wife before marriage.

Interestingly enough, while these men were extremely active in coitus before marriage, only half had premarital coitus with the females who became their first wives; this is a relatively low percentage. One will recall that nearly one fifth of them expressed a strong desire for a virgin wife. They had no scruples about premarital coitus with anyone other than the girl they hoped to marry—they epitomize the double standard. There is nothing distinctive in the picture of prenuptial pregnancy—an average number of the women they married were pregnant at the time.

For every 100 married offenders vs. adults 186 children were born. This is a moderate number compared to other groups, but in view of the age of the husbands (the average husband being not quite thirty-two ) shows a somewhat above-average fertility.

Like the offenders vs. children, the offenders vs. adults tend to spend little time in foreplay prior to marital coitus—ranking sixth, with 36 per cent, in the list of those whose foreplay averaged three minutes or less. The heterosexual offenders vs. children are fourth, and the offenders vs. minors are seventh. A moderate proportion (20 per cent) devoted half an hour or more to the coital prelude, and 44 per cent (again a moderate number) fell between the two extremes.

Again like the offenders vs. minors, very few of the offenders vs. adults had had mouth-genital contact with their wives. Some 85 per cent, the second largest proportion recorded, never had this experience. Very few had either cunnilingus or fellation only, and but 10 per cent

(the second lowest figure recorded) had engaged in both types of activity in marriage.

Curiously enough, this conservatism is not mirrored in other sexual techniques: a moderate number had had anal coitus with their wives, and the number who had tried coital positions other than the usual female-supine male-prone is not particularly low.

In premarital life the offenders vs. adults were the undisputed Don Juans of our study, but marriage seems to have reduced them to a sexual mediocrity. The rates of marital coitus for the average individual varied from low-intermediate earlier in life (in terms of rank-order) to intermediate later in life. This upward trend later in life is seen more dramatically in the mean frequencies: here the offenders vs. adults hold intermediate positions up to age thirty-five and then leap to first place in age-period 36-40. This eleventh-hour marital renaissance is the work of a few individuals—the average (median) offender vs. adults is in an intermediate position in age-periods 36-40 and 41-45, with coital frequencies of 1.7 to 1.5 per week.

The proportions of total sexual outlet afforded by marital coitus do not increase or decrease with the frequencies described above. Instead, they are moderate in early life, gradually increasing to 89 per cent between thirty-one and thirty-five, which wins these offenders first place in the rank-order. They maintained essentially this figure (and third rank) in the following age-period, and then suddenly dropped— both relatively and absolutely—between forty-one and forty-five, when only 78 per cent of their total orgasms were in coitus with their wives. Much of this dramatic drop is due to the fact that the sample at this age is small and one individual in it began to have frequent extramarital coitus.

The orgasm frequencies of their wives as reported by the offenders vs. adults are not unusual.

In an over-all evaluation of their marriages, more of the offenders vs. adults than almost any other group (19 per cent, third largest proportion) reported their marriages as very unhappy. A moderate number said they were very happy, another moderate number said “rather unhappy,” and relatively few said they were moderately happy. In terms of absolute numbers the happy marriages far outweighed the unhappy. One may summarize by saying that the marital happiness of the offenders vs. adults was not importantly less than that of most offenders, but much less than that of the control-group individuals.

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