FREQUENCY OF HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITY

The frequency of homosexual acts per year by all males outside institutions, regardless of marital status, shows some unusual uniformities when a rank-order is made. The three homosexual-offender groups are sharply differentiated from all others by their high average frequencies, which range from about 30 to 85 per year. At the other end of the rank-order the three incest-offender groups display by far the lowest frequencies, ranging from about once every 20 years to once every two years. They also had the fewest individuals with more than incidental homosexual experience. The control group holds a middle position with a frequency of slightly more than 3 per year. The three heterosexual-aggressor groups form an intermediate unit (3-4 per year). This is the only measurement in which three tripartite groups maintain complete unity (or contiguity) in rank-order.

This, however, is not the only peculiarity of this measurement. Certain groups which previously appeared relatively disinterested in homosexuality are seen to have incongruously high frequencies. For example, the heterosexual offenders vs. adults, in whom the incidence of homosexuality is low, have a moderate rather than low-average frequency of activity. Such incongruity simply means that the group contains a minority of very active individuals who are more strongly homosexual.

Turning to other measures of frequency, the median and mean frequencies of homosexual activity resulting in orgasm calculated for five-year age-periods, one finds that these calculations must be confined to the single individuals since too few married or postmarital males had homosexual activity while in that marital status. Even among the single men there are four groups with an insufficient number of members experienced in homosexual behavior to warrant frequency calculations —the aggressors vs. children and minors and two incest-offender groups. In terms of average (median) frequency among those with homosexual activity, we find the three homosexual-offender groups are at the top of the rank-order for age-period puberty-15, with orgasm about once every two weeks. They are followed by the peepers and the three heterosexual-offender groups with frequencies of between 10 and 19 orgasms a year. All other groups range from 5 to 8 annually. In age-period 16-20 the three homosexual-offender groups are still together, but the offenders vs. adults display considerably higher frequencies than do the other two. The remaining groups range from 3 to 10 orgasms a year. In age-period 21-25 this basic pattern remains, except that the prison group now slightly exceeds the homosexual offenders vs. children in frequency. The same situation prevails in age-period 26-30, alter which sample size precludes further comparisons.

Speaking generally, the active median frequency of homosexual activity resulting in orgasm is often greater before twenty than it is in the years from twenty-one to twenty-five; this seems due to adolescent experimentation and the difficulties society places in the way of young males seeking heterosexual coitus. Subsequently, however, for both control groups and the homosexual offenders there seems to be an increase in frequency with age. The active mean frequencies present much the same picture.

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