Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 5, No. 5, 1976
Bisexuality in Homosexual Pedophilia 1 Kurt Freund, M.D., D.Sc., 2'3'4 and Ron Langevin, Ph.D. 4
INTRODUCTION To date very little is known about pedophilia, i.e., an erotic preference for children, and with the exception of the work o f Mohr et al. (1964) and Gebhard et al. (1965) little systematic effort has been devoted to investigating this condition. In a search for differences between persons who erotically prefer physically mature partners and those who prefer minors, the results o f two studies (Freund, 1967, Freund et al., 1973) indicate that there may be such a difference with respect to bisexuality. Both studies employed the phallometric test, which is based on comparison o f penile responses to various potentially sexual objects or situations. In the first of these studies (1967), homosexual s pedophilic males showed conspicuously high penile responses to pictures of female children. In the other (1973), little bisexuality could be found in normal heterosexual males as well as in androphilic males, i.e., in homosexual subjects who erotically prefer physically mature partners. The present investigation was designed to confirm and clarify these earlier studies by posing the following questions: (1) Do homosexual pedophflic males respond to female e-hildren? (2) If yes, do all homosexual pedophilic males (as was suggested in the study o f 1967) or only some o f them respond? (3) Are
This article was presented at the meeting of the International Academy of Sex Research, held at Stony Brook, New York, September 1975. 2Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 3Research Psychiatrist, Ontario Correctional Institute, Brampton, Ontario, Canada. 4Research Scientist, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 5Homosexuality is the sustained erotic preference for same-sex persons when there is a free choice of partner as to sex and other attributes which may codetermine erotic attractiveness. In this definition, the term "sex" denotes male type or female type of externally visible gross somatic features ("body shape"), particularly the type of external genitals, whereas male vs. female types of behavior patterns fall among "other attributes." 415 © 1 9 7 6 P l e n u m Publishing Corporation, 2 2 7 West 1 7 t h Street, New Y o r k , N . Y . 1 0 0 1 1 . N o part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.
416
Freund and Langevin
those homosexual pedophilic males who do respond to female children more bisexual than androphilic males? The subjects in this study were compared on two aspects of bisexuality: bisexuality derived from penile responses to male and female body shape and bisexuality derived from self-reports. It was expected that convergent validation of bisexuality from these two aspects would make possible differentiation between nonbisexual and bisexual subjects. Feminine gender identity was included in the analysis as a possible confounding factor, since one could expect that it is related not only to preferred partner age (see Freund et al., 1974a) but also to degre e of acceptance of the heterosexual role.
METHOD Subjects Bisexual and nonbisexual androphilic males were selected from a data bank of 66 paid volunteers who were recruited through a local homophile organization and who had been administered the phallometric test (see below). Two criteria were used to derive four androphilic groups, two bisexual and two nonbisexual. The first criterion was met by answering both of the following items in either the positive or the negative: (1)whether, since age 13, the subject had ever fallen in love with or had a crush on a female who was between the ages of 13 and 40, and (2) whether he had ever desired sexual intercourse with a female age 17-40. Only 13 subjects were "nonbisexual" by this criterion. They were matched with a group of 13 "bisexual" subjects on age and education. This was the androphilic group pair I. Table I. Mean Age and Education for the Androphilic and Pedophilic Groups Group Androphiles I Bisexual Nonbisexual Androphiles II Bisexual Nonbisexual Pedophiles Bisexual Nonbisexual
N
Age
Education a
13 13
26.3 26.7
5.8 5.9
12 12
26.2 29.5
6.0 5.5
9 13
32.8 30.9
4.6 4.1
aScale: 4, more than 8 grades completed but less than 12; 5, at least 12 grades completed but no university; 6, university studies without graduation.
Bisexuality in Homosexual Pedophilia
417
The second criterion for "bisexuality" was the positive vs. negative answer to the question "whether there had been any period of 14 days or less when the subject had intercourse with a female age 17-40, more than 5 times?' Only'12 subjects were "bisexual" by this criterion. They were matched with a "nonbisexual" group on largest response to age category in phallometric test (see later), and (as far as possible) on age and education. This was the androphilic group pair II. There was no overlap of subjects in the 4 groups. The homosexual pedophilic group consisted of all the subjects seen by us since 1972, who fulfilled each of the following three conditions: (1) either they were charged for sexually molesting a child (incest excluded) or they themselves complained of erotically preferring children, (2) they underwent the phallometric test, and (3) they chose either the "nonbisexual" alternative 2 or one of the "bisexual" alternatives 4 or 5 of the following multiple-choice question: Since the age of 16, had they ever felt sexually attracted toward 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Girls younger than 12, but not boys of this age. Boys younger than 12, but not girls of this age. Mainly girls younger than 12, but also boys of this age. Mainly boys younger than 12, but also girls of this age. Both girls and boys younger than 12 about equally. Neither girls nor boys younger than 12.
There were altogether 22 homosexual pedophilic subjects, 13 "nonbisexual" and 9 "bisexual? '6 Table I shows mean age and education of the various subject groups.
Apparatus and Materials The phallometer, used in previous investigations, was employed to measure penile volume changes. For a detailed description, see Freund (1965) and Freund e t al. (1965). Color pictures of nude persons were used as stimuli. There were four age categories of each sex (mean age range 6 years 6 months to 23 years 2 months), and each category was represented by six pictures (see Table I in Freund e t al., 1973). A feminine gender identity scale for males was also employed. For a detailed description, see Freund e t al. (1974b).
6Twelve of the 13 "nonbisexual" subjects had charges and there were only male victims. Seven among the "bisexual" subjects had chosen alternative 4. Four of them had only male victims in charges and each one of the remaining three subjects had more male than female victims in charges. Among the three subjects who chose alternative 5, one had several charges for involvement with boys and no charge for any involvement with girls. The remaining two subjects had no charges against them and heterosexual vs~ homosexual preference was assessed by interview.
418
Freund and l_angevin Procedure
The phallometric test of erotic preference (Freund, 1957) was used. Short movie films were shown of the photographic subjects, one at a time, approaching the camera and smiling. The movies were presented for 14 sec each and penile volume was recorded at the start (Ro) of each presentation, and 14 and 28 sec later (R i ) and R2). The subject's response was defined by the differences R 1 Ro a n d R 2 - R o .
Analysis of Data Data were examined in two ways: by comparing the responses to each sex-age category of potential erotic objects separately, and according to indices derived from responses. Such a phallometric result was accepted as valid only where "output index," i.e., the mean of the six highest responses, 7 exceeded 650 cram. A bisexuality index was computed for each subject by subtracting the sum of the 12 highest responses to pictures of males from the sum of the 12 highest responses to pictures of females. These responses were first z-scored, using all the responses from each subject separately. A smaller bisexuality index represents a higher degree of bisexuality than does a larger index. The sign of a bisexuality index of absolute value ~> 3.0 was the phallometric indicator of heterosexuality (+) or homosexuality ( - ) . If the bisexuality index was greater than the absolute value 3.0 and the sign was contradictory to the sex preference indicated by the subject's statements, the subject was excluded. 8 The z-scores were also used for calculating an age preference index for female and male pictures separately from mean responses to the various age categories: 3 × response to adults + 1 X response to pubescents - 1 × response to 8½- to 11-year-old children - 3 X response to 6- to 8-year-olds. RESULTS
Penile Responses to Separate Sex-Age Categories Since the questions asked in this study pertained to responses to females, the various age categories of females were investigated in separate multivariate and univariate analyses, excluding pictures of males. The variables in this 2 X 3 × 4 multivariate analysis were Ro, R1 - Ro, and R 2 - Ro in standard scores 7Thxee pedophilic subjects did not reach this criterion and were excluded. The number of such androphilic subjects excluded could not be recovered. SThis happened in three cases. Two would have belonged in the bisexual androphilic group of pair 1 and the third in the bisexual pedophilic group.
419
B~sexuality in Homosexual Pedophflia I~.- ~----0
I.- ....... I-
+.20 +.10 0
"'o
-.10
Nonbisex. Andro. -II Bisex. Andro.
.....
-o
------
..A B,sex. Andro.
Nonbisex. Andro.
o
o Nonbisex. Pedo.
A ...........
A B,sex. Pedo.
I
I II
II
%. "%
-.20 t/3
-.30 -.40 "
-.50 -.60 -30 ",80
I
I
I
e
Y. CH.
O. CH.
P.
A.
Fig. 1. Mean responses of the various subject groups to pictures of females. Abscissa: Y. CH., 6- to 8-year-old children; O. CH., 8%- to ll-year-old children; P., pubescent youths; A., adults.
(derived for each subject separately). The factors were bisexuality vs. nonbisexuality (2), androphilic vs. pedophilic groupings (3), and age (4) of person on stimulus picture. The three-way interaction effect was significant, F = 6.88, df = 6, 1 6 3 8 , P < 0.0001. Figure 1 shows mean penile responses Re - R . to the various age brackets of females, for the four androphilic and two pedophilic groups of subjects. In Table II, the interaction effects of the univariate analyses are given. Results of the Neuman-Keuls test (W,her, 1962) were as follows: (1) Bisexual pedophilic males responded significantly more than any other group to 6- to 8-year-old female children, and there were no other differences. (2) Bisexual pedophilic males responded significantly more than all the other groups to 8½- to 11-year-old female children, with the exception of the two n.rib,sexual androphilic groups, but the differentiation was weak (between the 0.01 and the 0.05 level). (3) There was no significant difference between any of the subject groups in responses to pubescent females. (4) Homosexual pedophilic males responded significantly less to adult females than did androphiles. Analysis
Freund and Langevin
420
Table II. Results of Univariate Analyses of Variance on Responses to Pictures of Females F
Age range of subjects on pictures 6-8 years old 8½-11 years old old Pubescents Adults adf = 2, 66. bdf = 1, 66. cp < 0.01.
Androphiles vs. pedophilesa
Bisexuals vs. nonbisexualsb
Interaction
6.45 c
5.44 d
23.95 e
3.50 d 1.16 3.62 d
Bisexuality in Homosexual Pedophilia 1 Kurt Freund, M.D., D.Sc., 2'3'4 and Ron Langevin, Ph.D. 4
INTRODUCTION To date very little is known about pedophilia, i.e., an erotic preference for children, and with the exception of the work o f Mohr et al. (1964) and Gebhard et al. (1965) little systematic effort has been devoted to investigating this condition. In a search for differences between persons who erotically prefer physically mature partners and those who prefer minors, the results o f two studies (Freund, 1967, Freund et al., 1973) indicate that there may be such a difference with respect to bisexuality. Both studies employed the phallometric test, which is based on comparison o f penile responses to various potentially sexual objects or situations. In the first of these studies (1967), homosexual s pedophilic males showed conspicuously high penile responses to pictures of female children. In the other (1973), little bisexuality could be found in normal heterosexual males as well as in androphilic males, i.e., in homosexual subjects who erotically prefer physically mature partners. The present investigation was designed to confirm and clarify these earlier studies by posing the following questions: (1) Do homosexual pedophflic males respond to female e-hildren? (2) If yes, do all homosexual pedophilic males (as was suggested in the study o f 1967) or only some o f them respond? (3) Are
This article was presented at the meeting of the International Academy of Sex Research, held at Stony Brook, New York, September 1975. 2Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 3Research Psychiatrist, Ontario Correctional Institute, Brampton, Ontario, Canada. 4Research Scientist, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 5Homosexuality is the sustained erotic preference for same-sex persons when there is a free choice of partner as to sex and other attributes which may codetermine erotic attractiveness. In this definition, the term "sex" denotes male type or female type of externally visible gross somatic features ("body shape"), particularly the type of external genitals, whereas male vs. female types of behavior patterns fall among "other attributes." 415 © 1 9 7 6 P l e n u m Publishing Corporation, 2 2 7 West 1 7 t h Street, New Y o r k , N . Y . 1 0 0 1 1 . N o part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.
416
Freund and Langevin
those homosexual pedophilic males who do respond to female children more bisexual than androphilic males? The subjects in this study were compared on two aspects of bisexuality: bisexuality derived from penile responses to male and female body shape and bisexuality derived from self-reports. It was expected that convergent validation of bisexuality from these two aspects would make possible differentiation between nonbisexual and bisexual subjects. Feminine gender identity was included in the analysis as a possible confounding factor, since one could expect that it is related not only to preferred partner age (see Freund et al., 1974a) but also to degre e of acceptance of the heterosexual role.
METHOD Subjects Bisexual and nonbisexual androphilic males were selected from a data bank of 66 paid volunteers who were recruited through a local homophile organization and who had been administered the phallometric test (see below). Two criteria were used to derive four androphilic groups, two bisexual and two nonbisexual. The first criterion was met by answering both of the following items in either the positive or the negative: (1)whether, since age 13, the subject had ever fallen in love with or had a crush on a female who was between the ages of 13 and 40, and (2) whether he had ever desired sexual intercourse with a female age 17-40. Only 13 subjects were "nonbisexual" by this criterion. They were matched with a group of 13 "bisexual" subjects on age and education. This was the androphilic group pair I. Table I. Mean Age and Education for the Androphilic and Pedophilic Groups Group Androphiles I Bisexual Nonbisexual Androphiles II Bisexual Nonbisexual Pedophiles Bisexual Nonbisexual
N
Age
Education a
13 13
26.3 26.7
5.8 5.9
12 12
26.2 29.5
6.0 5.5
9 13
32.8 30.9
4.6 4.1
aScale: 4, more than 8 grades completed but less than 12; 5, at least 12 grades completed but no university; 6, university studies without graduation.
Bisexuality in Homosexual Pedophilia
417
The second criterion for "bisexuality" was the positive vs. negative answer to the question "whether there had been any period of 14 days or less when the subject had intercourse with a female age 17-40, more than 5 times?' Only'12 subjects were "bisexual" by this criterion. They were matched with a "nonbisexual" group on largest response to age category in phallometric test (see later), and (as far as possible) on age and education. This was the androphilic group pair II. There was no overlap of subjects in the 4 groups. The homosexual pedophilic group consisted of all the subjects seen by us since 1972, who fulfilled each of the following three conditions: (1) either they were charged for sexually molesting a child (incest excluded) or they themselves complained of erotically preferring children, (2) they underwent the phallometric test, and (3) they chose either the "nonbisexual" alternative 2 or one of the "bisexual" alternatives 4 or 5 of the following multiple-choice question: Since the age of 16, had they ever felt sexually attracted toward 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Girls younger than 12, but not boys of this age. Boys younger than 12, but not girls of this age. Mainly girls younger than 12, but also boys of this age. Mainly boys younger than 12, but also girls of this age. Both girls and boys younger than 12 about equally. Neither girls nor boys younger than 12.
There were altogether 22 homosexual pedophilic subjects, 13 "nonbisexual" and 9 "bisexual? '6 Table I shows mean age and education of the various subject groups.
Apparatus and Materials The phallometer, used in previous investigations, was employed to measure penile volume changes. For a detailed description, see Freund (1965) and Freund e t al. (1965). Color pictures of nude persons were used as stimuli. There were four age categories of each sex (mean age range 6 years 6 months to 23 years 2 months), and each category was represented by six pictures (see Table I in Freund e t al., 1973). A feminine gender identity scale for males was also employed. For a detailed description, see Freund e t al. (1974b).
6Twelve of the 13 "nonbisexual" subjects had charges and there were only male victims. Seven among the "bisexual" subjects had chosen alternative 4. Four of them had only male victims in charges and each one of the remaining three subjects had more male than female victims in charges. Among the three subjects who chose alternative 5, one had several charges for involvement with boys and no charge for any involvement with girls. The remaining two subjects had no charges against them and heterosexual vs~ homosexual preference was assessed by interview.
418
Freund and l_angevin Procedure
The phallometric test of erotic preference (Freund, 1957) was used. Short movie films were shown of the photographic subjects, one at a time, approaching the camera and smiling. The movies were presented for 14 sec each and penile volume was recorded at the start (Ro) of each presentation, and 14 and 28 sec later (R i ) and R2). The subject's response was defined by the differences R 1 Ro a n d R 2 - R o .
Analysis of Data Data were examined in two ways: by comparing the responses to each sex-age category of potential erotic objects separately, and according to indices derived from responses. Such a phallometric result was accepted as valid only where "output index," i.e., the mean of the six highest responses, 7 exceeded 650 cram. A bisexuality index was computed for each subject by subtracting the sum of the 12 highest responses to pictures of males from the sum of the 12 highest responses to pictures of females. These responses were first z-scored, using all the responses from each subject separately. A smaller bisexuality index represents a higher degree of bisexuality than does a larger index. The sign of a bisexuality index of absolute value ~> 3.0 was the phallometric indicator of heterosexuality (+) or homosexuality ( - ) . If the bisexuality index was greater than the absolute value 3.0 and the sign was contradictory to the sex preference indicated by the subject's statements, the subject was excluded. 8 The z-scores were also used for calculating an age preference index for female and male pictures separately from mean responses to the various age categories: 3 × response to adults + 1 X response to pubescents - 1 × response to 8½- to 11-year-old children - 3 X response to 6- to 8-year-olds. RESULTS
Penile Responses to Separate Sex-Age Categories Since the questions asked in this study pertained to responses to females, the various age categories of females were investigated in separate multivariate and univariate analyses, excluding pictures of males. The variables in this 2 X 3 × 4 multivariate analysis were Ro, R1 - Ro, and R 2 - Ro in standard scores 7Thxee pedophilic subjects did not reach this criterion and were excluded. The number of such androphilic subjects excluded could not be recovered. SThis happened in three cases. Two would have belonged in the bisexual androphilic group of pair 1 and the third in the bisexual pedophilic group.
419
B~sexuality in Homosexual Pedophflia I~.- ~----0
I.- ....... I-
+.20 +.10 0
"'o
-.10
Nonbisex. Andro. -II Bisex. Andro.
.....
-o
------
..A B,sex. Andro.
Nonbisex. Andro.
o
o Nonbisex. Pedo.
A ...........
A B,sex. Pedo.
I
I II
II
%. "%
-.20 t/3
-.30 -.40 "
-.50 -.60 -30 ",80
I
I
I
e
Y. CH.
O. CH.
P.
A.
Fig. 1. Mean responses of the various subject groups to pictures of females. Abscissa: Y. CH., 6- to 8-year-old children; O. CH., 8%- to ll-year-old children; P., pubescent youths; A., adults.
(derived for each subject separately). The factors were bisexuality vs. nonbisexuality (2), androphilic vs. pedophilic groupings (3), and age (4) of person on stimulus picture. The three-way interaction effect was significant, F = 6.88, df = 6, 1 6 3 8 , P < 0.0001. Figure 1 shows mean penile responses Re - R . to the various age brackets of females, for the four androphilic and two pedophilic groups of subjects. In Table II, the interaction effects of the univariate analyses are given. Results of the Neuman-Keuls test (W,her, 1962) were as follows: (1) Bisexual pedophilic males responded significantly more than any other group to 6- to 8-year-old female children, and there were no other differences. (2) Bisexual pedophilic males responded significantly more than all the other groups to 8½- to 11-year-old female children, with the exception of the two n.rib,sexual androphilic groups, but the differentiation was weak (between the 0.01 and the 0.05 level). (3) There was no significant difference between any of the subject groups in responses to pubescent females. (4) Homosexual pedophilic males responded significantly less to adult females than did androphiles. Analysis
Freund and Langevin
420
Table II. Results of Univariate Analyses of Variance on Responses to Pictures of Females F
Age range of subjects on pictures 6-8 years old 8½-11 years old old Pubescents Adults adf = 2, 66. bdf = 1, 66. cp < 0.01.
Androphiles vs. pedophilesa
Bisexuals vs. nonbisexualsb
Interaction
6.45 c
5.44 d
23.95 e
3.50 d 1.16 3.62 d
