PEEPERS: EARLY LIFE
Peepers show a strong tendency to be the youngest children of their parents. The portion who were the youngest far exceeds mathematical expectation and, conversely, the proportion who were eldest children is much too small. In all but three of the groups available for comparison (peepers, aggressors vs. minors, and homosexual offenders vs. adults), the largest number of individuals are intermediate in sibling position-being neither the youngest nor the oldest. Among the peepers, however, the largest number (36 per cent) were youngest children. There is a less marked but nonetheless evident tendency for peepers to have been only children. Some 16 per cent were reared without other siblings in the home (the third highest proportion recorded) and, perhaps significantly, over one third had no sisters—a relatively quite large percentage exceeded by only one group. Hence the peepers average only 1.5 sisters, the smallest number displayed. This lack is reflected in the sex ratio of their siblings; they had 129.9 brothers for every 100 sisters, which is the second highest ratio in favor of brothers.
Since the youngest or the only child is frequently favored by the parents, it is no surprise to find that peepers had relatively good relationships with their fathers. The same is true of their maternal relationships, in which they are very similar to the control group.
Perhaps the good relationship with both parents in part accounts for the fact that more of the peepers than any other group named them as their major source of sex knowledge: nearly 11 per cent of the peepers reported thus.3
In answer to the question, “With which parent did you get along better?” 52 per cent of the peepers reported that they got along equally well with both, 38 per cent preferred the mother, and 10 per cent the father. This is the “normal” preferential pattern that characterizes the control and prison groups and also the heterosexual offenders (not aggressors) against females of twelve and over.
Fifty per cent of the peepers came from broken homes; this is a low figure among sex offenders; only two sex-offender groups have a lesser one. As is usual, the original breakup of the home occurred prior to the boy’s tenth year; for the average boy it happened when he was 5.6 years of age—the fourth youngest age of any reported by our comparative groups.
Ordinarily a low percentage of broken homes is indicative of a good interparental relationship in both the original and subsequent marriages, but this does not seem to be true in the case of the peepers. Their parents got along rather poorly, less well than did the parents of the control group. Their low-middle position on this scale would call for no comment were it not for their better than average relationships with their parents and their relatively low percentage of broken homes.
Largely in consequence of the low percentage of broken homes, a sizable proportion of peepers lived 15 or more years in a home in which both a husband and wife were present: they rank third in this respect, below only the control group and the incest offenders vs. adults. Among those who lived 18 or more years with two parents the peepers are second only to the control group. Conversely, of all groups, the peepers counted the fewest individuals who lived in an all-female household.
Although they got along well with their parents, they did not socialize well with children of their own age. rxnorth.com At ages ten to eleven only 16 per cent had numerous boy and girl playmates—near the bottom of the rank-order. In terms of female companionship, 41 per cent had no girl playmates and only 16 per cent had many, making the peepers as a group next to the lowest in this respect. Perhaps this correlates with their relative lack of sisters. This very poor socialization with females at an early age proves an ill omen for their future heterosexual adjustment.
Despite this poor socialization, the peepers have a moderate incidence of prepubertal sex play. The only noteworthy thing about them is their impartiality between the heterosexual and homosexual: equal numbers had experience in each. Moreover, the percentages who were exclusively homosexual and exclusively heterosexual in their play are essentially the same. Whether hetero- or homosexual, the sex play of the peepers was relatively limited: in close to half of the cases it was confined to one year.
A study of their techniques reveals that in heterosexual activity the peepers were low in the percentage with coital experience, but high in the percentage with mouth-genital contact. The latter percentage, however, may be insignificant since many groups lie within a percentage point or two of one another, and the percentages are all low. In homosexual techniques the peepers rate above-average in all, and the percentage with homosexual mouth-genital contact is exceeded only by that of the homosexual offenders vs. adults. This fact tends to confirm the high standing of the peepers in heterosexual mouth-genital contact. This homosexual emphasis is relative only; in absolute numbers more peepers had prepubertal coitus than homosexual anal relationships or homosexual mouth-genital contact. Of those who had prepubertal coitus only a very small proportion (20 per cent, the smallest proportion recorded) continued to do so uninterruptedly into postpubertal life; the majority ceased and did not resume having coitus for a number of years.
In summary, the future peepers had few girl companions, but an average number did succeed in having hetero- and homosexual play in preadolescent life. This play was relatively limited in duration. Compared to other groups, they emphasized mouth-genital contact, particularly in homosexual relationships.
Very few prepubescent peepers were approached sexually by adult females, equaling the percentage displayed by the control group. By itself this information signifies little, especially since adult females rarely have sexual contact with preadolescent boys but as another bit of data in the growing evidence of the peepers’ inadequate heterosexual adjustment it deserves at least passing notice.
A moderate number of peepers had homosexual overtures and physical contact with adult males; there is nothing distinctive about them in this respect, although in this instance the peepers, usually near the control group in many measurements, far exceed the controls.
Neither is there anything marked about their health during childhood: in an evaluation of this, they are near but somewhat inferior to the men in the prison and control groups.
Their prepubescent record of masturbation similarly reveals nothing unusual, except that in comparison to other offenders they tended to begin later in preadolescence.
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