The above percentages do not, of course, measure the amount of extramarital coitus. One quantitative measure is the number of partners accumulated by those who had extramarital coitus. A rank-order of number of partners does not agree with the incidence figures discussed on the previous pages. The discrepancies are sometimes quite startling. For example, the homosexual offenders vs. adults ranked last in ever-never incidence of extramarital coitus, but those who had this experience had it with the second largest number of partners. Setting aside the calculations of numbers of extramarital partners for the entire sample, and considering only the eligible category, one sees no particular groupings or tendencies. The aggressors vs. minors rank first with 12 partners, the homosexual offenders vs. adults are second with 11, and the prison group is third with almost as many. The control group falls in the central portion of the rank-order with five partners.
Although a number of variables are obviously involved, one can posit some explanations. If one has an aggressive, sexually active group (such as the aggressors vs. minors), one may expect a high incidence of extramarital coitus and a large number of partners; such a group could be said to have a low threshold for extramarital coitus. A group with a high threshold (due to morality, homosexuality, and other deterrents) would provide a low incidence, but those with enough drive to cross the threshold would express this strength of drive by accumulating a large number of partners. Such seems the case with the homosexual offenders vs. adults. The above explanations cannot serve for the majority of groups whose paradoxical figures remain inexplicable. Those with the fewest extramarital partners are the heterosexual
aggressors vs. adults (the median individual had nearly five partners), the incest offenders vs. children (four partners), and the peepers (three partners). The peepers require no explanations: their life, or any segment of it, reveals difficulty in securing coitus. The other two groups, however, present a real problem. First of all, the incest offenders vs. children had the largest proportion (84 per cent) of ever-married members who reported extramarital coitus—why, then, did they have so few partners? Their heterosexual life in general suggests no especial deterrents; they are ordinarily not a group notable for restraint. There is nothing in the number or duration of their marriages to explain this paucity of partners; indeed, a high percentage (50 per cent) reported their marriages as unhappy, a situation which usually breeds extramarital coitus. A high incidence, a small number of partners (an average of four), and rather steady frequencies of extramarital coitus indicate a certain adulterous monogamy such as one would find among men who confine their sexual activity outside their marriages to longtime mistresses. Despite the suggestion of stability and contentment implied by such monogamy, the extramarital experience obviously did not prevent these men from ultimately turning toward their prepubescent daughters.
The same mystery obtains with the heterosexual aggressors vs. adults, a group who were ordinarily quite effective in securing coitus and obviously not above using force in order to do so. They also had a relatively large proportion (77 per cent) with extramarital coital experience. One hint we have lies in the nature of the marriages of these aggressors vs. adults: a large proportion (about two thirds) reported their marriages were happy—a situation that does not preclude adultery, but one that might limit the number of partners. Another possible explanation is the small number of years they were married: only 30 per cent (a low figure) of their years of life since puberty and outside prison were spent in the married state, consequently they had less time than most in which to build up their number of extramarital partners. In this connection one should realize that a man who has a forced sexual relationship with an adult female is apt soon thereafter to have his opportunities for additional extramarital experience abruptly curtailed by the police.
*318\161\2*
