What Does Science Have to Say?
Debunking the Myths about Man / Boy Love
Published: 2003Updated:What Does Science Have to Say?
Debunking the Myths about Man / Boy Love
The outcomes of personal experiences between
adults and younger people
primarily depend upon whether their relationships
were consensual.
Despite the popular images of boogeymen we see in the media every day, usually the intergenerational experiences of younger people are consensual. These consensual experiences can be quite positive and beneficial for the participants, regardless of their ages. In contrast, non-consensual experiences, when the wishes of the youngster are disregarded, can be very damaging. These clearly are the lessons to be drawn from many recent scientific studies of sexual experiences between men and boys. Victimologists and people who seek to regulate the sexual behavior of others have obscured and hidden these facts from the public.
A major study of over 8,000 German youth who had been reported as "victims" in criminal cases was conducted by Michael Baurmann for the German state police agency (similar to the FBI in the US). Using the opinions of the youth, the opinions of experts, and standard psychological assessments, Baurmann found that none of the boys had been harmed. Boys under 14 years of age were between 10% and 15% of the total cases studied. However, other factors were at work in the experiences of girls. Click here for the English summary of Baurmann's findings.
The outcomes of sexual experiences between adults and younger people primarily depend upon whether the sex was consensual. Also, sexual experiences are powerfully influenced by expectations and the attitudes toward sex which have been passed on to younger people by their parents and social environment. Rigidly anti-sexual attitudes and fears can predispose anyone to harm. Boys often approach sex with great interest and enthusiasm, so that their consensual sexual experiences are not harmful.
Once sexual experiences have become known to others, secondary harm to youngsters can be induced by the inappropriate reactions of parents, police, social workers, lawyers and other adults, where no apparent harm results from the sexual contact itself.
If people are not taught to despise their bodies and fear sex, if their sexual choices are not forced on them by others, and if they are not subjected to harsh or stigmatizing reactions to their sexual choices and experiences, they will not be harmed by having sex, regardless of how old or young they are or with whom they have sex.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Compares data from 19 different named cultures, and many more not named, where man/boy homosexual relationships are institutionalized, to support the view that the kinship structures of a society largely determine the prevalent modes of sexual expression in that society, whatever they may be.
Baurmann, M. C. Sexuality,
Violence, and Psychological After-Effects: A Longitudinal Study of Cases
of Sexual Assault which were Reported to the Police. Wiesbaden:
Bundeskriminalamt, 1988.
A massive longitudinal study of all reported
victims of sex offenses against minors in the German State of Lower Saxony
during a four-year period from 1969-1972, with six to ten year follow-ups,
under the direction of the German Ministry of Justice. The total sample
is over 8,000, including over 800 boys up to age 14. Violence and/or coercion
were present in roughly half the reported offenses against girls, and were
correlated with negative outcomes. None of the boys experienced force
or coercion, and no negative outcomes were observed for any of the
boys. The study used both subjective and multiple standardized objective
measures. It is by far the most in-depth large study and the largest
in-depth study in this field.
Bauserman, R., & Rind, B. (1997). Psychological correlates of male child and adolescent sexual experience with adults: A review of the nonclinical literature. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 26, pp. 105-141.
Best, Joel Threatened Children: Rhetoric
& Concern about Child Victims. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1990.
A highly recommended, pioneering survey of a
constellation of social problems and their recent magnification. Provides
thorough statistical evaluations and analyses of the most common fears
and prejudices underlying society's concerns about child abduction, sexual
abuse, and other urban myths, from a sociological perspective. Describes
media pandering to public fears.
Constantine, Larry L. "Effects
of Early Sexual Experiences: A Review and Synthesis of Research," in
Constantine, L. L., Martinson, F. M., (eds.) Children and Sex: New
Findings, New Perspectives. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1981.
Reviews 30 studies, most of which include child-adult
contacts. Breaks down experiences by outcome for the younger partner as:
positive, neutral, or negative. Examines relationships between several
variables and observed outcomes.
Constantine, Larry L. "Child Sexuality: Recent
Developments and Implications for Treatment, Prevention, and Social Policy,"
International
Journal of Medicine and Law, 1983 No. 2, pp. 55-67.
Reviews findings of the above article. Discusses
implications for treatment, prevention, and social policy. Includes proposals
for legal revisions.
Among the findings of this major literature review:
"The most important determinant in the outcome
of childhood incest or adult-child sexual encounters is the child's perception
of freedom of choice in participating." Among the observed implications:
"The research to date points to the child's
subjective experience as the central concern. If it is the child's person
which is to be protected from being violated against the child's will,
then it is the child's will which governs the determination."
Coxell, A., King, M., Mezey, G., & Gordon,
D. (1999). Lifetime prevalence, characteristics, and associated problems
of non-consensual sex in men: Cross sectional survey. British
Medical Journal, 318, pp. 846-850.
An important study. The data presented in
this research report indicate that non-consensual sexual experiences before
and after age 16 are associated with increased psychological problems,
but consensual sexual experiences are not. This is the first
large empirical study to present data, in English, that directly addresses
the question of the significance of consent.
Gagnon, John "Female Child Victims
of Sex Offenses,"
Social Problems, Vol. 13, pp. 176-192,
1965.
Investigates common characteristics of girls
who have experienced various kinds of sexual contact with adults, based
upon a large sample from the original Kinsey study.
Gay, Judith "`Mummies and Babies' and Friends
and Lovers in Lesotho," Journal of Homosexuality, Vol. 11,
No. 3/4, pp. 97-116, Summer 1985. (Also published as The Many Faces of
Homosexuality: Anthropological Approaches to Homosexual Behavior. New York:
Harrington Park Press, 1986.)
Examines institutionalized woman/girl love in
southern Africa, noting the key role of these relationships in providing
the girls with emotional support prior to marriage and providing a network
of support for women in new towns or schools.
Jones, G. P. "The Study of Intergenerational Intimacy in North America: Beyond Politics and Pedophilia," Journal of Homosexuality, Vol. 20, pp. 275-295, 1990.
McClintock, Martha K. and Gilbert Herdt "Rethinking Puberty: The Development of Sexual Attraction," Current Developments in Psychological Science, Volume 5, No. 1 (December, 1996).
Money, John "Juvenile, Pedophile, Heterophile:
Hermeneutics of Science, Medicine and Law in Two Outcome Studies," International
Journal of Medicine and Law, 1983 No. 2 pp. 39-54.
An unusually detailed investigation of two consensual
long-term "pedophiliac" relationships. This long-term, prospective case
study finds the relationships to be non-harmful and possibly beneficial
for both partners. Money is among the most widely cited American authors
on pediatric sexology and sexual and gender development.
Nelson, Joan "Incest: Self-Report Findings
From a Nonclinical Sample," Journal of Sex Research, Vol.
22, No. 4, pp. 463-477, Nov. 1986.
Nelson looks at the experiences of 100 subjects
who have had sex with relatives. Results indicate that outcomes vary from
negative to positive.
Okami, Paul "Self-reports of "Positive"
Childhood and Adolescent Sexual Contacts with Older Persons: An Exploratory
Study,"
Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 20, pp. 437- 457,
1991.
Examines how contacts are perceived by the younger
partner in later life. Investigates relationships between "positive" self-assessment
and several variables.
Okami, Paul "Sociopolitical Biases in the Contemporary Scientific Literature on Adult Human Sexual Behavior with Children and Adolescents," in Feierman, J. (ed.) Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1990.
Okami, Paul "`Child Perpetrators of Sexual
Abuse': The Emergence of a Problematic Deviant Category," Journal
of Sex Research, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 109-130, Feb. 1992.
Okami discusses the nature and origins of recent
attacks against sexual expression by young people, and finds much of the
literature on the subject of sexual contacts between minors to be scientifically
unsound. Highly recommended reading.
Okami, Paul and Goldberg, Amy "Personality
Correlates of Pedophilia: Are They Reliable Indicators?" Journal
of Sex Research, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 297-328, August, 1992.
A critical and extensive review of the literature.
Okami finds that " ... professionals in the field continue to express
belief in a 'typical' psychological profile for pedophiles ... Empirical
support is equivocal and in certain cases absent(p. 306). ... With
the exception of the tautological diagnosis of "sexual deviate," little
clinically significant pathology was found among either "pedophiles" or
"sex offenders against minors." (Abstract)
Rind, B. and Bausermann, R. "Biased Terminology Effects and Biased Information Processing in Research on Adult-Nonadult Sexual Interactions -- An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Sex Research,Volume 30 No. 3 (August 1993), pp. 260-269. Includes tables, references.
Rind, B., & Tromovitch, P. (1997). A meta-analytic review of findings from national samples on psychological correlates of child sexual abuse. Journal of Sex Research, 34, pp. 237-255.
Rind, B., Tromovitch, P., and Bauserman, R. (1998) A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples,Psychological Bulletin, 124, pp. 22-53.
Sandfort, Theo "Sex in Pedophiliac Relationships:
An Empirical Investigation Among a Nonrepresentative Group of Boys," Journal
of Sex Research Vol.20, No.2, pp. 123-142 May, 1984.
"The sexual contacts were found to have had
no negative influence upon the boys' sense of general well-being, nor did
the boys perceive in these contacts a misuse of authority by the adult."
(Quoted from the Abstract)
Sandfort, Theo The Sexual Aspect of
Paedophile Relations. Amsterdam: Pan/Spartacus, 1982.
A detailed presentation, explanation, and discussion
of data from a study of 25 ongoing consensual long-term relations between
men and boys. Recommends that future legislation should observe young peoples'
right of sexual self-determination.
Sandfort, Theo Boys On Their Contacts
With Men. Elmhurst, New York: Global Academic Publishers, 1987.
Summarizing Sandfort's earlier studies, this
book also contains extensive quotes in context from the boys interviewed.
Tindall, R. H. "The Male Adolescent Involved
With a Pederast Becomes an Adult," Journal of Homosexuality,
Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 373-382, 1978.
A longitudinal study of nine cases covering a
span of over thirty years which finds the relationships to be non-harmful,
with positive benefits in some cases.
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