EXHIBITIONISTS: MARRIAGE
About 64 per cent of the exhibitionists had married before contributing their histories to our research. In view of the age of the group (the average individual was about thirty-five) this is a small proportion; by that age some 85 per cent of the control and prison groups had married. Nor is there any evidence that the rate of marriage accelerates later, for by age forty they have not achieved 70 per cent.
Like the peepers, the exhibitionists tend to be monogamous. Of those who married about 70 per cent married only once, a proportion exceeded by only three other groups including the controls.
The average exhibitionist knew his future spouse 5.6 months (a comparatively moderate length of time) before they were married. Half of these offenders had coitus with their wives-to-be, of whom 10 per cent became pregnant as a result. Both of these figures are again neither high nor low.
Following marriage the couples produced relatively few children; indeed, there were only 14 children for every ten couples. Only three groups were more infertile.
There is nothing unusual in the amount of time the exhibitionists devoted to precoital petting nor in their precoital or coital techniques. The interest in mouth-genital contact that was rather evident before marriage is seen less clearly afterward, being visible chiefly in the number (about 42 per cent) who had mouth-genital contact—the fourth largest proportion.
The average (median) exhibitionist had moderate to low frequencies of marital coitus prior to age twenty-six, but thereafter he ranks third or fourth. He can seldom validly plead that sexual deprivation motivated his offense.
The mean frequencies vary from intermediate to low: about all that one can say in a generalization is that the exhibitionists usually fall below the control and prison groups, and are commonly to be found in the lower half of any rank-order.
In both the mean and median calculations the married exhibitionists’ frequencies are strikingly low from ages twenty-one to twenty-five not only relatively but absolutely. This remains a puzzle, since no compensatory increase occurred in other forms of sexual activity. In fact, masturbation frequencies are similarly depressed in this same age-period.
In the proportion of total sexual outlet constituted by marital coitus, the exhibitionists nearly always rank next to the bottom. Only die homosexual offenders vs. adults derived fewer of their orgasms from this activity. The proportion varies from 59 per cent to a high of 84, the former figure being very small and the latter no more than moderate. This situation stems from the unusual emphasis upon masturbation, an activity frequently associated with the act of exhibition.
The orgasmic response of the wives of the exhibitionists (as reported by the husbands) is, generally speaking, substantially less than that of the wives of many other groups. For some 46 per cent of their married years they reached orgasm at least nine times out of ten, which is the second smallest proportion recorded. On the other hand, only a moderate number of years (10 per cent) had been passed at a low response level. These reports by the husbands as to their wives’ responses are probably closer to reality than those of most other sex offenders.
In rating the degree of happiness of their marriages the exhibitionists revealed their usual middle-of-the-road tendency: relatively few reported the majority of their marital years as very happy or very unhappy, while large proportions were reported as moderately happy (38 per cent, the third highest percentage in this category) and moderately unhappy (24 per cent, fourth in rank-order).
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