But that is the lesser of my misgivings. At the very least, and in the fulfillment of commonly held ideals, the judicious use of punishment in the rearing of children makes them moral in the sense of inhibiting sexual expression. Thus, even the mildest forms of punishment are in this sense population-controlling. But this effect has profound roots in the human condition. Two facts need to be considered together.
First trauma deranges the development of sexuality.
Second, virtually every derangement of normal sexuality reduces the likelihood that children will be created. No form of sexual activity outside of heterosexual coitus leads to reproduction. Prostitution functions as a brake on population as any form of polyandry does. If we take the relative frequencies of sexually deviant behavior found by Alfred C. Kinsey as even reasonably representative, it seems that he was studying some of the main ways of restricting population in the contemporary world. The frightening possibility is that Kinsey's observations may also bespeak equally widespread child abuse practices which created such large relative frequencies of sexual deviation.