HETEROSEXUAL MOLESTATION OF CHILDREN WHO LATER BECAME RAPISTS

The present report is of a serendipitous finding from another study of childhood heterosexual molestation of men who were incarcerated as adults for rape. Subjects were 83 men in a medium security penitentiary who had been convicted of raping women at least 17 years of age. At the time of data collection, they ranged in age from 20 to 54 yr., with a mean of 28.85 yr. and a standard deviation of 6.19 yr. At the time of rhe offenses, their ages ranged from 18 to 47 yr., with a mean of 25.48 yr. and a standard deviation of 5.47 yr. Their education, also at the time of offenses, ranged from 6 to 14 yr., with a mean of 10 86 yr. and a standard deviation of 1.64 yr. Their IQs ranged from 73 to 120 ( M of 98 01, S D of 10.58). Thirty-one subjects were black (37%), 35 were Caucasian (42 9; ) , and 17 were Mexican-American (21 % ) . Forty-nine (59%) of the rapists had been heterosexually molested. Of these, 12 had been so molested by two or more females for a total of 73 "cases" of heterosexual molestation. Jn 56 (77%) of these cases, the molesting person did so on more than one occasion. The ages at the time of molestation ranged from 4 to 16 yr. ( M of 10.81, S D of 4.55); the ages of the older persons ranged from 16 to 54 yr. ( M of 27.39, S D nf O RR > , .-, . In 60 of the 83 cases intercourse was involved, 34 cases also involving fellatio and cunnilingus, 3 cases also fellatio, 1 case also cunnilingus, and 22 cases without oral sex. There were 5 cases of cunnilingus, 4 of the females masturbating the boy, 2 fellatio and cunnilingus, 1 fellatio, and 1 mutual masturbation. The older female was a neighbor in 23 cases, a friend of the family in 22, a baby sitter in 7, an aunt in 5, a teacher in 4, a stranger in 4, a mother in 2, a grandmother in 2, a sister in 1, a foster mother in 1, a probation officer in 1, and a co-worker in 1 case. The heterosexual molestation findings are surprising not only because incidence is high but because of the nature of the acts and the relationships between child and older female. Sixty (82%) of the cases involved sexual intercourse. This contrasts with the preponderance of more "innocuous" acts such as fondling and looking in most reports of male child molesters. For example, Groth ( 2 ) reported that only 31% of his offenders engaged in any sort of penetration-vaginal, oral, or anal. With molestation committed by males, an appreciable percentage of the offenders are strangers or members of the immediate family. Groth (2 ) reported 29% and 14%, respectively. In contrast, only 5% of our female molesters were strangers and 4 % immediate family members. However, perhaps women have less fear of societal retribution for such acts and do not need to turn to children less likely to both identity and report them, namely, children who don't know them and those in their own family. Note that in 15 (21%) of the cases the women who molested had a special mission to nutture, counsel or protect. The incidence of boys being heterosexually molested is higher among our rapists than the 2.9% heterosexual molestation rate before puberty reported for college students ( 1 ) . Although Fritz, et al. ( 1 ) did not specify their criterion of before puberty, even by setting a conservatively low one of below 12 yr. of age, 20 (24%) of our men had been heterosexually molested. It is not certain whether the greatly higher percentage in the present study indicated heterosexual molestation predisposes to becoming a rapist or whether rhe difference is a function of being a sex offender in general, criminality in general, or other variables such as low socioeconomic status.