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Ipce Newsletter E13, June 2002 Some quotes from Bruce
Rind Abstract
Over the
last quarter century the incest model, with its image of helpless victims
exploited and traumatized by powerful perpetrators, has come to dominate
perceptions of virtually all forms of adult-minor sex. Thus, even willing sexual
relations between gay or bisexual adolescent boys and adult men, which differ
from father-daughter incest in many important ways, are generally seen by the
lay public and professionals as traumatizing and psychologically injurious. This
study assessed this common perception by examining a nonclinical, mostly college
sample of gay and bisexual men. Of the
129 men in the study, 26 were identified as having had age-discrepant sexual
relations (ADSRs) as adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age with adult
males. Men with ADSR experiences were as well adjusted as controls in terms of
self-esteem and having achieved a positive sexual identity. Reactions
to the ADSRs were predominantly positive, and most ADSRs were willingly engaged
in. Younger adolescents were just as willing and reacted at least as positively
as older adolescents. Data
on sexual identity development indicated that ADSRs played no role in creating
same-sex sexual interests, contrary to the "seduction" hypothesis.
Findings were inconsistent with the incest model. The incest model has come to
act as a procrustean bed, narrowly dictating how adult-minor sexual relations
quite different from incest are perceived. From
the Introduction
A
quarter century ago, attention to the issue of sexual encounters between adults
and minors increased markedly in the United States (Jenkins, 1998). This
increased attention was an outgrowth of initiatives taken by the women's
movement, which first focused on the problem of rape and shortly thereafter the
problem of incest (Finkelhor, 1984). Rape served as a model for understanding
father-daughter incest (Okami, 1990), and incest in turn quickly became the
dominant model for understanding sexual encounters in general between men and
girls , (Finkelhor, 1984). Based on the rape and incest models, these encounters
came to be seen as a form of power abuse and violence that exploited unwilling
and powerless victims, inflicting lasting psychological trauma in the process (Okami,
1990). The burgeoning child abuse profession, given a major boost in 1974 by
passage of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, rapidly spread this
view, across society, where it has remained well-entrenched ever since (Gardner,
1993; Jenkins 1998) As chi1d
abuse researchers expanded their domain of inquiry in the early 1980s, research
began to include sexual encounters between men and boys, and eventually between
women and boys (West, 1998). The incest model also strongly influenced how
researchers, other professionals, and the lay public attempted to understand
these encounters, inc1uding those between adolescent boys and unrelated adu1ts
(Jenkins, 1998; Rind, 1998). [
] Recent
reviews of the nonclinical literature suggest that the incest model, along with
its assumptions of intimidation, violence, and pathogenicity, is not valid for
boys in the general population who participate willingly in sexual relations
with adults -- "willing" indicates simple as opposed to informed
consent (see Rind et al. , 2000, for a complete discussion). Bauserman and Rind
(1997), in a review of the nonclinical literature on boy-adult sex, found that
willing relations were associated with neutral or positive reactions. Rind et
al. (1998), in their meta-analytic review of college samples, found that
boy-adult sex was not associated with symptoms when the boys were willing
participants. In these samples, most boys with experiences labeled child sexual
abuse reacted positively or neutrally (66% ), whereas most girls reacted
negatively (72%). These gender differences, which appeared to an equal degree in
the national probability samples meta-analytically reviewed by Rind and
Tromovitch (1997), imply that it is generally not valid to extrapolate from
girls' experiences, especially father-daughter incest, to those of boys. Nonclinical
studies reporting data on woman-boy sex (e.g., Condy et al., 1987;
Promuth and Hurkhart, 1987; West and Woodhouse, 1993; Woods and Dean, 1984) have
generally found that boys react predominantly positively to these encounters,
especially if they are adolescents at the time. Presumably, most of the boys in
these studies were heterosexual, given the predominance of heterosexuality in
the general population. It follows that, if adolescent heterosexual boys respond
predominantly positively to sexual relations with older females, then adolescent
gay or bisexual boys may respond similarly to such relations with older males.
This inference differs markedly from expectations that follow from the incest
model. It was the purpose of this study to examine these competing predictions. From:
Current Study
The
purpose of the current study was to add to scientific knowledge in this area by
presenting research that avoided the shortcomings just discussed. A nonclinical,
mostly middle class sample of young adult gay and bisexual males was examined.
Both adjustment and reaction data were analyzed, as were data concerning sexual
orientation development. Consistent with the nonclinical and cross-cultural
research just reviewed, and contrary to predictions from the incest model, it
was expected that age-discrepant sexual relations (ADSRs) between gay or
bisexual males and adult men would be experienced predominantly non negatively
and would not be associated with adjustment problems. Furthermore, contrary to
psychoanalytic theorizing and labeling theory, it was not expected that
homosexual interests would be the "adverse" outcome of ADSRs. In the
current study, ADSR was defined as a sexual encounter or relationship involving
at least genital contact between a gay or bisexual boy aged less than 18 with a
man aged at least 18 and at least 5 years older than the boy. From:
Results
Reactions
Subjects'
mean reaction was positive (M = 3.94, SD = 1.25), although individual reactions
ranged from very negative to very positive. Overall, reactions were as follows:
38.5% very positive, 38.5% positive, 7.7% neutral/mixed, 3.8% negative, and
11.5% very negative. Combining categories and rounding, 77% were positive, 8%
were neutral, and 15% were negative. Consent
Overall,
subjects were mutually consenting (M = 4.15, SD = .51); consent ranged from
acquiescing to encouraging. Thus, forced or coerced contact was not a factor in
this sample. To the contrary, nearly a quarter (23.1 %) encouraged the contacts
and about two-thirds (69.2%) mutually consented; 7.7% acquiesced. Thus, 92%
evidenced positive desire for the sexual involvement. From:
Discussion
Psychological
Adjustment
In the
current study, ADSRs between gay or bisexual boys and men were examined.
Contrary to conventional assumptions, derived in part from the influential
incest model, these relations were not associated with damaged self -esteem or
sexual identity development. The self -esteem of subjects who experienced ADSRs
was as high as those who did not. ADSR subjects were not delayed in achieving a
positive sexual identity; to the contrary, in the two samples combined, ADSR
subjects actually reached this milestone earlier than did control subjects. [
] This
finding is inconsistent with conventional professional and lay views, which
reflect the incest model, but is consistent with empirical findings on willing
boy-adult sex based on college samples (Rind et at. , 1998). Given that
willing ADSRs predominated in the current sample and that the current sample was
composed mostly of college students, this consistency is not surprising. Sexual
Identity Development
Before
gay liberation, professionals frequently expressed concern that man- boy sex was
pathogenic, because they believed it was likely to cause boys to become
homosexual (Rind, 1998). [
]Consistent with a growing literature [..],
subjects in the current study became aware of their sexual attraction to other
males years before puberty on average- in the case of ADSR subjects, 3.5 years
before. All but one ADSR subject became aware of these attractions prior to
having their first ADSR. [..] The timeline suggested by these events is, for
most of these subjects, as follows: becoming aware of same-sex attractions,
labeling these interests as gay, then experiencing ADSRs. This timeline
contradicts the seduction hypothesis. [
] The vast
majority of narratives provide no evidence of harm to sexual identity formation.
Contrary to stereotypes of harm, Savin-Williams (1997) concluded from his
interviews that many of the ADSRs helped "the adolescent more readily
identify as gay, feel better being gay, and learn much about himself" Reactions and Consent
The
incest model offers the image of a frightened child, powerless to resist,
coerced into a traumatizing sex act. This image fits some case studies presented
in clinical research on gay boys' ADSRs (e.g., Myers, 1989), but does not fit
the typical ADSR in the current sample. [
] This
favorable predisposition may account for the receptivity, and hence generally
positive reactions, to the ADSRs that occurred in this sample. It also suggests
that the reports of positive ADSRs were generally valid, rather than artifacts
of psychological or social pressure to present their homosexual history in a
favorable light. From:
The Incest Model: A Procrustean Bed
The
discrepancy between findings in the current study and expectations based on the
incest model is so great as to warrant further consideration. [
] This
sort of extrapolation has become commonplace since the early 1980s. Sexual
phenomena that have only age-discrepancy in common with incest are reshaped in a
narrow, rigid manner to fit the demands of the incest model. Media commentators
conclude that willing sexual relations between adolescent boys and unrelated men
are invariably profoundly damaging (e.g., Philadelphia Inquirer, September
13, 1984, p. 22A). Professionals reject or distort data regarding these
relations that are inconsistent with the incest stereotype, reaching instead the
obligatory conclusion of pervasive harm (e.g., Bartholow et at., 1994;
Masters et at., 1985). A 1993
case in London, Ontario, illustrates paradigmatically the procrustean influence
of the incest model when applied too broadly. The Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC) documented on its premier informational show IDEAS (1994,
1995, 1999) what it termed the biggest sex scandal in North America. About 60
men sexually involved with adolescent boys were arrested in the midst of a
"moral, panic ... generated by the police, with the help of therapists and
social workers, and ... fueled by the media" (IDEAS, 1994, p. 29). CBC
interviews with the boys indicated that they generally were gay or bisexual,
were "sexually active teenagers who were having sex for fun or for
profit" (IDEAS, 1994, p. 31 ), engaged willingly, had reached
Canada's age of consent of 14 when the sex occurred, and were treated well by
the men. [
] The
producer of the series summed up the procrustean influence of the incest model
when applied to teenage males involved in willing relations with unrelated
adults: ...
the modern and useful feminist analysis of the reasons young women suffer in
horrible incest cases -- that analysis has been inappropriately used in an
attempt to understand an entirely different set of circumstances. A blurring of
motives and psychological effects has taken place, which has created a powerful
and misleading narrative that produces neither justice nor happiness. (IDEAS,
1999) From:
Concluding Remarks
[
]the
current findings are consistent with those of other nonclinical research in
demonstrating that adolescent boys' willing sexual experiences with older
persons are very poorly described by victimological models (i.e., rape and
incest) that evolved in the early 1970s to describe women's and girls' unwanted
sexual experiences. Alternative models should be sought that incorporate the
consistent finding that adolescent boys generally react neutrally or positively
to ADSRs that are willingly engaged in and involve adults of the gender
consistent with the adolescent's sexual orientation. Ipce Newsletter E13, June 2002
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