PHYSICAL DEFECTS AND CHARACTERISTICS: IMPOTENCE

One standard question in our schedule concerns erectile impotence. This seemingly simple question was actually fraught with various qualifications. For example, one should not count as erectile impotence a penile detumescence brought about by some strong external stimulus such as a knock on the door. If a man reported impotence due to the use of drugs or alcohol, the explanation was noted, but we did not routinely inquire about the cause of rare or infrequent impotence, and thus “lost” some unknown additional number of instances due to these causes. Consequently we have combined our categories of “infrequent impotence” and “impotence only when drunk or using drugs.”

In our previous volume on males we found the most important correlate of impotence to be age. In this present study, however, where we are dealing chiefly with persons under fifty, the effect of age is scarcely seen. It is visible only in that our second youngest group, the peepers, had fewest individuals reporting any erectile impotence (31 per cent), whereas our oldest group, the incest offenders vs. adults, reported approximately twice as many (61 per cent). The second oldest group, the incest offenders vs. minors, ranked second highest with 58 per cent reporting any degree of impotence. Here the correlation ceases, for the group with the third largest proportion of men who had experienced impotence is our youngest group.

Aside from this rather vague but anticipated relationship with age, tabulation reveals two trends. First, all incest offenders tend to have a high incidence of impotence, ranking first, second, and fifth. Secondly, in the five groups with the least impotence are the four whose sexual behavior most closely approximates cultural norms: the control group, the prison group, and the offenders vs. minors and adults. At this juncture the reader should be warned not to place much reliance upon the figures for the homosexual offenders, since it was not always clear in the records whether the data referred to heterosexual or homosexual impotence.

The proportions reporting infrequent impotence or impotence resulting from overdosage of alcohol or drugs range from one fifth of the control group to one half of the aggressors vs. minors. The heterosexual offenders and the control group, who had few alcoholics among them, had the fewest individuals reporting infrequent or toxic impotence. The four groups with the largest numbers were two incest and two aggressor groups. Of the latter, one may suspect some psychologic impotence due to the response of the females upon whom they forced themselves; of the incest groups, age may explain the incest offenders vs. minors (our second oldest group), while the large number of alcoholics among the incest offenders vs. children may explain their standing.

A rank-order of those reporting occasional erectile impotence displays all but one group with percentages of from 2 to 10; the exception (with 28 per cent!) are the incest offenders vs. adults. It is best once again to refrain from using age as a causative factor since our second oldest group, the incest offenders vs. minors, occupies the bottom of the rank-order with 2 per cent.

A rank-order of those who reported serious and/or frequent impotence has a range running fairly smoothly from 0 to 14 per cent. The aggressors, peepers, and prison group cluster at the bottom of the scale as befits their relative youthfulness. The top three ranks (10 to 14 per cent) include our second and third oldest groups. The control group is centrally located with almost 8 per cent reporting serious impotence. The presence of all three homosexual-offender groups within the upper five ranks is, despite our previous warning, probably indicative of conflict between their heterosexuality and homosexuality.

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