Abstract
Possibly the most dramatic of the many changes that have occurred in the last two decades in beliefs concerning human sexual behavior have been those related to child-adult sexual activity. In contrast to the earlier acceptance that incest occurred in about one in a million families (Ferracuti, 1972; Weinberg, 1955), a 1972 survey found that 14% of 982 males and 9% of 1,044 females in 24 U.S. cities reported involvement in incest, if this included sexual acts such as light petting between family members (M. Hunt, 1974). The prevalence was higher in the subjects younger than 35 years. Hunt reported that many over 35 years failed to answer the question, however, so that the true prevalence in that age group may have been underestimated. Nevertheless, he believed there had been an increase in prevalence in the younger subjects of from 25% to 50%, which he attributed to sexual liberation ideology.
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© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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McConaghy, N. (1993). Child-Adult Sexual Activity. In: Sexual Behavior. Applied Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1133-9_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1133-9_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-1135-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-1133-9
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