This review is being written as advance summaries of the long-awaited Institute for Sex Research volume on Sex Offenders are being released. From their statistical analysis of interviews with 1,356 white men convicted of rape, homosexuality, offenses against children and a variety of other sexual crimes in the United States, the Kinsey team concludes that “what two or more consenting adults do sexually in private should not be governed by statute law.” This recommendation seems innocuous enough until one recalls how the late Prof. Kinsey used to warn that given national uniformity in sex legislation the chances would be nine out of ten that any American is a sex criminal.

While it is true that prosecution of discreet marital partners is infrequent, there are, as the first Kinsey reports convincingly revealed, glaring discontinuities among social custom, law and private sexual behavior. In many states, even now, all sexual behavior except face to face intercourse with one's spouse, and, in some places, solitary masturbation