Birth order in homosexual versus heterosexual sex offenders against children, pubescents, and adults

Abstract

Homosexual men erotically attracted to physically mature partners typically have more older brothers than comparable heterosexual men. We investigated whether late fraternal birth positions also occur in homosexuals attracted to children or pubescents. Probands were 710 sex offenders from Gebhard et al.'s (1965) study of sexual offending. Homosexual offenders against adults and pubescents had later fraternal birth positions than heterosexual offenders against adults and pubescents, respectively; there was no difference between the homosexual and heterosexual offenders against children. Results provide some evidence that homosexuality in men attracted to immature males is etiologically related to homosexuality in men attracted to mature males.