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Saghirs, Marcel T. and Robins, Eli, MALEAND FEMALE HOMOSEXUAUTYA COMPREHENSIVE INVESTIGATION. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Company, 1973, 341 pp., $- not listed.
The authors state they made this "study of homosexuality in order to describe the natural history of this relatively common phenomenon." Their systematic study is basically a statistical survey carried out through structured personal interviews in which volunteer subjects answered yes or no to a 50-page questionnaire. Supplementary questions were often asked and the subject was allowed to express himself freely. Seventy-seven per cent of the interviews with male homosexuals consumed three to four hours, with 23 per cent lasting more than four hours. Fifty-one per cent of the interviews with the homosexual women took from three to four hours and 49 per cent were longer than four hours. Absolute confidentiality was assured because no names or addresses were obtained.
There are two sections to the book. Each section presents the statistical data obtained from the homosexual and heterosexual males and females separately, with pertinent discussion of the material revealed.
The homosexuals who participated were included in the study if they participated in repetitious overt homosexual activity beyond the age of 18. Any who gave a history of hospitalization for psychiatric disorder or a history of prison confinement were excluded, as were all nonwhites. Eighty-nine homosexual men and 57 homosexual women participated in the statistical survey.