Sociological Aspects of Homosexuality.

From London comes a study by Michael Schofield who has attempted a statistical approach to an investigation of male homosexuals. A comparison was made of four 50-man groups of homosexuals and two 50-man groups of nonhomosexuals, tapping them for over 200 items related to their background, sexual history and activities, emotional involvements, and so forth, which he refers to as sociological research but which has relevance to psychiatry. The groups consisted of (1) convicted homosexuals; (2) pedophiliacs convicted of homosexual offenses with minors; (3) homosexuals in psychiatric treatment, 44% of whom were inpatients in mental hospitals; (4) homosexuals who had neither been convicted nor treated; (5) nonhomosexuals in psychiatric treatment, 76% of whom were inpatients in mental hospitals, matched for age and education with the homosexual patient group; and (6) nonhomosexuals who had more or less been randomly selected, with an attempt to match