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The following is an interesting question posted in Psychology.SE which was closed as off-topic. It was not migrated here so I thought I would ask it.


An article at https://web.archive.org/web/20150326173619/http://www.crosswalk.com/archive/dr-kinsey-the-un-american-marquis-de-sade-518418.html makes the claim in regards to Table 34:

Dr. Reisman continues to ask, "Where did Kinsey get the hundreds of infants and young boys who were sexually tortured? And, where are those boys today?" Jones does not say, and the Kinsey Institute, no doubt, hopes that tolerance of sexual 'diversity" is high enough today that attention can be diverted from the child sexual abuse conducted for the Kinsey Reports.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Table 34 was the table or list in Kinsey's famous treatise which purported to display the number of times infants and young children were aroused by the Kinsey researcher when the researcher attempted to masturbate the infant or young child....)

The Wikipedia article on Alfred Kinsey states that the data in tables 30 to 34

was said to have come from adults' childhood memories, or from parent or teacher observation. Kinsey said he also interviewed nine men who had sexual experiences with children, and who told him about the children's responses and reactions.

Is it true that at least some data was from children abused by Kinsey or his researchers?

Sklivvz
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Chris Rogers
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  • I wanted to edit in a version of the claim which was more specific (Table 34 talked about multiple orgasms of young children, and the allegation was that Kinsey's researchers abuse them to get this data), and something more recent than a forgotten 1999 article. I wanted to edit in basic context - like a Wikipedia link to [Alfred Kinsey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Kinsey) to explain who he was. However, the Wikiepedia link does a reasonable job of explaining the two sides of the controversy. Please take a look at that, and explain what you are still skeptical about. – Oddthinking Nov 30 '18 at 10:26
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    The quote actually *doesn't* make the claim in the title of this question. It in fact doesn't make any claim, it's just a bunch of questions. Other parts of the article do make the claim though, eg sourced to the hate group Family Research Council ("criminal child sexual experiments", "the researcher attempted to masturbate the infant"). – tim Nov 30 '18 at 10:44
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    @Oddthinking I don't think that the linked wiki article mentions any experiments on children (only interviews of pedophiles and interviews of adults on their childhood memories). The Kinsey Institute [rejects](https://www.businessinsider.com/why-alfred-kinsey-was-controversial-2013-10?IR=T) the claim of sexual experiments on children. The sources which do claim sexual abuse by researchers as part of their experiments seem dubious, but notable. I think this question should be on-topic. – tim Nov 30 '18 at 10:46
  • @tim - thanks for pointing out the deficiency. I have expanded the quote and hopefully it clarifies the claim – Chris Rogers Nov 30 '18 at 10:56
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    Crosswalk.com, a very conservative religious organization making those characterizations about Kinsey should be viewed with the same skeptical and jaundiced eye that one would view the National Right To Life Council making characterizations about Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. There might be a bit of a motivation to skew the characterizations in a particular direction. – PoloHoleSet Dec 04 '18 at 20:27

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