Alfred Kinsey

In 1930, Kinsey began to teach a marriage course. The participants inundated him with questions about sex, but he discovered there was little scientific data on the subject. So he set about applying his scientific knowledge to the study of human sexuality. He began interviewing the participants in his marriage course about their sexual histories and later broadened his study beyond these groups. His work was very controversial, as it was released at a time when sex was considered taboo. It also noted a gap between what society thought people did and what they actually did.

Alfred Kinsey’s research methods are still considered quite controversial, as he sometimes interviewed sex criminals but did not report his findings to the police. He also pretended that data taken from one source, a man who had sexual encounters with men, women, animals, and children, came from multiple sources.

Modern analysts believe that Kinsey was ruthless, caring more for his data and research than the safety of members of the public. Anti-Kinsey campaigner Judith Reisman even claims Kinsey himself was a pedophile, an accusation the Kinsey Institute vehemently denies. He has also been blamed for bringing “social pathologies” including pornography, divorce, abortion, promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases and child molestation into the mainstream.