ABSTRACT
From what reliable ethnographic information on sexual patterns we have, it appears that there is embedded in most human cultures an abhorrence of and prohibition against sexual relations, especially coitus, between adults and children. Even in so-called sexually permissive cultures (Ford & Beach, 1951) which allow, even encourage, heterosexual play and more serious relations among preadults from an early age onward, there is no evidence that "permissiveness" extends to sexual relations between adults and children.
