Few (8 per cent) incest offenders vs. adults had juvenile criminal records, which seems typical of the incest offenders as a whole. Again as in the case of other incest offenders, only half of their juvenile offenses warranted sentences of six months or more. No incest offenders vs. adults had juvenile sex-offense convictions; this might at first be thought a vagary of small sample size (there are only 25 offenders in our sample), but this is true also for the incest offenders vs. minors, of whom there are 66. A body of nearly 90 separate incest offenders (against daughters aged twelve and over), with no juvenile sex-offense convictions justifies a statement that such sex offenses appear to be atypical for these men.
Of all our groups the incest offenders vs. adults became embroiled with the law much more slowly than any. A mere 4 per cent had been convicted by age twenty, as against from 20 to 80 per cent of all other groups. A scant third had been convicted by age thirty, and a two-thirds level was not reached until forty-five—a level passed by virtually all others a decade or more earlier. This belated criminality is clearly evident in the average (median) age at first conviction for any crime: thirty-eight, the oldest recorded. The average age at the first conviction for incest with an adult daughter is still greater: forty-six.
The proportions of sex-offense convictions and nonsex-offense convictions are moderate and not unusual, but the number of men with solely sex-offense convictions is rather high: 56 per cent, a figure shared with the incest offenders vs. minors.
The incest offenders vs. adults were the least criminal of any group in that their per capita convictions were 2.4 and their sex-offense convictions were 1.2. Both figures are the smallest recorded for any of the groups.
Like other incest offenders, when these men committed a crime which was not a sex offense, it was most commonly a crime against order (36 per cent, a very high figure). Only rarely did they commit crimes against property, which again is typical of incest offenders.
When these men committed a sex offense other than one against an adult daughter it was against a younger daughter (except in the case of one male). Such absolute specialization is unique.
From the foregoing it is clear that these offenders are the least recidivistic of any: 44 per cent had only one conviction, the largest proportion on record and all the more impressive since it is for the oldest of all groups. Another 28 per cent, a large figure, had two convictions; few had more.
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