describing sexual behavior in the era of the internet: a typology for empirical research

ABSTRACT

Gagnon and Simon's (1967) groundbreaking work on sexual deviance divided behaviors into normal, pathological, and sociological categories. We reconstruct this typology as a pair of two cross cutting continuums describing the normative status and social organization of behaviors in order to keep pace with changing sexual mores and technology while bolstering its empirical rigor. The first extends from normal activities to those deemed pathological by current mores, while the second focuses on describing a continuum from isolated to communal activities. These continua may be used either to reduce descriptions of behaviors to a four-part typology or to apply them as semantic differentials to allow more precise measurement of the behaviors' social organization and normative status. This scheme is especially well-suited for describing shifts in the perception and organization of behaviors brought about by adaptations of new technologies such as the Internet.