How do we research sexuality? Scientific research into sexuality began in nineteenth-century Europe. Early researchers included Krafft-Ebing, who studied sex crimes and concluded that masturbation...

How do we research sexuality? Scientific research into sexuality began in nineteenth-century Europe. Early researchers included Krafft-Ebing, who studied sex crimes and concluded that masturbation caused perversion. Ellis countered that with his research, saying masturbation was harmless. Hirschfeld believed people were born bisexual. In the United States, the Kinsey reports were the first large-scale investigation into sexual behavior. Kinsey found a gulf between what people professed morally and how they behaved. He also found that those from a higher socioeconomic status had more sex, 70 percent of male respondents had visited a prostitute, affairs were not uncommon, women enjoyed sex, and there were high numbers of same-sex sexual experiences. The National Health and Social Life Study in the 1990s found much lower incidences of those same behaviors.