Impersonal Sex in Public Places

Depending on how far their deviant behavior deviated from the rest of their lives, these men faced different risks by participating in tearoom sex. Therefore, Humphreys (1975) discovered that married men with a respectable position in mainstream society compensated for their deviant behavior by acting more appropriately than other people. On the other hand, single gay people represented the other extreme; they did not fear the endangerment of their social position if they were caught (pp. 134-6).

According to Humphreys (1975), the participants engage in tearoom sex in accordance with this fundamental rule: maximize the reward and minimize the cost. In this case, the reward is to obtain sexual satisfaction while the cost is exposure to unwanted intruders such as friends from mainstream society, police and bullies (pp. 45-7). The tearoom environment suits men from mainstream societies for several reasons. The most popular restrooms used are located near freewaysùthe main commuter rout

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es allowed him to experience as directly as possible the social activity of his study. Instead of hiding behind his identity as a sociologist estranged from the subjects of his study, Humphreys acquired an insider's point of view of the activities and could therefore represent it accurately to the rest of the world. However, by failing to inform the subjects of his identity, he violated the freedom and privacy of these men. Without the knowledge of the participants, he collected their license plate numbers and matched them to the names and addresses with police registers. The police thought that he was simply conducting a market research (Humphreys, 1975, pp. 31-8). Furthermore, by using the excuse of conducting a social health survey that he was doing for another project, he entered their homes and collected other information (Humphreys, 1975, pp. 41-4). Without bothering to inform these participants who are unaware of the ultimate objective of these interviews, Humphreys crossed the line in denying the participants the right to decide whether to participate in the "real" survey. Humphreys' research strategies triggered massive criticism from journalists and other sociologists. Von Hoffman (1970) and Warwick (1973) asserted
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Approximate Word count = 1207
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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