This volume, originally published in 1979, is the culmination of the Kinsey Institute's desire to compile and publish the data from the original Institute case histories taken from 1938 to 1963. The complete sample has been "cleaned" by separating out those from "sexually biased" groups (e.g., the delinquent sample) leaving a basic sample of 5,637 males and 5,609 females. The marginal tabulations are presented along with descriptions of the interviewing and sampling process.

As the editors explain, their rationale for publication was to present the sorts of data the Institute had available so that other scientists could request it for use in their research, hopefully leading to further analyses and new approaches and ideas.