Carol Botwin, the author and social critic whose lively and exhaustive writings on sex and infidelity made her one of the leading sexologists of her generation. With the publication of her first book, ”Sex and the Teenage Girl,” in 1972, Ms. Botwin became a respected authority on the sexual attitudes and proclivities of young women.

Botwin presented a broader view of the subject in subsequent books on sex and marriage and in columns she wrote for This Week and Girl Talk magazines in the 1960′s and early 1970′s. During the 1980′s, she wrote an advice column for New Woman and Woman magazines.

Known for her no-nonsense advice and compassionate irreverence, Ms. Botwin managed to transcend gender and age in her writing. Her most popular books dealt with male and female infidelity and have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Ms. Botwin’s book ”The Love Crisis: Hit and Run Lovers, Jugglers, Sexual Stingies, Kinkies and Other Typical Men Today” has been described as a field guide for dealing with the contemporary male and was the precursor to such 1990′s best sellers as ”Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.”

Ms. Botwin said the book was based on the personal pain she experienced after her first marriage ended in divorce. Despite her own failed marriage, she counseled married couples on how to achieve personal and sexual fulfillment within their marriages.

Her most recent book, ”Tempted Women: The Passions, Perils and Agonies of Female Infidelity,” published in 1994 by William Morrow, was viewed by experts on sex and sexuality as one of the most comprehensive surveys since Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey’s studies in 1953. Drawing on hundreds of letters from women who sought her advice and hundreds of interviews conducted over a three-year-period, Ms. Botwin found that 40 percent of married women were going outside their marriages for emotional and physical attention that they were not receiving at home.

The book was a sequel to ”Men Who Can’t Be Faithful,” which sparked heated debate on the talk show circuit after it was reported that 60 to 75 percent of American men cheated at least once in their married lives.