Who exactly are the men who pay for sex?

[Phaedrus 209521]

[URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/10704896/Paying-for-sex-what-type-of-man-does-it.html"][B]Who exactly are the men who pay for sex?[/B][/URL]

The men who buy sex tend to call themselves 'hobbyists' or 'punters', the anti-sex work types call them 'Johns', and sex workers call them 'customers' or 'clients'. But who are they, and why do they do it? Dr Brooke Magnanti, a former call girl, reports.

A controversial installation at Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art is currently publicising entries from last year's 'Invisible Men' blog, which took selected quotes from escort review sites. The online kickback from sex workers who objected to the political content of the display followed almost immediately. But there must be something in the water right now as Woman's Hour gave over an entire segment to promoting the 'Swedish Model' of criminalising the men who buy sex on last week and has dedicated lots of airtime this week to prostitution. Meanwhile on Radio 4's Today programme Labour MP Gavin Shuker called for crackdowns on the 'kerb crawling' customers of sex workers.

The men who buy sex tend to call themselves 'hobbyists' or 'punters', the anti-sex work types call them 'Johns', and sex workers call them 'customers' or 'clients'. But who are they, and why do they do it?

The majority of clients are men - both of male and female sex workers. The famous Kinsey report estimated that over 60 per cent of US men had paid for sex, but that was the war generation - things would no doubt be different now. A paper from 2000 put the percentage of men in Australia who had ever purchased sex at 15 per cent, with about one in 50 overall having done so in the last year. There is a question of how accurate such figures are, though, because of the stigma attached to paying for it - with some estimates putting the real number closer to 20 per cent paying for sex at least once. [url]https://www.slixa.com/late-night/453-are-fewer-men-paying-for-sex[/url] In countries like Cambodia the figure is far higher at close to 70 per cent.

Right now Canadian research is being thrown into the spotlight by media, not least because the Supreme Court there recently rules to strike down all existing laws regarding prostitution (thanks to the wonderfully coiffed Terri-Jean Bedford and her decade-long legal battle). The Sex, Safety and Security study has been polling buyers of sex and makes fascinating reading.

The study, which initially conducted 855 surveys and 24 in-depth interviews in 2009, is being updated to cover another 1251 surveys and 18 in-depth interviews with the results due to be published later this year. As well as aiming to demonstrate trends over time, the survey also examines topics like attitudes towards the law, the age at which subjects started buying sex, and their other sexual relationships.

Chris Atchison of the University of Victoria designed both studies. He notes that the later survey includes more questions about the nature of buying sex and client experiences with sex workers. "The reason we went more deeply into this was because the results of my 2009 study really indicated that relationships were much more complex and multi-faceted than we had been led to believe," he says.

UK researcher Teela Sanders, meanwhile, wrote a book discussing the phenomenon of paying for sex. In it, she notes: "We have moved away from the sexist idea that bad women force innocent men to buy their sexual services, but the opposite view that clients are evil, violent, woman-hating brutes who victimise defenceless women is also overstated."

Sanders's book describes "push factors" - things like boredom, loneliness, or unsatisfying sex life - as well as "pull factors" like availability and opportunity that influence men's decisions to purchase sex. With both in play, it certainly indicates that a straight "End Demand" approach, which only addresses pull factors but not push factors, could expect to only have a limited impact, and believing that forcing sex underground will make people not pay for it is incredibly naive.

Interestingly, the research also suggests that one of the "pull factors" for men who buy sex is because it is illicit and they are attracted to the idea of getting away with it. No doubt while some people would be put off by criminalisation of buying sex, others would find the exact opposite. And indeed in the US, where both selling and buying are criminalised, there's no indication criminal status does much to discourage punters.

Which brings us the big question (or money shot, if you will): has your man paid for sex? It seems that it is statistically less uncommon than most people imagine. As with so many things, whether or not you actually broach the subject should be the topic of much thought. Like with the question of your number of ex-sex partnersâ?¦ would you really want to know? Perhaps the best policy is, if the outcome would completely change the way you think of someone, then perhaps it's better left unasked.

The case for criminalising punters has lately been made by Labour MEP Mary Honeyball whose report on sex work was voted on in European Parliament last month. I watched Honeyball's vote as it streamed online. If you are the sort of person who thinks fans of policy and sausages should not watch the creation of either, I can assure you Brussels is absolutely the Heston Blumenthal of sausage-making: long winded, impenetrable, with the outcome both expensive and of questionable taste. It passed, though it is only a symbolic victory. It does not have the force of law. It does however signal a move in this country, following Rhoda Grant's failed bill in the Scottish parliament last year, to continue pushing the criminalisation of punters.

Do things need to change? Most people on both sides of the issue agree that yes, they do. But what's astounding are the column inches the 'Swedish Model' of criminalising punters has commanded when few if any benefits to public safety have been shown. (For example, both saunas and the percentage of men who have bought sex have gone up since the law was madeâ?¦ oops.) Meanwhile, the 'Merseyside Model,' which instead proposes to treat crimes against sex workers as hate crimes, has gained a staggering number of signees to a key petition - over 50,000 at last count - but very little in the way of mainstream publicity.