Ten Things You Might Not Know About Men Who Buy Sex
In a comprehensive study, “Comparing Sex Buyers with Men Who Don’t Buy Sex,” Melissa Farley, PHD, Founding Director of the Prostitution Research and Education, compares the characteristics of men who buy sex versus those who don’t. Besides their involvement with prostitution, the men surveyed revealed surprising attitudes and behaviors when it came to sex and women. Here are ten things you may not know about men who buy sex:
1-On average, men reported were 21 years of age when they first bought sex.
2-25% of the sex buyers had traveled to another state and while there used women in prostitution.
3-41% of the sex buyers knowingly used a woman in prostitution who was controlled by a pimp.
4-66% of the sex buyers observed that a majority of women are lured, tricked or trafficked into prostitution.
5-74% of the sex buyers reported that they learned about sex from pornography.
6-Sex buyers were more than 7x’s more likely than non-sex buyers to acknowledge that they would rape a woman if they could get away with it and if no one knew about it.
7-Sex buyers are far more likely than non-sex buyers to commit felonies, misdemeanors, crimes related to violence against women, substance abuse-related crimes, assaults, crimes with weapons, and crimes against authority.
The rest at: TEN THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT MEN WHO BUY SEX
Comparing Sex Buyers with Men Who Don’t Buy Sex
“You can have a good time with the servitude”
vs.
“You’re supporting a system of degradation”
Both sex buyers and non-sex buyers subscribed to the theory that prostitution reduces the likelihood of rape. Although half of the study‘s sample did not buy sex, many of them were tolerant of prostitution for men who did. These findings suggest that efforts to deter sex buyers should expand their focus from men who buy sex to the general public’s attitudes that support prostitution.
… .
Taken together, these findings - a range of criminal activity in addition to prostitution, nonrelational sexual preference, a high number of sex partners, extensive pornography use - interact and increase the likelihood of future violence against women, according to other studies cited in this report.Our finding that the sex buyers are involved in these criminal activities suggests that sex buying should be considered in that context. State and federal laws against prostitution and trafficking should be enforced against johns. Sex buyers hold extensive information about pimps, coercion, trafficking, and the harms of prostitution to the women in it. This information is not yet fully used by law enforcement and could be useful.
This study strengthens proposals that educational programs aimed at sex buyers should be implemented subsequent to sentencing, not in lieu of it. The crimes sex buyers commit suggest that existing intervention strategies for batterers and sex offenders are resources for development of interventions for arrested johns. Their crimes also justify mandatory DNA testing.…
Research about men who buy sex is slowly emerging. Perkins (1991) estimated that only 1% of all research on prostitution addressed the sex buyer. At the same time the proselytizing of johns online (punternet, johns’ voice, erotic review) is increasing. Online communities of sex buyers mainstream and normalize sex buying, conferring higher social status on sex buyers who share their knowledge of prostitution with other buyers (Blevins and Holt, 2009). Some johns are even writing books defending prostitution. Chester Brown, a self-described “introverted” john whose friends describe him as “having a very limited emotional range compared to most people” (Brown, 2011, p 255). Like sex buyers interviewed in other research (Plumridge et al. 1997; Farley, 2011) Brown seems emotionally disconnected. He is not interested in prostituted women’s feelings about yet another john who evaluates her on the basis of her breast size and skin blemishes. He seems annoyed that women in prostitution are “passionless kissers” (p 207). He’s mystified as to why, after five sessions with one woman, “her face is still like a mask during sex” (Brown, 147).
…
A non-sex buyer powerfully explained his understanding of prostitution as a form of sexual violence.
“I don‘t think prostitution is quite the same as rape. Rape is worse. But it‘s close to the rape end of the spectrum. It‘s not rape, because there is superficial consent. On the face of it, the prostitute is agreeing to it. But deeper down, you can see that life circumstances have kind of forced her into that, even though she has agreed to it. It‘s like someone jumping from a burning building—you could say they made their choice to jump, but you could also say they had no choice.”
Other interesting bits:
Table 16: Crimes Committed by Sex Buyers and Non -Sex Buyers beginning on page 35.
Table 17. 526 Responses to: “What would deter you from buying sex? on page 37
Limitations on Research beginning on page 41
The Dallas Police Department currently takes DNA samples from women in prostitution if the women agree to it, upon arrest or diversion (Tongish, 2010). The gruesome logic for this practice is: given the extremely high homicide rate of prostituted women, it would offer their families closure if the women go missing and there is a DNA sample to ensure whether or not it is a family member’s body.
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Women in prostitution are the origin of and a critical resource for information about sex buyers. The women’s resistance to servitude keeps the abolitionist movement alive. “I’m not good pimp or john material,” smiled a survivor on her way out of prostitution. Another lens through which to understand the prostituted woman’s enduring resistance is to remember that in 1851 a southern psychiatrist, Samuel Cartwright, M.D., created a special diagnosis—―drapetomania‖—for the tendency of slaves to keep running away (Jackson,
2002). One of the cures for this condition was whipping. In systems of legitimized subjugation such as prostitution, the dehumanized person is owned, not human. When the “property” decides to have her own subjectivity, she is seen as breaking the law, or she is pathologized so as to keep the focus away from the individuals or the systems creating the subordination. (Schwartz, personal communication, July 2011). An African blogger recently wrote, “Drapetomania….. catch it if you can” (MaxJulian, 2011).
Research supported by the Hunt Alternatives Fund.