Transcript What we know about men who buy sex. Dr Teela Sanders

What we know about men who
buy sex.
Dr Teela Sanders
University of Leeds
[email protected]
UKNSWP Annual Conference
6th October 2006
Britannia Hotel, Manchester
Aims of the presentation
• Brief over-view of the literature on men
who buy sex from female sex workers
• Evaluation of rehabilitation programmes
• Why the re-focus on ‘kerbcrawlers’ in
policy?
• The impact of criminalisation?
Prevalence of Men buying sex
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles
1990 – 2000 from 2% to 4.2% (Johnson et al 2001)
8.9% in Greater London
Ward et al (2005) survey of 6,000 men in 1990 & 2000 in
UK.
1990, 5.6 % had purchased sex
2000, increased to 8.8%
10% (n=267) of population in sexual health clinic survey
in Glasgow had purchased sex (Groom and Nandwani,
2006)
All statistics are under-representation
Global view of prevalence
•
•
•
•
Sweden: 13% (Ekberg, 2004)
Australia: 15.6% (Rissel et al, 2003)
Spain: 39% (Leridon, et al 1998)
Thailand: 73% (Anderson & O’Connell Davidson, 2003)
Why the increase?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Increase in divorce / decline in marriage
Growth in adult entertainment industry
Availability & visibility
Growth of Internet and global communications
Increase in travel
Increase in amount of adult time spent alone
Increased cultural acceptance / less stigma
Change in sexual morality attitudes?
Scott (1998) still high condemnation for extramarital affairs
Who are the men that buy sex?
•
•
•
•
Across socio-economic groups
Professional, managerial and manual jobs
Full time employment
Marital status: majority in long term partnerships
(Gibbens & Silberman, 1960, Groom & Nandwani, 2006)
• No criminal record (Hester & Westmorland, 2004)
• Age – clients more likely to be over 39 years
(Sullivan & Simon, 1998)
• Facts correspond with large scale surveys from
USA (Monto, 2000).
Motivations for buying sex
• Attraction of the illicit encounter (McKeganey &
Barnard, 1996)
• No sexual activity / isolation / loneliness (Campbell,
1998)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Different sex acts from regular partners
Different women
Uncomplicated / non-emotional
Convenience / simplicity
Regulars – repeat customers
Companionship, socialising, time (Lever & Dolnick,
2000)
Different markets = different clients
• Differences between men who go to different
markets
• Different motivations / type of service
• Men rarely go to both street and indoor markets
(Benson & Matthews, 1995; Groom & Nandwani, 2006)
• Perceived risks of street (drugs/violence/danger)
(Sanders, 2007)
• Expansive range of markets
• Perceptions of lap dancing /Amsterdam / stag
night very different from street
• UK men buying sex abroad (Netherlands, Thailand,
Spain, Germany)
Re-framing who is the ‘problem’
• 1980’s + men who buy sex problematised
• Small number of communities dominate
parliamentary debates (Kantola &Squires, 2004)
• Increase in laws against ‘the kerbcrawler’
• 1985 Sexual Offences Act - shift in who was the
problem
• 2001 Criminal Justice & Police Act kerbcrawling an arrestable offence
• 2003 Criminal Justice Act - conditional
cautioning
• Peak between 2000-4: 993 men arrested (2002)
Coordinated Prostitution Strategy:
Tackling Demand
• Enforcement of existing laws for
kerbcrawling
• Addressing concerns from communities
• Informal warning / court diversion /
prosecution
• Crackdowns, zero tolerance decoys,
supporting naming and shaming, media
coverage, driving licenses revoked, fines,
rehabilitation programmes
Rehabilitation programmes: A
coherent approach?
• Court diversion schemes
• Success of UK programmes based on low
re-offending rates
• Strategy ignored evaluations / evidence
• No evidence that programmes in North
America have lasted more than 2 years
• Range of reasons for ineffectiveness
Evaluation of Effectiveness
• Re-offending cannot be used as an
effectiveness measuring tool (Monto & Garcia, 2000)
• Recidivism not due to programme – other
factors lead to behavioural change
• Some evidence of attitude changes but not
behaviour (Wortley, et al 2002; Kennedy et al, 2004)
• Resource intensive – Clubs & Vice: 12
crackdowns a year yields 25-35 arrests each
time. 20 officers needed for each week long
crackdown.
Criticisms of the programmes
• Bias programme content – 1995 radical feminist
campaign in San Francisco (Campbell & Storr, 1998)
• Not balanced view of law or prostitution (Van
Brunschot, 2003)
• Against legal theory & due process (Brooks Gordon,
2006)
• Damage of shaming schools – confrontational
shaming ritual (Sawyer et al, 1998)
• Need for wider educational awareness
programme with all men
Impact of tackling demand?
• Still legal to buy sex: confusion
• Mixed messages: condoning or enabling
commercial sex?
• No awareness of impact of crackdowns /
zero tolerance on sex workers or industry
• Temporal, spatial and tactical
displacement
• Impact of naming & shaming on families
So…….?
Will the Strategy reduce demand?
Up against multi-million £ and $
industry and an embedded
commodification culture
• Anderson, B and O’Connell Davidson, J (2003) Is trafficking in
human beings demand driven? A multi-country pilot study.
International Organisation for Migration,
• Benson, C., & Matthews, R. (1995). Street Prostitution: Ten Facts in
Search of a Policy. International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 23,
395-415.
• Brooks-Gordon, B. (2005). Clients and Commercial Sex: Reflections
on Paying the Price: A Consultation Paper on Prostitution. Criminal
Law Review, 425-443.
• — (2006). The Price of Sex: Prostitution, Policy and Society: Willan
Publishing.
• Campbell, R. (1998). Invisible Men: Making Visible Male Clients of
Female Prostitutes in Merseyside. In J. Elias, V. Bullough, V. Elias &
G. Brewer (Eds.), Prostitution. On Whores, Hustlers and Johns (pp.
155-171). New York: Prometheus Books
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Campbell, R., & Storr, M. (2001). Challenging the Kerb Crawler
Rehabilitation Programme. Feminist Review, 67, 94-108.
Ekberg, G. (2004). The Swedish Law that Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual
Services: Best Practices for Prevention of Prostitution and Trafficking in
Human Beings. Violence Against Women, 10, 1187-1218.
Fischer, H., Webster, C., & Wortley, S. (2002). Vice lessons: A survey of
prostitution offenders enrolled in the Toronto John School Diversion
Program. Canadian Journal of Criminology, 44, 369-402.
Gibbens, T., & Silberman, M. (1970). The Clients of Prostitutes. The British
Journal of Venereal Diseases, 36, 113-117.
Groom, TM and Nandwani, R (2006) Characteristics of men who pay for
sex: A UK sexual health clinic survey, Sexually Transmitted Infections, 82, 5,
pp364-367
Hester, M., & Westmarland, N. (2004). Tackling Street Prostitution: Towards
a Holistic Approach. London: Home Office.
Johnson, AM., Mercer, CH, Erens, B etal (2001) Sexual Behaviour in Britain:
partnerships, practices and HIV risk behaviours. Lancet, 358, pp 1835-42
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Kantola, J., & Squires, J. (2004). Discourses Surrounding Prostitution Policies in the
UK. European Journal of Women's Studies, 11, 77-101.
Kennedy, M. A., Klein, C., Gorzalka, B. B., & Yuille, J. C. (2004). Attitude Change
Following a Diversion Program for Men Who Solicit Sex. Journal of Offender
rehabilitation, 40, 41-60.
Leridon, H van Zessen, G., Hubert,m (1998) The Europeans and their Sexual
Partners in Hubert, M, Bajos, N and Sandfort, T (eds) Sexual behaviour and
HIV/AIDS in Europe, London UCL Press
Lever, J., & Dolnick, D. (2000). Clients and Call Girls: Seeking Sex and Intimacy. In R.
Weitzer (Ed.), Sex for Sale (pp. 85-100). London: Routledge.
McKeganey, N., & Barnard, M. (1996). Sex Work on the Streets. Buckingham: Open
University Press.
Monto, M. (2000). Why Men Seek Out Prostitutes. In R. Weitzer (Ed.), Sex for Sale
(pp. 67-83). Routledge: London.
Monto, M. A., & Garcia, S. (2001). Recidivism Among the Customers of Female
Street Prostitutes: Do Intervention Programs Help? Western Criminology Review, 3.
Rissel, C.E., Richters, J., Grulich AE., et al Sex in Australia: Experiences of
Commercial Sex in a Representative Sample of Adults Australian and New Zealand
Journal of Public Health 27:191-7
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sanders, T (2007) Paying for Pleasure: Men who Buy Sex Cullompton,
Willan
Sawyer, S., Rosser, B. R. S., & Schroeder, A. (1998). A Brief
Psychoeducational Program for Men Who Patronize Prostitutes. Journal of
Offender Rehabilitation, 26, 111-125.
Scott, J (1998) Changing Attitudes to Sexual Morality: A Cross-National
Comparison, Sociology, 32, 4 pp 815-845
Sullivan, E., & Simon, W. (1998). The Client: A Social, Psychological and
Behavioural Look at the Unseen Patron of Prostitution. In J. E. Elias, V. L.
Bullough, V. Elias & G. Brewer (Eds.), Prostitution: On Whores, Hustlers
and Johns (pp. 134-154). Amsherst, NY: Prometheus.
Van Brunschot, E. G. (2003). Community Policing and "John Schools".
Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthroplogy, 40, 215-232.
Ward, H., Mercer, CH., Wellings K et al (2005) Who pays for sex? An
analysis of the increasing prevalence of female commercial sex contacts
among men in Britain. Sexually Transmitted Infections, 81:467-71