1. Buyers
Chapter 8

2. Where does the Research on Buyers Come From?
Content analysis, online forums
Qualitative small sample studies
Probability samples
*Each holds limitations

3. Demand Q: Who focuses on it? A: Abolitionists
Q: Why? What are the arguments?
A: They believe demand for bought sex fuels sex trafficking, noting sex trafficking wouldn’t exist if prostitution didn’t exist.

4. Buyer Demographics Buyers are present across all demographic groups
However, disproportionately: white men, employed, and military background

5. The Average Joe Vs. Depraved Predator Debate
Overall, the Average Joe is most supported by the majority of research.
Abolitionists and Neoliberals love this finding, but for different reasons.
Can you explain them?
Abolitionists suggest that if it is the everyday average joe who buys sex, then it is a widespread cultural problem, that average men see women as sex objects.
Neoliberals suggest that this proves there is nothing wrong with bought sex, it is simply another service provided just like anything else.

6. Is sex trafficking a rapidly increasing crime in the us?
Maybe, but if the measure is purchased sex, then no.
Rates of use
Kinsey, Pomeroy, and Martin, study reported 69% of men bought sex (Monto, 2004).
2. Benjamin and Masters (1964) reported 80% of men bought sex (Monto, 2004).
s, 16-20% of men in the United States had ever purchased sex, with less than one percent having done so in the past year (Monto, 2004; Laumann et al., 1994; Smith et al., 2011).
4. Another ‘90s study (Sullivan & Simon, 1998), drawn from a nationally representative sample, found 17% of men had purchased sex in their lifetime, with less than one percent having done so in the past year.
5. The 2000 General Social Survey (GSS) reported 17% of men had purchased sex in their lifetime; 3% had done so in the past year (Weitzer, 2007b).
6. The 2010 GSS reported 14% of men had purchased sex in their lifetime, and only 1% in the last year (Monto & Milrod, 2014; Smith et al., 2011).
7. Similarly, the most recent study measuring prevalence of purchasing sex in the United States, conducted by Monto & Milrod (2014), found that 14% of men in the United States had bought sex at some point in their lives, with 1% having done so in the last year.

7. Why the “shift” in time?
Men are simply less likely to purchase sex in the contemporary world.
The feminist movement in the United States had some impact on the cultural value of women and men’s decreased likelihood of purchasing sex.
Alternatively, the feminist movement and increased freedom of sexuality led to more available sex partners.
Online aps to connect those who want sex
The methodological challenges with the earliest studies likely resulted in misreporting
The two early studies have been critiqued for non-generalizability and selective sampling, and also that Kinsey et al., were not social scientists and did not use scientific methods (Monto, 2004).

8. Is sex trafficking a rapidly increasing crime in the us?
There is no evidence that prostitution use is a rapidly growing crime, at least in the United States. The market of buyers appears to be relatively stable, or even declining.
The question is, are willing sex workers being replaced with unwilling/underage trafficked people?
What other arguments could be made?
Reframing of sex trafficking, better identification, awareness, access to services gives appearance of increase.

9. Continuum of Buyer Motivations
Informal Relationships and Companionship
Commercial Sexual Exchange
Violence and Abuse by Buyers
Other

10. Structural Responses Targeting Buyers
Modestly Shifting responses- past/present
Stings
Decoys
Surveillance

11. Critiques of End Demand Approaches
diverting resources away from social services to trafficked/exploited people
stings resulting in arrest, fines and detention of commercial-sex involved people– systemic victimization
Ignores root causes, weak social institutions, weak social safety nets, identity-based oppression

12. Structural Responses Targeting Buyers
John Shaming
John Schools
Buyers as Sex Traffickers?
*Implementation & Evaluation varies
Measurement of success, research is mixed

13. Buyer Response Alter Tactics Online forums
Advice on not getting caught
Can rate services/ legitimize
Displacement

14. Buyers in St. Louis
Come from the small town Illinois side or the suburbs, at least those who have been identified by law enforcement.
Demographics are distinct, in who is buying and who is selling

15. Discussion Questions
Describe the continuum of motivations of buyers to purchase sex.
2. What power dynamics are implicated in the relationship between buyers and sellers of sex?
3. Describe various demand reduction programs, and then discuss their relative benefits and challenges.