Paying for Sex in a Digital Age: US and UK Perspectives / Edition 1

by Teela Sanders, Barbara Brents, Chris Wakefield

Overview

Providing one of the first comprehensive, cross-cultural examinations of the dynamic market for sexual services, this book presents an evidence-based look at the multiple factors related to purchasing patterns and demand among clients who have used the internet.

The data is drawn from two large surveys of sex workers’ clients in the US and UK. The book presents descriptive baseline data on client engagement with online platforms, demographics and patterns of frequency in different markets, information on smaller niche markets and client reactions to exploitation, safety and changes in the law.

The book makes clear that a variety of situational as well as individual factors affect the willingness and ability to purchase sexual services. The view that emerges shatters the stereotypes and generalistions on which much policy is based and demonstrates the complexities surrounding who pays for sex and the contours of sexual consumption in consumer culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138318731
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/09/2020
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Teela Sanders is a Professor of Criminology at the University of Leicester. She is a leading international scholar in research on the intersections between gender, regulation, governance and crime, specifically in the sex industry. Her latest book is Internet Sex Work: Beyond the Gaze (2018).

Barbara G. Brents is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Nevada. She has published research in sexuality, gender and politics in market culture for more than 25 years. Brents is a co-author with Crystal Jackson and Kathryn Hausbeck Korgan of The State of Sex: Tourism, Sex and Sin in the New American Heartland (2010) a study of Nevada’s legal brothels.

Chris Wakefield is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Nevada. Their focus is on intersections of criminal justice and mental health to constrain expressions of gender and sexual diversity, including non-normative sexual identities and transgender experience.

Table of Contents

List of figures xii

List of tables xiii

Note on authors xiv

Acknowledgements xvi

Introduction: understanding sexual consumption 1

Reframing the debate 1

The economics of demand and clients as consumers 3

Beyond individual motivations: situational factors affecting commercial sex markets 4

The consumer climate 5

Body work and sexual services 7

Technology and the digital world of sex 9

Sexual consumption and masculinity 10

Introducing our surveys 12

UK 'Beyond the Gaze' survey 12

US 'Sexual Economy' survey 14

Who was not included in our surveys - race and the digital divide 15

A note on language 16

Outline of chapters 17

1 Knowledge about consumers 25

Thinking about clients as consumers 25

Existing data on prevalence and characteristics 27

Prevalence 27

Characteristics of clients 29

Different types of clients? 30

Age and life course 32

Violence 32

Consumers as perpetrators? 33

Conclusion: looking at social processes 34

2 Law, policy and politics in the UK and the US 42

Consuming sex: capitalism, consumption and carceral politics 42

The global policy landscape - neo-abolitionism 45

The law: US and UK 48

US law 48

UK law 52

How do consumers understand and react to the law? 54

Conclusion: how the law matters 57

3 Advertising and avenues of access to paid sex 64

The consumer journey 64

Advertising: physical methods 65

Print advertising 65

Word-of mouth advertising 68

Street visibility 68

The digital world: the adult entertainment 'super highway' 69

Mapping the online terrain 70

Sex workers' safety and internet advertising 70

Independents 72

BDSM and kink 73

Brothels, massage parlours and walk-up flats 73

Escort agencies 74

Street work 75

Cross-sector marketing 75

How service buyers use the internet 75

Finding adult service providers 75

Browsing the internet: "window shopping" and "cruising" 77

Using the internet to communicate with providers 78

Multi-method modes of contact 80

What do review sites do for the community? 81

Limiting online advertising and US SESTA/FOSTA 82

Conclusion: customers online - browsing, buying and buddying 84

4 Who are clients and how do they buy? purchasing patterns, customer segmentation and the economics of sexual consumption 89

Who buys sex and how? 89

Overview of customers 90

Age 91

Relationship and living arrangements 94

Race/Ethnicity 96

Social attitudes 97

Sexual-service markets 98

Market choices in the UK and US surveys 99

Frequency or consistency of using paid sexual services 101

Buying sexual services and travel 103

Regulars 105

Comparing patterns among consumers 105

Street customers: are they unique? 106

Types of consumers in the US 108

Experimenters 109

Frequent generalists 110

Frequent Online Loyalists 111

Legal Brothel Loyalists 111

Types of consumers in the UK 112

Online clients 113

General clients 113

Two typologies in dialogue 114

The life course and cohort effects 115

Services, finances and risk: economics of sexual-service buying 118

Services 118

Amount paid for services 118

Conclusions: the trouble with typologies 122

5 Beyond the middle-aged, straight, white guys: purchasing patterns in smaller markets 129

Beyond the straight, white guys: breaking the stereotype 129

Female customers 130

What are women buying? 132

Transgender customers and service providers 136

Disability 138

Men who buy sex from men 139

Older male cohorts 143

Demographics 143

Purchasing patterns: what are they buying? 145

Paying for sex outside their home country 146

Types of services 148

Frequency in later life 150

Intimacy 152

Understanding paid sex in later life 153

Conclusion: smaller markets matter 154

6 Sex without touch: consumers of the webcam market 161

Why include the webcam? 161

The rise of online stripping, erotica and sexual communication 162

How webcamming works 167

Webcam performers 168

How consumers engage with camming 171

To pay or not pay for webcamming 172

Public or private shows: preferences for pleasure 173

Anonymity and sexual gratification 174

Impersonal sex or interactive relationships? Preferences for masturbation, models, authenticity and intimacy 175

Can sex without contact be intimate? Meanings of intimacy for consumers 178

Conclusion: technology shaping the consumption of pleasure and intimacy 181

7 Responsible consumption? client attitudes, self regulation and risks in an underground environment 186

Can clients responsibly pay for sex? 186

Individual motivations, masculinity and gender attitudes 187

Gender attitudes 188

Motivations in the UK and US surveys 190

Managing risk and exploitation 193

Client experiences of exploitation and conflict in sex work 193

Client responses to provider exploitation 196

Risk and crime encountered by clients 199

Managing digital risk - protecting privacy and identity online 201

Consumer reviews: the good, the bad and the ugly 202

What we know already about reviews and consumer culture 202

Using reviews 203

Writing reviews 204

Reviews as community building in a stigmatised environment 205

Client reactions to reviews 205

Responsible consumption 208

Building on a community ethos 208

Policy implications 209

Conclusions: creating safer environments for all 211

8 Conclusions: market diversity in a digital age 218

The internet as market shaper 219

Varying consumer purchasing patterns 221

The life course 222

Stereotypes, misogyny and ethical consumption 223

The terminal is reshaping, not eliminating, intimacy 224

The uneven impact of regulations 225

Beyond individual motivation 226

What now? Policy and future research 227

Engage sex businesses to monitor exploitation or violence 228

Engage clients in fighting exploitation, coercion and violence 229

Attend to older clients and health needs 230

Draw on best practices, go beyond crime frames 230

Fund and listen to evidence-based research 230

Where we need more research 231

Concluding thoughts 231

Appendix: methodology 234

Researching the purchase of sex 234

UK 'Beyond the Gaze' survey 236

US 'Sexual Economy' survey 237

Analysis 239

Index 243