La Strada Documentation Center

Men who buy sex. Who they buy and what they know

Document number
2285
Date
2009
Title
Men who buy sex. Who they buy and what they know
Author/publisher
Melissa Farley, Julie Bindel and Jacqueline M. Golding, EAVES, Prostitution Research & Education
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Women's rights; Women; Control and regulation of prostitution, Protection, Punishable forms of prostitution, Prostitution; Sex work; Clients, Abolitionism; New Abolitionism; Prohibitionism; Regulationism,
Summary
This research is timely. Addressing the human rights violations in prostitution is being discussed in the UK and the EU today. Several Nordic countries have criminalised the sex buyer while at the same time decriminalising the person who sells sex and providing services. This research will hopefully bring some useful information about men who buy sex to the attention of the public and to policy makers as they address trafficking and the commercial sex industry.

Men's acceptance of prostitution is one of a cluster of attitudes that encourages and justifies violence against women. Violent behaviours against women have been associated with attitudes that promote men's beliefs that they are entitled to sexual access to women, are superior to women and are licensed as sexual aggressors. The purpose of the research was to assess men's attitudes toward women in prostitution and their awareness of and use of trafficking victims, with the goal of ultimately developing prostitution and trafficking prevention programmes.
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