Discuss what we know about the clients of prostitutes based on research by Monto (2001, 2009)

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

- A study of more than 1,200 men arrested while attempting to buy the services of prostitutes (who, to the men's distress, turned out to be police decoys) in three major U.S. cities (San Francisco; Portland, Oregon; and Las Vegas) shed a great deal of light on the johns' characteristics. The myth that prostitutes' customers are depraved, deviant, drug-addicted men who are social outcasts with no other sexual outlets was soundly rejected. In fact, most johns are employed, middle- to upper-class, educated, heterosexual, married males. In other words, these are "normal," average, mainstream men.
- Twenty percent of these men claimed that this was the first time they had ever attempted to hire a prostitute, 59 percent reported having sex with a prostitute at least once over the past year, and 10 percent admitted to buying sex from prostitutes at least once a month during the past 12 months.
- Many people believe that men seek out prostitutes for experiences that are strange, vastly different from the mainstream, or unlikely to be shared with their partner or wife. However, this does not appear to be the case. By far the most commonly purchased activity is fellatio. In Monto's study, 50 percent of the respondents had engaged in oral sex with prostitutes, compared to vaginal intercourse (14 percent), both oral and vaginal sex (10 percent), and manual masturbation (6 percent).
- Another common belief is that clients of prostitutes are dissatisfied with their sexual life with their partner or prefer the sex that they have with prostitutes over partner sex. This also appears to be a myth. Only 18 percent of the men studied said they strongly or somewhat preferred sex with a prostitute over sex in a conventional relationship.