Race/Ethnicity

Consistent with past research using online surveys, our sexual-service-buying respondents were less diverse racially than the population of either the UK or the US as a whole. In both samples, but especially that of the US survey, customers were more likely to be white than the population as a whole, thus most of the discussion of our results will be as much about whiteness as about masculinity and social class. Table 4.1 highlights all ethnicities represented in the study. In the UK.

TABLE 4.1 Race and ethnicity of respondents, US and UK surveys

a Population data sourced from the Office for National Statistics (2019a).

b Percentage totals vary due to rounding.

c Population data sourced from 2010 US Census. See also Humes et al. 2011.

8.4% (n = 1105/1206) of respondents were non-white, while in the US this came to 12.67% (n = 87/687).That said, there were almost twice as many non-British white clients compared to the UK population.

In the US study, while diversity among Asian, Pacific Islander and Native American clients reflected the population as a whole, there were significantly fewer black and Hispanic individuals in our survey. Unfortunately, the numbers regarding racial and ethnic diversity are small, so we could not dig too deep into that data to find out what this means for other demographic ditferences or trends in client behaviours. Other studies in the US, UK and Canada find similar statistics regarding racial diversity. Additionally. Milrod and Monto (2012) found that 85% of internet hobbyists were white, similar to our study. Studies of arrested clients have discovered much more diversity, finding that only 57% of arrested offenders were white, making non-white individuals disproportionately represented among those arrested for prostitution offences (Monto and Milrod 2014). Studies of arrested clients likely reflect the fact that non-white populations interact with law enforcement more often, that certain markets are more visible to police, and different market choices may be used differently by racial groups.

Samples drawn from the more representative US General Social Survey find that 69% of individuals who report ever having visited a sex worker are nonHispanic white. NATSAL 3, a representative study of sexual practices in the UK. also found more diversity in the sexual-service-buying population; Black African (5.7%), Indian (9.5%) and 'white-other' men (6.3%) were significantly more likely to have paid for sex in the past five years than were white British men (Wayal et al. 2017;seeTable 4.3).Thus, our sample does not get at the racial/ethnic diversity that exists in the sexual-service-buying population, but may reflect the possibility that frequent or experienced customers are predominantly white or that different racial categories may differentially use the contact methods both surveys relied upon to sample clients.

Social attitudes

We know that willingness to purchase sexual services can be very much affected by ideological leanings more generally. The US survey asked questions regarding respondents’ religious and political attitudes, and their attitudes about sexuality. We then compared their answers to responses of men to the 2014 General Social Survey (GSS),a nationally representative sample of American adults aged 18 and older (Smith et al. 2015). Overall, and not surprisingly, clients in our study were much more liberal in their political and social views than the population as a whole; and this was strongly the case regarding views on sexual behaviour and sexuality. They were also less religious (seeTable 4.2).

Respondents’ support for sexual tolerance echoes what is found in other client studies (Monto and Milrod 2014). However, our finding that clients were less religious than the population as a whole contradicts some studies (Belza et al. 2008; Cameron and Collins 2003). These and studies of pornography viewers usually

TABLE 4.2 Social attitudes among US buyers compared to US GSS respondents

find that some religious individuals act contrary to their beliefs when it conies to sexual consumption (Perry 2018; Edelman 2009), perhaps motivated by the transgressive nature of sexual exchanges. However, we found no evidence of religious or ideological incongruity. Respondents in the US were less religious and reported more liberal views than the male population as reported by the GSS. Thus, they do not need to construct their behaviours as overly transgressive. However, it remains unclear whether liberal sexual values encourage using paid sexual services or whether use liberalises one’s values (or some combination of reciprocal effects), but the consistent relationship suggests that attitudes about sex are linked to willingness to purchase sexual services among our respondents.