Sex Trafficking: Who Are The Men Who Drive The Demand?
Anyone who has ever taken an economics course has heard of the law of supply and demand. An economist can draw supply curves or demand curves and then explain how changes in these curves can lead to changes in prices or to an excess or a dearth of products. The law of supply and demand also applies to criminal enterprises such as the illegal drug trade, prostitution, and human trafficking. For example, in some Asian countries where sex tourism, human trafficking, and prostitution are common, a decrease in price for sex means that local men who have very low incomes suddenly can afford a prostitute, which in turn leads to a proliferation of low-priced brothels.
As disgusting as it is that capitalism is perverted and applied to the exploitation of women and girls, it has sparked discussion about whether it is better for abolitionists and law enforcement to target the supply (the women and girls) or the demand (the johns who purchase them) when trying to stop prostitution and domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST). In fact, there is intense debate between those who support decriminalization of prostitution (the so-called “Sex-workers” lobby) and those who campaign for the end of prostitution (the “abolitionists”). Both tout different studies and models to support their cases, but the one that is most applicable to us here is the “Nordic Model” of fighting prostitution.
In the Nordic Model, the selling of sex is not necessarily illegal, while the purchasing of sex is. According to the website nordicmodelnow.org:
The Nordic Model approach to prostitution (sometimes also known as the Sex Buyer Law, or the Swedish, Abolitionist, or Equality Model) decriminalises all those who are prostituted, provides support services to help them exit, and makes buying people for sex a criminal offence, in order to reduce the demand that drives sex trafficking. This approach has now been adopted in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Canada, France, and most recently, Ireland.
For our purposes, the Nordic Model, which has met with success in the fight against exploitation, is an attempt to decrease the demand for sex by making the purchase of sex too risky.
In an upcoming post, I plan to get into more detail about prostitution. The question I want to pose in this post, though, is who are these men who make up the demand side of sex trafficking and prostitution? There’s no doubt that these individuals drive a thriving industry. According to the Washington Post, one in seven men in America has purchased sex, and International Justice Mission reports that, of the $150 Million generated by Human Trafficking, two-thirds comes from sex trafficking alone. Plus, it is a well-known phenomenon that traffickers target major sporting events and conferences, where their desired demographic is likely to attend in large numbers.
Although not always in absolute agreement, studies done by various organizations can give some insight about who the men are who purchase girls for sex. In my home state of Georgia, a report by the Shapiro Group characterizes men who buy sex from adolescents. According to the study, 78% of the men were in the under 30 or 30-39 age group, and 65% of them were from the suburbs around Atlanta (1). Another study, done in 2012, looked at men who were members of a website that facilitates the purchasing of sex. That study, according to Washington D.C.-based Demand Abolition, generated the following statistics about the men (2):
Average age: 49.5 (range: 22-79)
Average income: $141,500 (range: $0-300,000)
84.9% Caucasian
97.3% heterosexual/2.7% bisexual
66.3% married
41.1% had a graduate degree, 38% had a college degree, 18% had attended some college and 2.9% completed high school or a GED
Average age of first contact with a prostitute: 32.2
Interestingly, a study done in London by Eaves showed some differences. In this study only 47% of the men identified as “white,” and came from more varied age and income groups (3).
While the above studies look primarily at demographics, one study from UCLA gives some disturbing insight into the mindset of men who purchase sex. The 2015 study published in the Journal Of Interpersonal Violence, found that men who purchase sex share commonalities with sexually coercive men:
Our findings indicate that men who buy sex share certain key characteristics with men who are at risk for committing sexual aggression…Both groups tend to have a preference for impersonal sex, a fear of rejection by women, a history of having committed sexually aggressive acts and a hostile masculine self-identification. Those who buy sex, on average, have less empathy for women in prostitution and view them as intrinsically different from other women.
Also, some men in the study viewed the women as no more than a commodity, in spite of having at least some understanding “about coercion and sex trafficking, and about many of the reasons that women entered prostitution.” (4)
It probably goes without saying that my readers are not part of the problem. The ultimate goal of this blog, though, is to encourage you to be part of the solution, so here are my recommendations for action:
• Don’t facilitate the exploitation of girls and women by frequenting strip clubs, buying sex from prostitutes, or viewing pornography ❏
• If you are a man, join the Defenders, and take the pledge to stand against the commercial sex industry. Then, encourage other men to join ❏
• Volunteer with an organization, such as Out Of Darkness, that fights against exploitation. See the important links page of this site to find a list of organizations, many of which need volunteers.
• If you can’t volunteer, donate ❏
Sources
- “Men Who Buy Sex From Adolescent Girls: A Scientific Research Study.” The Shapiro Group, Atlanta, Georgia.
- www.demandabolition.org
- Melissa Farley, Julie Bindel, and Jaqueline M. Golding. “Men Who Buy Sex: Who They Buy And What They Know.” Eaves, December 2009.
- Wolpert, Stuart. “Men Who Buy Sex Have Much In Common With Sexually Coercive Men.” UCLA Newsroom, 31 August, 2015.