Paying for Sex in a Digital Age

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.

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.

Introduction: Understanding Sexual Consumption; 1. Knowledge About Consumers; 2. Law, Policy and Politics in the UK and US; 3. Advertising and Avenues of Access to Paying for Sex; 4. Who Are Clients and How Do They Buy? Purchasing Patterns, Customer; 5. Beyond Middle-Aged, Straight, White Guys: Purchasing Patterns in Smaller Markets; 6. Sex Without Touch - Consumers of the Webcam Market; 7. Responsible Consumption? Client Attitudes, Self Regulation and Risks in an Underground Environment; 8. Conclusions: Market Diversity in a Digital Age; Appendix: Methodology.