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Invisible offenders: estimating online sex customers
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 23:37 authored by Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, Stephanie Bontrager Ryon, Kristine HickleKristine Hickle, James M Gallagher, E C HedbergResearch on prostitution demand has well documented why men buy sex from girls and women, but there is very little understanding of the scope and scale of the issue. The lack of stable and valid measures of how many people buy sex from prostituted persons severely hinders the development of prevention and intervention efforts. This study developed a probability estimate of the population of active customers of online sex in the United States in a sample of 15 cities. In each city, the research team placed decoy online ads, advertising the sale of sexual services/prostitution, and collected text and voicemail data from potential sex purchasers. The resulting 677 phone numbers were analyzed using capture-recapture techniques to create an estimate of the number of online sex purchasers within each city. On average, within the 15 markets explored, 1 out of every 20 males over the age of 18 in a metropolitan city area was soliciting online sex ads. These results demonstrate (a) the viability of new techniques to estimate buyer populations and (b) preliminary figures on the number of purchasers buying sex online.
History
Publication status
- Published
Journal
Journal of Human TraffickingISSN
2332-2705Publisher
Taylor & FrancisExternal DOI
Issue
4Volume
2Page range
272-280Department affiliated with
- Social Work and Social Care Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2015-12-03Usage metrics
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