This report seeks to shine a light on a consistently overlooked dimension of commercial sexual exploitation: the sex buyers who fuel this destructive system. The report features sex buyer quotes from across the country to expose the ways in which these men view and discuss the individuals they purchase for sex acts as well as the overall act of sex buying. By showcasing sex buyers in their own words, highlighting key trends among their attitudes, and revealing demographic data of sex buyers versus sex trade survivors across the U.S., we argue that current prostitution policies must be reformed to address these realities and offer possible solutions to end sexual exploitation.
By examining case studies of Australia, New Zealand, and Rhode Island, we conclude that current calls to decriminalize “sex work” are a failed approach because they result in an expansion of the sex trade, offering more women and youth up to the very men we highlight in these pages, while frustrating efforts to hold sex traffickers and other exploiters accountable. Instead, we offer the Survivor Model—a policy framework that provides services and legal protection to those engaged in prostitution while holding accountable those who exploit them for profit and sexual gratification.
