Criminological and sociological discourse on the sex industry has focussed primarily on issues concerning women's involvement as prostitutes, while comparatively little attention has been paid to the men who buy their services. This paper begins to explore the motivations and experiences of the clients, based on in-depth, qualitative interviews conducted with a small group of such men in New Zealand. Sex workers' observations of their clients are also included in this account. The overall aim is to enhance our understanding of why men buy sex and how they construct such interactions for themselves, as well as to ponder the question: who gets ‘used’ under ‘user pays’?
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