Most men who use sex workers are in ordinary relationships and are not lonely or inadequate. In fact the partners of men who use sex workers are often devastated and cannot understand how their partner could have been seemingly having an ordinary sex life with them and still paying for sex, this is because paying for sex is about power and control, not about sexual gratification.

Nobody has to have sex, or participate in certain types of sexual behaviour.  Many men try to justify using sex workers by suggesting that somehow sex workers are happy to engage in any sexual acts, and that they have to use them because their wives and partners won’t.  This is a blatant lie that is most often used as a justification for prostitution.  Men choose to pay for sex because they believe that by doing so they will be in complete control and will be able to dominate the sex worker. 

Many sex workers have long histories of violence and abuse in their lives, and find themselves forced or coerced into sex work.  75% of women in prostitution began selling sex when they were under 18, and many of them have run away from home, been previously abused as a child, or grown up in the care system. A fragile self-esteem and limited resources lead some young girls to believe that they have no other choice but to enter the world of prostitution.  74% of women cite poverty/the need to pay household expenses and support their children as a primary motivator for entering prostitution.

People working in the sex industry often start believing that they have no choice, or that they will earn lots of money, or that they will be in control.  However, working in the sex industry often results in severe physical and mental health consequences and injuries.

Sex workers are exposed on a daily basis to violence and abuse and risk and fear from both their pimps and the men who buy sex.  Working in the sex industry has a huge impact on women and girls and affects their whole lives and well being.  Some women and girls working in the sex industry are seriously injured, and some die as a result of the abuse they experience.  Up to 95% of women involved in prostitution are problematic drug users, including around 78% heroin users and rising numbers of crack cocaine addicts.  68% of women in prostitution meet the criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the same range as victims of torture and combat veterans.

Nine out of ten women in prostitution would like to escape the sex industry. Choice and freedom are not necessarily words they recognize and it’s very difficult to exit from sex work and women and girls who want to do so need a lot of support. 

Men who use sex workers do so because they can and believe it is acceptable to exploit and abuse women.  Sex workers are often raped and made to do things they don’t want to do.  They are often assaulted physically by their clients and placed in dangerous and vulnerable situations.  Many men who use sex workers are in relationships and are having sexual relations with their partners.  Many men who use sex workers often rape other women, including their partners.  There are no excuses for rape.

Films such as Pretty Woman have glamorised sex work, along with other media such as television, videos, DVDs and printed material including pornography. These may entice naive girls and women into prostitution with false promises of glamour and riches. In reality anybody who works in the sex industry suffers pain, humiliation, and degradation at the hands of their pimps and customers. They are susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.  They are far more likely to have drug or alcohol misuse issues.  There are very few women working in the sex industry who make lots of money and have glamorous lifestyles, the only people who really do so are those who control them.

Victims of trafficking often do not immediately seek help or self-identify as victims of a crime, due to lack of trust, self-blame, or training by the traffickers. It is important that victims of trafficking are supported to come forward and seek help, and to be understanding that trust will take time to develop

Although poverty certainly is highly correlated with human trafficking because it often is a factor of vulnerability, poverty alone is not a single causal factor or universal indicator of a human trafficking victim. Trafficking victims can come from a range of different backgrounds and income levels and many may come from families with increased socioeconomic status.

Whilst many women and girls are trafficked for sexual exploitation, they can also find themselves in situations of forced labour or services. The broader concept of human trafficking encompasses both forms of what are referred to as “sex trafficking” and “labour trafficking,” and can affect men and boys in addition to women and girls

Pornography is the commercialization of women’s and girls’ bodies and is abusive to both those working in it and those women and girls who are forced to view it or recreate it within relationships.  It is also very damaging to a relationship when a man uses pornography as women often feel upset that their partner chooses to engage in it without any throughout whatsoever for their feelings, or the fact that they are distressed or appalled by the content.  Some women report that their partners no longer seek them out for lovemaking; instead, these men prefer to masturbate to pornography. Others are very upset and disturbed that their partners ask them to participate in sexual acts seen in explicit videos, without regard to whether or not they find these acts unpleasant or degrading

Pornography is not art, it is abuse.  Men who use it have no respect for women neither do they care that often women and children are abused in order for pornography to be created. 

Women working in the sex industry do not have glamorous lives.  They are exploited and abused, at risk of violence and abuse on a daily basis, and spend their lives pandering to the demands of men who control the industry and men who are its customers.  They are also exposed to men who have no respect for women as their belief is that women can be bought and sold like a used car, or a kebab, at any time of the night or day.  Their belief is that these are women of no worth.

Men who use pornography or strip clubs are more likely than men who don’t to be unfaithful.  They have no respect for women and believe that the commercialisation of women’s bodies is acceptable and necessary in the name of adult entertainment. 

The belief that many naïve women have when they work in the sex industry is that they will be in control or when they work, where they work and what they do.  But this is not true and many women find themselves forced or coerced to do things that they would never have chosen to do prior to entering the sex industry.  They find themselves accepting it as normal that ‘bouncers’ are needed to protect them, or that ‘going further’ than they intended is normal because others are doing it or that there may be consequences for them if they don’t. 

Over the past few years, lap-dancing clubs have branded themselves as a respectable part of the leisure industry. Many areas now have lap dancing clubs, and there are an increasing number of topless bars opening.  Yet academic research has linked lap-dancing to trafficking, prostitution and an increase in male sexual violence against both the women who work in the clubs and those who live and work in their vicinity. A recent conference in Ireland highlighted the use of lap-dance clubs by human traffickers as a tool for grooming women into prostitution; the clubs also normalise the idea of paying for sexual services. And a report by the Lilith Project, run by the charity Eaves Housing, which looked at lap-dancing in Camden Town, north London, found that in the three years before and after the opening of four large lap-dancing clubs in the area, incidents of rape in Camden rose by 50%, while sexual assault rose by 57%.