One in ten British men say they have paid for sex
11% of men in Britain report ever paying for sex and 3.6% report paying for sex in the past five years, finds a UCL-led study funded by the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council. The study of 6,108 men, published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, found that single men aged 25-34, in managerial or professional occupations and those who reported high numbers of sexual partners, were the most likely to say that they had paid for sex. Men who reported binge drinking once a week or more or taking hard drugs in the past year were also more likely to pay for sex. 14.1% of hard drug users reported paying for sex in the past five years, as did 15.7% of men with more than five sexual partners in that time, both considerably higher than the 3.6% population average for the same time period.* "The picture that emerges does not necessarily fit the stereotype of the lonely older man," says Dr Cath Mercer (UCL Infection and Population Health). "In fact, men who pay for sex are more likely to be young professionals with many unpaid sexual partners. Many report other hedonistic and risky behaviours including heavy drinking and drug taking." The findings come from the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal), conducted between 2010-2012 by researchers from UCL, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and NatCen Social Research. 6,108 men, aged 16-74 and representative of the British population, answered questions about paying for sex in a computer-assisted self-interview.
