What men say when apprehended for kerb crawling: A model of prostitutes clients' talk1

¹Requests for reprints to first author [email protected] at the School of Psychology, University of Leicester, LE1 7RH. This paper is based on work conducted for a doctoral thesis which was funded by the Economic Social and Research Council (award no. R0042974404). The second author was academic supervisor.

Abstract

Prostitution research has traditionally focused on women engaged in sex work while the male clients have been so hidden that their characteristics and motives have been difficult for researchers to study. A general confusion exists in parliamentary debates, media, and policy, as to who the clients of prostitutes are, and their purpose for the visit (Carpenter, 2000). Despite the lack of theoretically informed debate about the role of the consumer in the buying and selling of sex, recent policy and legislation in England has continued to criminalize the male customer of on-street sexual practices. This paper presents data from 518 cases in which men were stopped for street soliciting (or ‘kerb crawling’), and contributes to the ongoing prostitution/policing debate by providing an analysis of the language these men use to justify their actions when stopped by the police for soliciting women. From the analysis of such attributional accounts, a new theoretical model of client behaviour is presented. Discussion focuses upon the utility of such a model to further our understanding of prostitutes clients' behaviour, their contact with law enforcement, and their subjective reasons for seeking commercial sex.

¹Requests for reprints to first author [email protected] at the School of Psychology, University of Leicester, LE1 7RH. This paper is based on work conducted for a doctoral thesis which was funded by the Economic Social and Research Council (award no. R0042974404). The second author was academic supervisor.

Keywords:

• Prostitution
• Customer
• Street sex-work client
• Kerb crawler
• Justification

Professor Ken Pease and Professor Donald West both made helpful suggestions regarding the content of this paper. We are grateful also to two anonymous referees whose recommendations led to the work of Keith Pringle and Bob Pease. In this way we were made aware of the work of Sven-Axel Mansson. Andrew Bainham made helpful and supportive comments on a final draft.

Notes

¹Requests for reprints to first author [email protected] at the School of Psychology, University of Leicester, LE1 7RH. This paper is based on work conducted for a doctoral thesis which was funded by the Economic Social and Research Council (award no. R0042974404). The second author was academic supervisor.

²In 1990 Gelsthorpe and Morris lamented that even when the ‘primary subject matter is male offenders, [research] focuses hardly at all on men and masculinity. It deals with men without acknowledging this and hence creates theories about criminals without a conceptualisation of gender’ (Gelsthorpe and Morris, 1990: 3).

³Despite arguments to the contrary by Weitzer (2000, p85) who argues that it is the overt street behaviour of prostitutes, pimps and customers that fuels pressure for increased criminalization, rather than morality. The vocabulary through which these arguments are developed is that of moral indignation (consider for example ‘streetwalkers’ brazen flagging down of customers' cars, and ‘identification and shaming’ of johns – our emphasis).

⁴These are punishable under Article 23 of the Swedish Penal Code (see Mansson, in press).

⁵The McDonaldization thesis developed by Ritzer (1995) which aligns many services to the purchase of fast food, is one worthy of further exploration in this context.

⁶This typology integrated Sykes and Matza's (1957) original techniques of justification and added inter alia ‘apologies’ and ‘requests’ (Goffman, 1971) and ‘disclaimers’ (Hewitt and Stokes, 1975).

⁷The men are stopped for offences covered by the 1985 Sexual Offences Act. These include persistently soliciting a female from or near a vehicle (sec. 1 (1)); causing annoyance by soliciting a female (sec. 1 (1)); persistently soliciting a woman on foot (sec. 2 (1)). Men are also stopped for persistently driving around a known red light (prostitution) area without a good explanation, and soliciting a woman on foot (not persistently).

⁸Cockney rhyming slang for Thomas More (Whore). The history and details of how the word Tom has come to mean ‘whore’ was supplied by Malcolm Young (1998).

⁹It is specified in s.55 of PACE 1984 that where search is conducted for drugs or weapons it may only be carried out by a nurse or medical practitioner or police officer of the same sex as the person to be searched.

¹⁰Red-light area.

¹¹Term used to describe the victimisation of a potential client by a woman sex worker.

¹²Cocaine.