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Tenille Dang, Katherine Lau, M. Alexis Kennedy,
Boris B. Gorzalka, & John C. Yuille
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia
Socio-economic status and motivations of men soliciting street prostitution
The last twenty years have seen a considerable shift in policing practices dealing with prostitution, from focusing
almost entirely on arresting prostitutes to now also focusing on arresting prostitution consumers. The majority of these arrests occur through undercover sting operations conducted on the street. However, it has been hypothesized that consumers who solicit sexual services from the street, rather than
in massage parlors, escort agencies, or bawdy-houses, may do so because they cannot afford the latter. As a result, there has been concern that current police arrest procedures may be biased towards low socio-economic
men. The current research assessed the extent to which socio-economic status
and other demographic variables played a role in men soliciting sexual services on the street. Demographics, including yearly
income, marital status, employment status, ethnicity, and religion, of 650 men who were arrested for soliciting sexual services
on the street were collected and questions were asked regarding whether they had ever also visited massage parlors, escort
agencies, or bawdy-houses for sex. In addition, respondents were queried as to
how much money they normally spend for prostitution services and how much money they had spent in their lifetimes.
Tenille Dang, Katherine Lau, M. Alexis Kennedy,
Boris B. Gorzalka, & John C. Yuille
Deterrents to street prostitution: Suggestions from consumers
Involvement in the sex trade industry carries many risks, not only for the prostitutes but also for the consumers,
or john. These risks include physical risks such as violence and contracting
sexually transmitted diseases, as well as the risk of being caught by police and arrested.
While much research has been done on prostitutes and the reasons that they face these risks by staying in the sex trade,
there is a comparative dearth of research on the consumers of prostitution services.
Further, from a policing and court perspective, understanding why men engage in this criminal behavior and what kinds
of deterrents would keep them from going to prostitutes is important. The current research asked over 650 male sex trade consumers
whether they believed that their behavior with prostitutes is, or has caused problems for them and what it would take for
them to stop going to prostitutes (e.g., catching HIV, being caught by their wives, finding a regular partner, etc.). They were also asked what punishment would be so severe that they would stop attempting
to solicit sexual services. Results and implications are discussed in detail.
Katherine Lau, Tenille Dang, M. Alexis Kennedy,
Boris B. Gorzalka, & John C. Yuille
Social desirability in responses from prostitution sexual offenders
The last five years have seen an increase in the amount of research being done on the sexual attitudes, behaviors,
and experiences of men who solicit the sexual services of prostitutes. However,
the validity of this research has been questioned as tend to be men arrested for solicitation and currently involved with
the criminal justice system. Responses from these men may be skewed in a socially-desirable
direction out of a fear that the information provided could be used against them in court.
The current study examined the extent to which men arrested for communicating for the purposes of prostitution distort
self-presentation. Over 600 men who took part in the Prostitution Offender Program
of British Columbia completed the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale as part of a questionnaire package assessing their
sexual attitudes and behaviors. Means on this Scale for the entire sample, as
well as from a subsample of these men who denied that they had been trying to solicit sexual services upon arrest or who claimed
that this was their first attempt at solicitation, are compared to norms of other forensic and non-forensic groups.
Katherine Lau, Tenille Dang, M. Alexis Kennedy,
Boris B. Gorzalka, & John C. Yuille
Men's motivations for soliciting prostituted women
Several hypotheses have been proposed as to why men go to prostitutes including loneliness, sexual dissatisfaction,
convenience, sexual addiction, or an inability to find other sexual partners. However,
to date, no research has been conducted asking men why they go to prostitutes in an open-ended answer format where they can
explain their own behavior. The following research asked over 600 men arrested
for communicating for the purposes of prostitution the reasons why they first solicited sexual services and why they then
continued to do so. For those men who had other sexual relationships outside
of prostitutes, the questions When you are with a prostitute is your ability to perform sexually different than when you are
with a partner and Can you ask your regular partner to do the things you ask
of a prostitute were asked as it has also been hypothesized that men who have partners may be going to prostitutes out of
a desire for specific acts that a regular partner will not do. Understanding
the reasons behind going to prostitutes may have important implications for how the police and the court system deal with
these offenders in the future.
Ip, Karen, Kennedy,
M. Alexis, Samra, Joti
& Gorzalka, Boris
B.
Body image dissatisfaction in
men: Considerations of ethnicity and body mass index
Although relatively little is known
about body image disturbances in men, a few studies have reported that body dissatisfaction in men is qualitatively different
than in women. For example, while women are primarily concerned with weight loss,
men are more often concerned with gaining weight and increasing muscle tone (McCabe & Ricciardelli, 2001). Thus, body mass index (BMI) in men may be associated with other dieting and eating goals than simply a
desire for weight loss. In addition, little is known about the role of ethnicity
in body image dissatisfaction in men. The goal of the present study was to simultaneously
investigate the influences of ethnicity and BMI on body image in men. Participants
were 285 men. The ethnicities of the participants were distributed as follows: 91 reported being of European descent, 145 reported Chinese descent, 28 reported Indo-Asian
descent, and 21 reported being of Southeast Asian descent. Body image was assessed
with the body image subscale of the Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory (Derogatis, 1978).
The results indicated that the mens responses varied by ethnicity on six of the 13 items and on a composite score.
Differences in body mass index accounted for variation on only three of the items, which were primarily weight related items. Clinical implications of these findings will be discussed.
Ip, Karen, Kennedy,
M. Alexis, Samra, Joti
& Gorzalka, Boris
B.
Disordered eating in men: A cross-cultural comparison of students of Chinese, Southeast Asian, Indo-Asian, and European descent
Although eating disorders are thought to primarily affect women, it is estimated
that between 10-30% of men endorse some form of eating pathology (Croll, Neumark-Sztainer, Story, & Ireland, 2002). However,
disordered eating in men is still a poorly understood phenomenon. In addition, no studies to date have investigated cross-cultural
differences in male eating pathologies. There is evidence that ethnic differences exist in males in terms of body image disturbances
(Barry & Grilo, 2002); therefore, ethnic differences may also exist in eating disorders in men. The goal of the present
study was to investigate cross-cultural differences in eating pathologies in men of four different ethnic groups. Participants
were 285 undergraduate students. The self-reported ethnicities of the participants were as follows: 91 reported European descent,
145 reported Chinese descent, 28 reported Indo-Asian descent, and 21 reported being of Southeast Asian descent. Measures employed
included the Eating Disorders Inventory-2 (Garner, 1991) and the Vancouver Index of Acculturation (Ryder, Alden & Paulhus,
2000). Results indicated that ethnic differences existed for levels of body dissatisfaction. Regression analyses were conducted
for the 11 subscales to explore the connection between ethnicity and acculturation.
M. Alexis Kennedy & Boris B. Gorzalka
Cross-cultural and intra-cultural assessments of abusive behaviour
One limitation to written scenario self-report methods of collecting information
on peoples perceptions of child abuse is that there is no information on the victim being pictured. For example, when asking for an opinion on the appropriateness of spanking, an assessor picturing a mature
12-year-old may have a different response than someone picturing a young 3-year-old.
Also, the ethnicity of the person being described is left to the imagination of the participants. In order to assess whether participants judge abuse differently depending on the ethnicity of the victim,
video vignettes were used depicting two young adolescents experiencing physical and emotional abuse. 164 European descent
and 295 Chinese descent participants saw cross-cultural and intra-cultural depictions of abuse. ANOVAs considering the ethnicities of the assessors and the victims of abuse showed significant interaction
effects. Simple main effects will be presented as well. There appeared to be no consistent pattern in which assessors were
more likely to be sympathetic to victims of their own ethnicity. The clinical relevance of these findings will be discussed.
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