Just how many hookers and johns are there?

Factual Questions
1

One of the most horrible, disgusting parts of reading Unca Cece’s column in the local paper (NYC’s New York Press) is that it is stuck right in the middle of the “Adult Services” ads. That means that to find it, I have to turn page after page of pictures of half naked women who will sleep with me (for money). :sigh:
Anyway, all these ads led me to thinking - there seem to be a hell of a lot of prostitutes in the world. Yeah, yeah, I know I’m in NYC, and we have a lot of everything. But still. So, anyway, I gotta few questions about the sex industry:

  1. Any stats out there on the number of prostitutes in the U.S., as well as stats on what percentage of men and women are, or have at some time been, a hooker? (Not talking about people marrying for money; I mean the stuff you can get arrested for.);

  2. Any stats out there on the percentage of American men/women who have availed themselves of a prostitute’s services?; and

  3. This is WAG, but it seems that there is no shortage of prostitutes. Given this, can any economists explain why prostitution services are so pricey? Or aren’t they?

Sua

2

In 12 years working in public health, I don’t think I ever heard any reliable estimates of the number of prostitutes now working in the U.S. or what percentage of men and women (of some specified age) have ever practiced prostitution. I don’t recall ever seeing an estimate of the percentage of men (of some specified age) who have ever purchased sex (although the Univ of Chicago survey by Laumann may have such data). Based on other information about the sex industry around the world and the sex habits of Americans, I would guess that about 1% of American women now aged 50-60 have ever accepted money for sex but I would not be surprised if the figure was as high as 4%. I would expect that the percentage of women 40-50 who have ever accepted money for sex would be lower. (Remember, sex became “free” in the sixties.) I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the percentage of men (in the same age ranges) who have ever accepted money for sex is as high as the percentage of women. As for patronizing painted ladies, my guess is that more than 50% of American men now 50-60 have paid for sex (remember, there used to be a draft meaning that most of them were in the army or navy at one time). But I wouldn’t be surprised if less than 30% of American men now 40-50 have paid a prostitute for sex.

(Notice I said that I don’t recall ever hearing any reliable figures. That doesn’t mean I haven’t read newpaper or magazine articles in which someone’s estimates are quoted. Such estimates are typically created with some political purpose in mind and should be “interpreted with caution.”)

I once did an economic analysis of the effects of an economic crisis on the sex industry in a less developed country. It seems that the sex industry obeys the same laws of supply and demand that other industries follow. I suspect that highly desirable sex services (meaning sex services supplied by highly desirable, i.e., attractive women) are pricey becuase they are scarce. I think that if you are not picky, you can find a very large supply of less desirable sex services at very reasonable prices. In one less developed country I am familiar with, you could get sex under an overpass for less than $1.00, sex in a noisy brothel with a moderately attractive woman for about $10.00, or you could meet very desirable women at bars, discoteques and hotels who would have sex with you for $50 and up (way up).

3
  1. This is WAG, but it seems that there is no shortage of prostitutes. Given this, can any economists explain why prostitution services are so pricey?
    You can ask you question again after you substitute “lawyer” for “prostitutes”.

In the Bronx (Great Councourse) I was solicited more than once by teenagege-looking girls (attractive? It’s in the eye of the beholder; attracted? yes, to cocaine). The quoted price was $5 for a blow job (it was a going price for a vial of crack in the area).

4

“In the Bronx (Great Councourse) I was solicited more than once by teenagege-looking girls (attractive? It’s in the eye of the beholder; attracted? yes, to cocaine). The quoted price was $5 for a blow job (it was a going price for a vial of crack in the area).”

In the business, such young women are referred to as “rock stars.”

5

Yeah,
they are actually not “in the business”, strictly speaking, they are half-amateurs. They are so addicted to crack (cocaine, really) that for $10 they will do anything, sexually and otherwise. Sad.
You sound like you know what you are talking about.

6

This is known in the legal business as “restraint of free trade”. No one has ever given me a lucid explanation as to why lawyers must go to law school and pass a bar examination. However, since these barriers to entry exist, the numbers of lawyers is actually effectively restrained, so the prices can remain high.
Add to that the fact that you idiots out in the real world are ridiculously litigation-happy (remember, those morons on “The People’s Court” are taken off the docket of real courts. I assume that’s also true of “Judge Judy”, etc.), and there really isn’t a surplus of attorneys.
Sua, who benefits from the system, but still sees its flaws.

7

Sua, do not be mistaken by another lawyer’s trick: they appear the system make restricted, so even smart people, like you, are fooled. Exams and licenses are required in many professions. For barbers, for instance. Prostitutes must be a licensed pro in Nevada. Anyone with a college diploma can enter a law school.

Lucid explanation you asked for: lawyers invented law schools, etc., to make it look like a real profession. So, they can charge more. Also, it tickles, you may display a doploma hanging on the wall, in Latin, and charge even more. Cf. real estate broker (their distant relatives).

8

to get it back to the OP (and I promise not to flit off into lawyer talk - I know where that’ll get me :slight_smile: )
I doubt that you’ll get reliable numbers because it’s an illegal activity.
You could possibly get the numbers of women arrested for prostitution. (quite a few I’d suspect)

Prices vary according to area and what the market will bare (couldn’t resist).

By the way the “free love” movement, (IMHO) probably had no effect on the rate of prositution.

There’s different levels of prositution: the street prositute, those that work on an “on call” as it were basis, as well as those who work in a house of prositution (legal in certain parts of Nevada) etc. The Mayflower Madam operated a call girl service, for example and those you’re bumping into in the paper are more likely to be the call girl type.

Being in the biz of working with offenders, I’ve met many prostitutes, and some johns, (they’re arrested far less often). One prositute earns enough to keep a habit going, which means a lot more men use them than admit it.

I’m always facsinated by tv and movie depiction of prositutes (fav was the **Cybil ** version where she dressed up to look like one for ‘research’ into a role, strolls up to another, who also turns out to be an actress researching, they stroll up to a third who turns out to be a grad student ‘researching’ a doctoral thesis)

I remember a man I dated mentioning “gee there’s a lot of prostitutes down Michigan Ave”, and I layed into him “how can you tell…” etc. This was before I worked in the biz. About a year later, as I was signing out one of the residents to go “to dinner”, I thought “Oh, that’s how he could tell”.

From one of my client’s who’s been a prostitute since she was about 14 (she’s now 40), men in all walks of life (including, of course, politicians, police, teachers etc). One police report I read about an arrest of one of my ladies indicated that she had been sitting in her car, called out to the guy and said "don’t be confused, I AM working), and the car was described as having wads of tissue covering the back seat (can we all say “ewwwwww” together?).

9

Is there such a thing as “upper class” hookers? I have read and heard in various places that some rich businessmen when travelling overseas pay though-the-roof prices to get the top-of-the-line hookers. Is this so? Are there VERY expensive hookers? And if there are, what makes them different from regular hookers?

10

“Is this so?” YesS
“Are there VERY expensive hookers?” Yes
“And if there are, what makes them different from regular hookers?” They are more attractive, more charming, and are called courtesans. One of them, it is said, became an American ambassador.

11

You forgot that they also have amazingly mobile tongues.

Sua

12

In the early days of Seattle, there was a survey of occupations done. Literally thousands of women claimed the occupation “seamstress” in the docks.

The city instituted a tax on seamstresses and it was a big chunk of revenue for a long time.

Then, of course, there’s Pratchett’s Guild of Seamstresses…

13

It’s an illegal activity. Prostitutes know they run the risk of arrest, bail, lawyer expenses, conviction and time spent behind bars. Thus, the cost of services is adjusted to compensate for the potentially high cost of doing business.

14

Slate magazine ( http://www.slate.com) had an article about high-class hookers who serviced computer nerds in California. The prices mentioned ranged from 10,000$ to 50,000$ per weekend.

Also remember the before the 60s ‘free love’ and ‘social welfare’ many poor women were occasional prostitutes. There were no food stamps in those days, and women often would do a trick or two to get rent or grocery money. It was also considered less ‘bad’ to be a prostitute because prostitution didn’t automatically imply drug use.
IIRC, The A&E channel did a biography of BB King, and in the documentary he admitted that his mom was one of those “occasional” prostitutes.