Abstract
Only a few studies have measured attitudes toward men who pay for sex (MWPS), and those that did so usually based their assessment on a limited number of items. This study sets out to devise a measure of attitudes toward MWPS that is founded on a solid theoretical framework and features satisfactory psychometric properties. Based on a conceptualization of the available literature, a tentative model for examining attitudes toward MWPS (the attitudes toward men who pay for sex scale, ARMPS) was constructed, designed to measure the factors that express a perception of (1) paying for sex as a legitimate behavior and (2) paying for sex as a deviant behavior. The participants were 687 Israeli men. The analysis included inter-item correlations, exploratory factor analysis, comparison of two wording versions, the assessment of construct validity, and the assessment of criterion validity and reliability. The findings confirmed the ATMPS scale reliability and construct validity and suggest the benefits of further application in other cultural and linguistic contexts.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

References
Almog, S. (2010). Prostitution as exploitation: An Israeli perspective. Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, 11(3), 711–742.
Amir, D., & Amir, M. (2004). The politics of prostitution and trafficking of women in Israel. In J. Outshoorn (Ed.), The politics of prostitution: Women’s movements, democratic states, and the globalization of commerce (pp. 144–164). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Benoit, C., Smith, M., Jansson, M., Healey, P., & Magnuson, D. (2019). “The prostitution problem”: Claims, evidence, and policy outcomes. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48(7), 1905–1923. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1276-6.
Bernstein, E. (2001). The meaning of the purchase: Desire, demand and the commerce of sex. Ethnography, 2(3), 389–420. https://doi.org/10.1177/14661380122230975.
Birch, P. (2015). Why men buy sex: Examining clients of sex workers. London: Routledge.
Bounds, D., Delaney, K. R., & Julion, W. (2017). Hunter–prey discourse: A critical discourse analysis of the online posts of men who buy sex. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 23(4), 258–267. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078390317700264.
Brooks-Gordon, B. (2006). The price of sex: Prostitution, policy and society. Portland, OR: Willan.
Browne, M. W., & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In K. A. Bollen & J. S. Long (Eds.), Testing structural equation models (pp. 136–162). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Campbell, R. (1998). Invisible men: Making visible male clients of female prostitution in merseyside. In J. E. Elias, L. B. Vern, V. Elias, & J. Brewer (Eds.), Prostitution: On whores, hustlers and johns (pp. 155–171). New York: Prometheus Books.
Cao, L., & Maguire, E. R. (2013). A test of the temperance hypothesis: Class, religiosity, and tolerance of prostitution. Social Problems, 60(2), 188–205. https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2013.60.2.188.
Clark, L. A., & Watson, D. (1995). Constructing validity: Basic issues in objective scale development. Psychological Assessment, 7, 309–319. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.7.3.309.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Coovert, M., & Craiger, P. (2000). An expert system for integrating multiple fit indices for structural equation models. New Review of Applied Expert Systems and Emerging Technologies, 6, 39–56.
Coy, M., Smiley, C., & Tyler, M. (2019). Challenging the “prostitution problem”: Dissenting voices, sex Buyers, and the myth of neutrality in prostitution research [Commentary]. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48, 1931–1935. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1276-6.
Cyrus, N., & Vogel, D. (2017). Learning from demand-side campaigns against trafficking in human beings: Evaluation as knowledge-generator and project-improver. DemandAT Working Paper 9. http://medienservicestelle.at/migration_bewegt/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DemandAT_WP9_Cyrus-Vogel_Campaigns_June_2017.pdf.
Danna, D. (2012). Client-only criminalization in the city of Stockholm: A local research on the application of the “Swedish model” of prostitution policy. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 9(1), 80–93. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-011-0072-z.
Dennis, J. (2008). Women are victims, men make choices: The invisibility of men and boys in the global sex trade. Gender Issues, 25, 11–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-008-9051-y.
Digidiki, V., Dikaiou, M., & Baka, A. (2016). Attitudes towards the victim and the client of sex trafficking in Greece: The influence of belief in a just world, structural attributions, previous experience, and attitudes towards prostitution. Journal of Human Trafficking, 2, 297–315. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322705.2016.1176385.
Döring, N., Daneback, K., Shaughnessy, K., Grov, C., & Byers, E. S. (2017). Online sexual activity experiences among college students: A four-country comparison. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46(6), 1641–1652. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0656-4.
Dworkin, A. (2000). Against the male flood: Censorship, pornography, and equality. In D. Cornell (Ed.), Oxford readings in feminism: Feminism and pornography (pp. 19–38). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Farley, M., Golding, J. M., Matthews, E. S., Malamuth, N. M., & Jarrett, L. (2017). Comparing sex buyers with men who do not buy sex: New data on prostitution and trafficking. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 32(23), 3601–3625.
Farley, M., Macleod, J., Anderson, L., & Golding, J. M. (2011). Attitudes and social characteristics of men who buy sex in Scotland. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 3(4), 369–383. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022645.
Farrell, A., Pfeffer, R., & Bright, K. (2015). Police perceptions of human trafficking. Journal of Crime and Justice, 38(3), 315–333. https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.2014.995412.
Fogiel-Bijaoui, S., & Rutlinger-Reiner, R. (2013). Guest Editors’ introduction: Rethinking the family in Israel. Israel Studies Review, 28(2), 7–12. https://doi.org/10.3167/jsr.2013.280201.
Fritsch, K., Heynen, R., Ross, A. N., & van der Meulen, E. (2016). Disability and sex work: Developing affinities through decriminalization. Disability & Society, 31(1), 84–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2016.1139488.
Gordon-Lamoureux, R. J. (2007). Exploring the possibility of sexual addiction in men arrested for seeking out prostitutes: A preliminary study. Journal of Addictions Nursing, 18(1), 21–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/10884600601174458.
Hammond, N., & van Hooff, J. (2019). “This is me, this is what I am, I am a man”: The masculinities of men who pay for sex with women. Journal of Sex Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2019.1644485.
Hausbeck, K., & Brents, B. G. (2009). McDonaldization of the sex industries: The business of sex. In G. Ritzer (Ed.), McDonaldization: The reader (pp. 91–106). London: Sage.
Hinkin, T. R. (1998). A brief tutorial on the development of measures for use in survey questionnaires. Organizational Research Methods, 1(1), 104–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/109442819800100106.
Holzman, H. R., & Pines, S. (1982). Buying sex: The phenomenology of being a John. Deviant Behavior, 4(1), 89–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.1982.9967604.
Hoyle, R. H. (1995). The structural equation modeling approach: Basic concepts and fundamental issues. In R. H. Hoyle (Ed.), Structural equation modeling: Concepts, issues, and applications (pp. 1–15). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Huschke, S., & Schubotz, D. (2016). Commercial sex, clients, and Christian morals: Paying for sex in Ireland. Sexualities, 19(7), 869–887. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460716638094.
Huysamen, M., & Boonzaier, F. (2015). Men’s constructions of masculinity and male sexuality through talk of buying sex. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 17(5), 541–554. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2014.963679.
Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. (2018). Statistical Abstract of Israel—No. 69. Jerusalem: Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.
Jakobsson, N., & Kotsadam, A. (2011). Gender equity and prostitution: An investigation of attitudes in Norway and Sweden. Feminist Economics, 17, 31–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2010.541863.
Jeffreys, S. (2013). The “agency” of men: Make buyers in the global sex industry. In J. Hearn, M. Blagojević, & K. Harrison (Eds.), Rethinking transnational men: Beyond, between and within nations (pp. 59–75). New York: Routledge.
Jonsson, S., & Jakobsson, N. (2017). Is buying sex morally wrong? Comparing attitudes toward prostitution using individual-level data across eight Western European countries. Women’s Studies International Forum, 61, 58–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2016.12.007.
Joseph, L. J., & Black, P. (2012). Who’s the man? Fragile masculinities, consumer masculinities, and the profiles of sex work clients. Men and Masculinities, 15(5), 486–506. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X12458591.
Katsulis, Y. (2010). ‘‘Living like a king’’: Conspicuous consumption, virtual communities, and the social construction of paid sexual encounters by US sex tourists. Men and Masculinities, 13(2), 210–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X09346813.
Kinnell, H. (2013). Clients of female sex workers: Men or monsters? In R. Campbell & M. O’Neill (Eds.), Sex work now (2nd ed., pp. 212–234). Devon, England: Willan.
Klein, C., Kennedy, M. A., & Gorzalka, B. B. (2009). Rape myth acceptance in men who completed the prostitution offender program of British Columbia. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 53(3), 305–315. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X08316969.
Kong, T. (2015). Romancing the boundary: Client masculinities in the Chinese sex industry. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 17(7), 810–824. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2015.1004197.
Lahav-Raz, Y. (2016). Behind the discreet curtain: Clients’ discourses and the internet as an active actor in the sex industry. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Levin, L., & Peled, E. (2011). Measuring attitudes toward prostitutes and prostitution: The Attitude toward Prostitutes and Prostitution Scale. Research on Social Work Practice, 21(5), 582–593. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731511406451.
Lewis, J. (2000). Controlling lap dancing: Law, morality and sex work. In R. Weitzer (Ed.), Sex for sale: Prostitution, pornography, and the sex industry (pp. 203–216). New York: Routledge.
Liddiard, K. (2014). ‘I never felt like she was just doing it for the money’: Disabled men’s intimate (gendered) realities of purchasing sexual pleasure and intimacy. Sexualities, 17(7), 837–855. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460714531272.
Marttila, A. (2008). Desiring the “other”: Prostitution clients on a transnational red-light district in the border area of Finland, Estonia and Russia. Gender, Technology and Development, 12(1), 31–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/097185240701200104.
Mathews, R. (2018). Regulating the demand for commercialized sexual services. Women’s Studies International Forum, 69, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2018.03.007.
Matsunaga, M. (2010). How to factor-analyze your data right: Do’s, don’ts, and how-to’s. International Journal of Psychological Research, 3(1), 97–110. https://doi.org/10.21500/20112084.854.
Milrod, C., & Monto, M. (2017). Older male clients of female sex workers in the United States. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46, 1867–1876. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0733-3.
Milrod, C., & Weitzer, R. (2012). The intimacy prism emotion management among the clients of escorts. Men and Masculinities, 15(5), 447–467. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X12452148.
Minichiello, V., Scott, J., & Callander, D. (2013). New pleasures and old dangers: Reinventing male sex work. Journal of Sex Research, 50, 263–275. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2012.760189.
Monto, M. A., & Hotaling, N. (2001). Predictors of rape myth acceptance among male clients of female street prostitutes. Violence Against Women, 7, 275–293. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778010122182442.
Monto, M. A., & McRee, N. (2005). A comparison of the male customers of female street prostitutes with national samples of men. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 49(5), 505–529. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X04272975.
Monto, M. A., & Milrod, C. (2014). xuni Ordinary or peculiar men? Comparing the customers of prostitutes with a nationally representative sample of men. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 58(7), 802–820. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X13480487.
Moran, R., & Farley, M. (2019). Consent, coercion, and culpability: Is prostitution stigmatized work or an exploitive and violent practice rooted in sex, race, and class inequality? [Commentary]. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48, 1947–1953. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1371-8.
Muftic, L. R. (2013). Attitudes regarding criminal justice responses to sex trafficking among law enforcement officers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Varstvoslovje, 15(2), 177–189.
Neal, M. (2018). Dirty customers: Stigma and identity among sex tourists. Journal of Consumer Culture, 18(1), 131–148.
O’Connell-Davidson, J. (1998). Prostitution, power and freedom Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
O’Connell-Davidson, J., & Taylor, J. S. (2005). Travel and taboo: Heterosexual sex tourism to the Caribbean. In E. Bernstein & L. Schaffner (Eds.), Regulating sex (pp. 83–99). New York: Routledge.
Peled, E., & Levin Rotberg, T. (2013). The perceptions of child protection officers toward mothering in prostitution. Social Service Review, 89(1), 40–69. https://doi.org/10.1086/670233.
Pitts, M. K., Smith, A. M., Grierson, J., O’brien, M., & Misson, S. (2004). Who pays for sex and why? An analysis of social and motivational factors associated with male clients of sex workers. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 33(4), 353–358. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:ASEB.0000028888.48796.4f.
Plumridge, E. W., Chetwynd, S. J., Reed, A., & Gifford, S. J. (1997). Discourses of emotionality in commercial sex: The missing client voice. Feminism & Psychology, 7(2), 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353597072002.
Prior, A., & Peled, E. (2018). Paying for sex while traveling as tourists: The experience of Israeli men. Journal of Sex Research., 58(4–5), 659–669. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2018.1530340.
Pruitt, M. V. (2018). “Just a Gigolo”: Differences in advertisements of male-for-female and male-for-male online escorts. Deviant Behavior, 39, 64–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2016.1260384.
Rich, R., Leventhal, A., Sheffer, R., & Mor, Z. (2018). Heterosexual men who purchase sex and attended an STI clinic in Israel: Characteristics and sexual behavior. Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, 7, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13584-018-0213-4.
Rivers-Moore, M. (2012). Almighty gringos: Masculinity and value in sex tourism. Sexualities, 15(7), 850–870. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460712454080.
Sanders, T. (2007). The politics of sexual citizenship: Commercial sex and disability. Disability & Society, 22(5), 439–455. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687590701427479.
Sanders, T. (2008a). Male sexual scripts intimacy, sexuality and pleasure in the purchase of commercial sex. Sociology, 42(3), 400–417. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038508088833.
Sanders, T. (2008b). Paying for pleasure: Men who buy sex. Portland, OR: Willan.
Sanders, T., O’Neill, M., & Pitcher, J. (2009). Prostitution: Sex work, policy and politics. London: Sage.
Sawyer, S. P., & Metz, M. E. (2009). The attitudes toward prostitution scale: Preliminary report on its development and use. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 53(3), 334–347. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X08316706.
Sawyer, S., Metz, M. E., Hinds, J. D., & Brucker, R. A. (2001). Attitudes towards prostitution among males: A “consumers’ report”. Current Psychology, 20(4), 363–376. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-001-1018-z.
Serughetti, G. (2013). Prostitution and clients’ responsibility. Men and Masculinities, 16(1), 35–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X12467008.
Shively, M., Kliorys, K., Wheeler, K., & Hunt, D. (2012). A national overview of prostitution and sex trafficking demand reduction efforts, final report. A report submitted to The National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC.
Shumka, L., Strega, S., & Hallgrimsdottir, H. K. (2017). “I wanted to feel like a man again”: Hegemonic masculinity in relation to the purchase of street-level sex. Frontiers in Sociology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2017.00015.
Suhr, D. D. (2006, March). Exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis? Paper presented at the meeting of the SAS Users Group International, San Francisco, CA.
Taylor, J. S. (2000). Tourism and ‘embodied’ commodities: Sex tourism in the Caribbean. In S. Clift & S. Carter (Eds.), Tourism and sex: Culture, commerce and coercion (pp. 41–53). London: Pinter.
Thomsen, F. K. (2014). Prostitution, disability and prohibition. Journal of Medical Ethics, 30, 451–459.
Wasserman, J. D., & Bracken, B. A. (2003). Psychometric characteristics of assessment procedures. In J. R. Graham & J. A. Naglieri (Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Assessment psychology (pp. 44–66). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Weitzer, R. (2000). The politics of prostitution in America. In R. Weitzer (Ed.), Sex for sale: Prostitution, pornography, and the sex industry (pp. 159–181). New York: Routledge.
Weitzer, R. (2005). New directions in research on prostitution. Crime, Law and Social Change, 43, 211–235.
Wilcox, A., Christmann, K., Rogerson, M., & Birch, P. (2009). Tackling the demand for prostitution: A rapid evidence assessment of the published research literature. Project Report. Home Office. Retrieved from http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/7178/.
Acknowledgements
We thank Yael Goor, the director of the Levinsky Clinic, for her continuing support of this project.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
The Review Board of Tel Aviv University approved the study.
Human and Animal Rights
All procedures performed in the study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Peled, E., Shilo, G., Marton Marom, Y. et al. The Attitudes Toward Men Who Pay for Sex Scale: Development and Preliminary Validation. Arch Sex Behav 49, 3075–3087 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01668-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01668-0
Keywords
- Men who pay for sex
- Sex work
- Prostitution