Researcher trying to figure out who pays for sex

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Who do you picture when you think of a person who pays for sex?

Christopher Atchison with the University of Victoria has spent close to two decades researching the subject and he plans on interviewing more than a thousand johns for a new study.

“I think this is going to blow things out of the water,” Atchison tells News1130.

“I think what we’re going to see here is a much more complex set of relationships that are probably driven by the venue, the type of relations the buyer and seller perform and how their relationship is strained or liberated by regulations of the industry.  Are these relationships inherently violent?  We know they’re not inherently violent, but under what conditions does violence occur?”

Atchison’s last study, a Johns’ Voice, helped break down the stereotype of who pays for sex.

“One key element was the diversity of the people who purchase sexual services,” he says.  “We’re looking at people of different sexual orientations, cultural backgrounds, different levels of physical ability or disability and women.  What we started to see was there was a lot more going on than this simple profile of the typical sex buyer we’ve been led to believe is behind the industry.”

Atchison explains people who buy sex make up about 85 per cent of the sex trade there isn’t a lot of information on who those people are.

“I want this study to go right back to the people who are responsible for legislation,” he says.  “I really think that having a grounded foundation for developing policy will make for more intelligent and effective policy.”

He is calling the project Sex, Safety and Security.