Being A ‘John’

A client’s perspective on paying for pleasure
Tamar Shiboleth
ISBN: 9789462402607

Legislators and policy-makers all over the world are looking for ways to criminalize clients of prostitution. In the Netherlands current political debate has also directed its focus towards clients. However, little is actually known about clients of prostitution in the Netherlands. This qualitative research aimed to change that. It has done so from a cultural criminological perspective, taking a theoretical approach to questions such as: what motivates clients,
how does the constructed public discourse of clients look like, what is the function of secrecy and what role does the Internet play in buying sexual services? This study offers a new perspective on clients of prostitution in the Netherlands and is hopefully a step towards a greater understanding of the demand side of the sex industry.

Tamar Shiboleth is a criminologist schooled in Global Criminology at the Willem Pompe Institute, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.