Ch. 3

1. Ch. 3 Social Problems Related to Sexual Behavior

2. Prostitution Prostitution: The renting of one’s body for sexual purposes – • “The world’s oldest profession” • Attitudes toward prostitution have varied immensely throughout history • Attitudes of Americans toward the legalization of prostitution vary • People between the ages of 50 and 64 are the most likely to favor the legalization of prostitution

3. Prostitution Today • In the United States, prostitution is only legal in parts of Nevada • By Statutory definition, Prostitution is illegal in only one County, Clark County, location of Las Vegas • Douglas and Lincoln Counties prohibit prostitution, Eureka County has no ordinance and 11 other counties specifically permit prostitution. However, some cities, including Reno and South Lake Tahoe, ban prostitution. • Officials believe that legalized prostitution might drive away “family-type” gamblers • Researchers estimate that there are: • 23 prostitutes per 100,000 Americans • Approximately 69,000 prostitutes in the U.S. • Average prostitute serves 694 customers annually

4. Prostitution Today • Issues in measuring prostitution: • Illegal nature • Police reports are more likely to only reflect arrest rates of streetwalkers • Temporary nature of the work • Sex Tourism: Occurs when an individual engages in prostitution while visiting a foreign country • Becoming so common, there is now a movement to create an international court to punish offenders

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7. Prostitution Viewed Theoretically: Applying Functionalism • The social functions of prostitution • Flourishes because it satisfies sexual needs that are not met elsewhere • Prostitutes provide a sexual outlet for men who: • Have difficulty establishing sexual relationships • Cannot find long-term partners (travelers, military personnel) • Have broken relationships (divorced) • Seek sexual gratification that may be viewed as immoral or would be considered unacceptable by wives or girlfriends • Sexual gratification without commitment • Curiosity about sex or sexual acts - want to have sex with someone who has a specific body type, age, or race–ethnicity • Sexually dissatisfied with current relationship

8. Elizabeth Bernstein (2001) • Studied the customers of prostitutes and found that some men find emotional connections with prostitutes • Prostitution as a way of controlling sexual behavior • Functionalists argue that, by meeting needs, prostitution functions as a form of social control over sexual behavior • Sadists: achieve sexual gratification by inflicting pain on others • Masochists: Having others inflict pain on them • Most johns are “regular” married, middle-aged men

9. Functionalists stress: When people demand a service not supplied by legitimate sources, hidden, or “subterranean,” sources will develop to meet the need Underground channeling of illegitimate services is called a black market, built on symbiosis: a mutually beneficial relationship

10. The Conflict/Feminist Perspective Feminists point out that prostitution is just one of the many ways that men exploit and degrade women • Some men use prostitutes as objects for their own pleasure, other men (pimps, clients, and police “on the take”) exploit prostitutes for profit

11. Research on Prostitution Types of prostitutes • Call Girls, the elite • Convention prostitutes specialize in conventions • Apartment prostitutes set up a “business” while their husbands are away at work • Stag party workers serve all-male parties • Hotel prostitutes work out of a hotel and share their fees • House prostitutes work in a “whorehouse” • Bar girls, also known as “B-girls,” wait in bars • Streetwalkers, lowest status among prostitutes and are most frequently arrested • Parking lot lizards, frequent truck stops • Male prostitutes who service women are known as “gigolos”

12. Becoming A Prostitute • Researchers typically focus on streetwalkers • Means most research comes from poor women who have been arrested • Simplest answer to why someone becomes a prostitute is money • Abused as children, most often by men, these women become locked into a way of life in which they continue to be victimized

13. Three Stages In Becoming a Prostitute • First stage: women drift from casual sex to the first act of prostitution • Second Stage: Transitional Deviance: experience role ambivalence,conflicting emotions regarding their decision to become a prostitute • Many girls try to normalizetheir acts; try to convince themselves that what they are doing is normal • Third stage: Professionalization: identify themselves as prostitutes

15. The Pimp And The Prostitute • Functionalists: Pimps serve the following purposes • Locate customers, screen out sadistic johns, and bail arrested prostitutes out of jail • In actuality: • Pimps are not beneficial to their prostitutes – opposite of above • Conflict–feminist theorists • Male pimps have the power • To control women, use physical strength and are ruthless • Symbolic Interactionists • Analyze what pimps represent to prostitutes • Take into account the background of a typical street prostitute

16. Homosexual Prostitution • Often takes place in areas known as “meat racks” • Face intense pressure, only those with best bodies remain employed • Teenagers who act as prostitutes still maintained a heterosexual identity requiring an intricate mental balancing act • No emotional attachment to the man • Seeing money as the only motivator • Tolerating nothing other than oral sex • Never seeing a homosexual outside of work • Having a girlfriend in public

17. Prostitution As A Social Problem Subjective Concerns: • Sociologists argue morality is primary reason • Others view prostitution as immoral • Prostitution ruins “good” neighborhoods, depressing property values by bringing in unsavory characters and illegal activities such as drug dealing • Prostitution is a crime • Profits from prostitution feed organized crime • Profits are also used to corrupt police and judges • Prostitutes spread disease • Concern about aesthetics—the disgust that people feel when they see used condoms and tissues left in public places

18. Pornography Pornography: writings, pictures, or objects of a sexual nature that cause sexual arousal and people object to as being filthy or immoral • Determining what is and what is not pornographic is difficult • Lies in the eye of the beholder • On one matter, almost everyone agrees • Pornography, whatever it is, should be restricted • 94% of Americans in favor of legal restrictions

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21. Pornography Viewed Theoretically: Applying Symbolic Interactionism Roth v. United states ruled that materials are pornographic or obscene when 1. “taken as a whole,” the “dominant theme” appeals to “prurient” sex 2. the material affronts “contemporary community standards” 3. the material is “utterly without redeeming social value” Until people attach meaning, words are merely sounds and human acts merely behavior

22. California v. Miller • Court tried to remove these ambiguities of Roth decision • Social class is significant in helping to determine people’s perceptions of acts as pornographic or not

23. Child Pornography • Magazines that depicted children in sex acts with adults or with other children used to be easily accessible • Went underground, resurfacing on the Internet • In the coming years it may be even more difficult to restrict child porn • Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition • Legal to possess virtual child pornography

24. Controversy and Research on Pornography • The National Commission on Obscenity and Pornography • Concluded that pornography affects some people more than others • The Meese Commission • Concluded that pornography does indeed pose a serious threat to women • Concluded that “common-sense” makes it evident that violent pornography causes sex crimes • If all we need is common sense, we wouldn’t need science, and science requires evidence

25. A Question Of Cause And Effect • Does pornography cause sex crimes? • Researchers have been able to document only correlations • The matter of cause and effect is seldom simple, but is made more difficult because pornography has different effects on different people

26. Science Vs. Social ACTION • When research is published, it enters the “court” of science, where it is judged by a jury of critical scientific peers • Some people find too slow • Based on their ideas about what is right, wrong, and what they find offensive, they often take a stand • Resistance to pornography, though strongly rooted, has lost to the porn industry

27. Safety Valve Or Trigger • Safety Valve Theory • Do some types of pornography protect women and children from rape and other sexual violence by providing the private release of sexual fantasies • Trigger Theory • Do some types of pornography trigger sexual offenses by stimulating sexual appetites, often for deviance and violence • Researchers have been unable to settle this question

28. Social Policy • Victimless Crime: refers to illegal acts between consenting adults • Not all prostitution and pornography involve victimless crimes • Alternatives to Making Consensual Behavior Illegal: • Legalizing prostitution • The matter of privacy • The matter of children

29. The Future Of The Problem • Prostitution and the Future • Demand for the services of prostitutes will continue • Although prostitution will continue to flourish, it will remain illegal in almost all areas of the United States • We are likely to see an increase in an aspect of prostitution that upsets both the public and the police, the prostitution of children • More laws will be passed, most of them will have little effect

30. Pornography and the Future • Changes in pornography are likely to be driven by two forces: • Technology and Profits • Because pornography is so profitable, it is likely that the mainstream media will embrace it even more • As pornography becomes more mainstream, the line between pornography and art will become even more blurred • Pornography is now so entrenched in our society it is likely that those who oppose it will limit themselves to occasional statements decrying the fall of American values and then retreat into enclaves of people who agree with their views

31. Pornography as a Social Problem • Conservatives treat sex as a moral issue • Pornography is a social problem because it undermines society • Liberals are divided over whether pornography is a social problem • Some liberals contend that what people choose to read or view is their own business • Others object to pornography as demeaning to women