Criminological and sociological discourse on the sex industry has focussed primarily on issues concerning women's involvement as prostitutes, while comparatively little attention has been paid to the men who buy their services. This paper begins to explore the motivations and experiences of the clients, based on in-depth, qualitative interviews conducted with a small group of such men in New Zealand. Sex workers' observations of their clients are also included in this account. The overall aim is to enhance our understanding of why men buy sex and how they construct such interactions for themselves, as well as to ponder the question: who gets ‘used’ under ‘user pays’?
Despite numerous reviews, reports and commissions of inquiry, the investigation and prosecution of rape cases remains fraught. Victims are still ambivalent about reporting incidents of sexual violence, while those who do often struggle to be believed and have their cases progress through justice systems. This paper explores some of the reasons why promised reforms materialise so rarely into tangible benefits for the majority of rape complainants, and focuses on six areas: reporting, attrition, adversarial justice systems, victim support, specialisation and attitudes. These are canvassed with particular reference to examples from England and New Zealand demonstrating the barriers to substantive reform and the ways in which gender inequalities and patriarchal beliefs continue to impact upon both the prevalence of sexual violence as well as state responses to its occurrence. The paper contains a cautionary message regarding the potential dangers involved in accepting the rhetoric of reform while the underlying realities remain little changed.
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