VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN / September 2002Busch et al. / MALE CUSTOMERS OF PROSTITUTED WOMEN Male Customers of Prostituted Women Exploring Perceptions of Entitlement to Power and Control and Implications for Violent Behavior Toward Women

This study explores the underlying structure of the perceptions of 1,342 men arrested for trying to hire a prostituted woman on the street. The analysis identified eight structural dimensions that accounted for 47 % of the explained variance. Three factors contained items reflecting patriarchal views of women and perceived entitlement to power and con-trol, which are issues that could lead men to exhibit violence. Findings suggest that lower levels of education, conservative attitudes toward sexuality, more frequent pornography use, and traumatic life experiences may be related to entitlement to power and control fac-tors, which in turn could be used to justify violence against women. Although there has been considerable debate among scholars, prac-titioners, and prostituted women about whether prostitution is violence against women or a form of work (Alexander, 1987; Miller & Jayasundara, 2001; Sloan & Wahab, 2000), there is consid-erable evidence that prostituted women are frequently victims of violent crime, including battering, rape, and murder (Davis, 1993; Horgard & Finstad, 1992; Silbert & Pines, 1982). As the articles in this special issue demonstrate, characteristics of this violence have been explored and documented, but the characteristics of men who use the services of prostituted women, some of whom perpetrate violence against them, have received much less atten-tion. Just as our current understanding of domestic violence would be limited without considering the motives of batterers, s