Sexual behavior of resident street prostitutes with their clients in Camden, New Jersey

Abstract

This paper describes a prospective study of the sexual behaviors of 20 resident street prostitutes and their clients. Prostitutes were long‐term residents of and practiced street prostitution in their community. They worked full‐time and reported averages of four clients per workday, four to five workdays per week, in an eight‐year career. Sexual behaviors with clients on five to eight workdays were recorded over a seven‐month period. Forty‐nine percent of contacts were with repeat clients. A regular client was defined by prostitutes as one who visited at least once a week. The results of the present study indicate that long‐term sexual relationships exist between some clients and prostitutes. Typically, a regular client had one to three sexual encounters per week with the prostitute, spent several hours with her at a motel (or one of their homes), and was more likely (than the occasional client) to engage in vaginal intercourse. Reported condom use was in the range of 39 to 74 percent.