Prostitution and the sex discrepancy in reported number of sexual partners

Prostitution and the sex discrepancy in reported number of sexual partners

^*Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, University of Washington, 3937 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105; ^‡El Paso County Department of Health and Environment, 301 South Union Boulevard, Colorado Springs, CO 80910; ^§Department of Sociology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131; ^¶Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation, Battelle Memorial Institute, 4000 NE 41st Street, P.O. Box 5395, Seattle, WA 98105-5395; ^‖Department of Public Health, Florida International University, 3000 NE 145th Street, ACI-394F, North Miami, FL 33181

Communicated by A. Kimball Romney, University of California, Irvine, CA (received for review June 21, 2000)

Abstract

One of the most reliable and perplexing findings from surveys of sexual behavior is that men report substantially more sexual partners than women do. We use data from national sex surveys and studies of prostitutes and their clients in the United States to examine sampling bias as an explanation for this disparity. We find that prostitute women are underrepresented in the national surveys. Once their undersampling and very high numbers of sexual partners are factored in, the discrepancy disappears. Prostitution's role in the discrepancy is not readily apparent because men are reluctant to acknowledge that their reported partners include prostitutes.

Footnotes

↵ † To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: ddbrewer{at}u.washington.edu.
Article published online before print: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.210392097.
Article and publication date are at www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.210392097
↵ ** Berry, S. H., Kanouse, D. E., Duan, N. & Lillard, L. A., Poster #PoD 5604, The Eighth International Conference on AIDS/Third Sexually Transmitted Diseases World Congress, July 19–24, 1992, Amsterdam.
Abbreviations:

GSS,

General Social Survey;

NHSLS,

National Health and Social Life Survey;

SAQ,

self-administered questionnaire