If the results of an international research project are to be believed, men who pay for sex are awfully confused people. "I don't get anything out of sex with prostitutes except for a bad feeling" was typical of the responses researchers heard from johns, many of whom were eager to talk about their experiences, the Guardian reports. While some said they were unsuccessful getting close to women "through the usual routes," half the men were married or in relationships.
The men reported feeling "disappointed," "lonely," and "guilty" after "unfulfilling, empty, terrible" encounters—but said they would continue to use prostitutes anyway. Knowledge of trafficking or exploitation of sex workers is not an effective deterrent: Many of the men had already bought sex from women they suspected to be trafficking victims.
(More prostitution stories.)