Women's Studies International Forum 61 (2017) 58–69

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Women's Studies International Forum

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wsif

Is buying sex morally wrong? Comparing attitudes toward prostitution

using individual-level data across eight Western European countries
Sofia Jonsson a,⁎, Niklas Jakobsson b,1
a
Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
b
Karlstad Business School, Karlstad University, Sweden

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: States try to combat sex trafficking through both the criminalization of buying sex and by entirely legalizing or
Received 21 April 2016 regulating the market for prostitution. Proponents of criminalization argue that this approach leads to less accep-
Received in revised form 29 November 2016 tance of prostitution, creating a smaller sex market, and reducing the inflow of trafficked victims. Few studies ex-
Accepted 30 December 2016
amine if prostitution laws are associated with attitudes toward prostitution. We assess attitudes in eight
Available online 21 February 2017
European countries, using newly collected survey data. This is one of few studies comparing attitudes across dif-
Keywords:
ferent prostitution regimes. Citizens in countries where the purchase of sex is criminalized are less tolerant to-
Attitudes ward the buying of sex compared to citizens living in countries where the purchase of sex is legalized. Also,
Demand people viewing gender equality as important are less accepting of the purchase in countries where buying sex
Gender equality is prohibited, but more accepting in countries where buying sex and running a brothel are legal.
Prostitution legislature © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Sex trafficking

Introduction
The question of whether to criminalize or legalize the purchase of
sex divides Europe (Crowhurst, Outshoorn, & Skilbrei, 2012). Sweden,
Norway, and Iceland have tried to combat trafficking through criminal-
ization of the buying of sex, while the Netherlands and Germany have
tried to improve the conditions of sex workers partly through legaliza-
tion. From both sides politicians have currently argued that both types
of policies could be a way to decrease trafficking, although the law
was initially not justified to fight trafficking in neither Germany nor
the Netherlands. In Spain, the UK and Denmark, the buying of sex is
legal but running a brothel is criminalized.
Scholars have vividly debated to what extent the criminalization of
prostitution pushes the sector underground and to what extent it de-
creases the demand for the purchase of sex, thereby making a country
that criminalizes prostitution less attractive to traffickers. Scholars argu-
ing for the decreased demand stress that it is plausible that criminaliz-
ing the purchase of sex should reduce the market for prostitution,
both through a direct deterrent effect of the law and through less public
acceptance of prostitution, reducing the sex market, and in turn also the
inflow of trafficked victims (Cho, Dreher, & Neumayer, 2013; Jakobsson
& Kotsadam, 2011b; Marinova & James, 2012). There may, however,
⁎ Corresponding author at: The Department of Political Science, Box 711, 405 30
Gothenburg, Sweden.
E-mail addresses: sofia.jonsson@gu.se (S. Jonsson), niklas.jakobsson@kau.se
(N. Jakobsson).
1
Karlstad University, SE-651 88 Karlstad, Sweden.
also exist an offsetting effect implying that the decrease in the possibil-
ity of buying sex legally may increase the demand for trafficked women
(Akee, Basu, Bedi, & Chau, 2014). A recent study for example shows that
whether prostitution is prohibited or legalized is irrelevant to victim
protection (Cho, 2015), while scholars have also stressed that the Swed-
ish approach to criminalize the purchase might have led to a decrease in
prostitution (Ekberg, 2004; Waltman, 2011).
Understanding attitudes among the general public is important
since these attitudes affect the stigmatization, which in turn affects in-
centives and behavior (Della Giusta, Di Tommaso, & Strøm, 2008;
Della Giusta, di Tommaso, & Strøm, 2009). To our knowledge, only one
study has examined attitudes toward prostitution among the general
public across several countries (Immordino & Russo, 2015a). The au-
thors show empirically that there is a relationship between national
prostitution policy and attitudes toward prostitution. Three studies
focus on attitudes toward prostitution in Norway and Sweden
(Jakobsson & Kotsadam, 2011a; Kotsadam & Jakobsson, 2011;
Kotsadam & Jakobsson, 2014), finding more acceptance toward prosti-
tution in Norway in 2008, but no general attitudinal effects of the crim-
inalization of buying sex in Norway in 2009, when implementing a
difference in difference estimation.
In the present study, we add to the previous studies by first using
original individual-level data from the UK, the Netherlands, Germany,
France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. These countries are all
Western European countries and share several similar features because
of this particular geographical location, but at the same time there exists
a big variation in their legal approach to the sex market, which make
them ideal for a comparison in attitudes toward prostitution. Second,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2016.12.007
0277-5395/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 S. Jonsson, N. Jakobsson / Women's Studies International Forum 61 (2017) 58–69
similar to Jakobsson and Kotsadam we use a more specific measure on
attitudes toward the purchase of sex and attitudes toward the criminal-
ization of buying sex, which better captures acceptance toward specifi-
cally the purchase of sex (demand). Third, the data gives us the
opportunity to test more specific hypotheses on individual attitudes.
We test four hypotheses. First we test whether citizens in a country
where prostitution is legalized or regulated are more accepting of the
buying of sex compared to citizens in countries where the purchase of
sex is criminalized. Second we test whether citizens in countries
where the purchase of sex is legal but where running a brothel is crim-
inalized are less accepting of the purchase of sex compared to citizens
living in countries where also brothels are legal. We hypothesize further
that since feminist movements have both argued for criminalization
and legalization or regulation as improving women's situation
(Outshoorn, 2005), people saying that gender equality is important
should be less accepting of the purchase of sex in countries where
such purchases are prohibited, and consequently, people saying that
gender equality is important should be more accepting of the purchase
of sex in countries where such a purchase is legal.
Our main findings are that citizens living in countries where the pur-
chase of sex is criminalized are less tolerant toward the buying of sex
compared to citizens living in countries where the purchase of sex is le-
galized, also when controlling for individual factors. Additionally,
Swedes and Norwegians are more in favor of a law criminalizing the
purchase of sex compared to the other nationalities. We also find that
citizens living in a country where both buying sex and running a brothel
are legal (Germany and the Netherlands), compared to citizens living in
a country where only running a brothel is illegal (Spain, the UK, Den-
mark, and France), are more positive toward buying sex. Although
these findings reflect attitudes among large segments of the citizens,
rather than being representative for the total populations, there are
clear differences in attitudes between the country samples, which
might be reflected in, or may be due to, the different legal frameworks.
For example, Swedes and Norwegians may have made buying sex illegal
because they were more negative toward buying sex to start with. Alter-
natively, Swedes and Norwegians may be more negative toward buying
sex because they have lived under this law for several years. The results
also suggest that people saying that gender equality is important are
less accepting of the purchase of sex in countries where buying is crim-
inalized but are more accepting of such a purchase where both buying
sex and running a brothel are legal.
The article has the following format. First, the prostitution and traf-
ficking literatures are briefly introduced in order to set the problem in
a broader context. The theoretical account is presented, drawing on lit-
erature from the specific topic of how attitudes toward prostitution are
shaped and also from literature on the role laws might have in norm for-
mation more generally. Second, the choice of method is presented to-
gether with a presentation of the collected data. The third section
presents the results, and the final section summarizes the findings, con-
cludes, and provides a discussion about how policy makers can use the
findings in future decision-making on prostitution legislation in Europe,
and elsewhere.
Theory
So far, scholars have not gotten a unified answer to whether differ-
ent types of prostitution policies are associated with attitudes toward
prostitution, the size of the sex market, or human trafficking.2 Conse-
quently, it might not come as a surprise that we see such a varied land-
scape of different prostitution regimes in Europe today. There are for
2
In a study about health risks for participants in the sex market, Immordino and Russo
(2015b)
show that regulation best minimizes harm, while prohibition (both selling and buying, or
only one of them) reduces quantity, the authors build an equilibrium model, and the re-
sults are tested on empirics from one Italian case.
59
example at least two arguments about how prostitution law might af-
fect trafficking. One is that criminalization of prostitution increases the
inflow of trafficked victims by pushing the sector underground; the
other is that criminalization instead decreases the demand for the pur-
chase of sex, thereby making such a country less attractive to traffickers.
Scholars arguing for the latter rest their argument on the assumption
that sex trafficking can be compared to an illicit business. Traffickers,
similar to businessmen, seek demand for their goods, and it is plausible
that criminalizing the purchase of sex should reduce the market for
prostitution, both through a direct deterrent effect of the law and
through less public acceptance of prostitution, reducing the sex market,
and in turn also the inflow of trafficked victims (Cho et al., 2013;
Jakobsson & Kotsadam, 2011b; Marinova & James, 2012). There may,
however, also exist an offsetting effect implying that the decrease in
the possibility of buying sex legally may increase the demand for traf-
ficked women (Akee et al., 2014). Because it is very difficult to measure
the occurrence of human trafficking we argue that it becomes even
more relevant to empirically test the theoretical mechanism these
scholars emphasize. The argument about decreased demand is partly
based on the belief that prostitution legislation essentially has a norma-
tive enforcing function (Della Giusta et al., 2009; Immordino & Russo,
2015a; Jakobsson & Kotsadam, 2011b; Kotsadam & Jakobsson, 2014).
Della Giusta et al. (2009) argue that social stigma is an important deter-
minant of the quantity of sex supplied and demanded. The stigma
comes from a moral judgment, and since individuals care about their so-
cial standing in society, they face potential reputation losses from buy-
ing or selling sex. Prostitution is stigmatized to different degrees in
different societies, leading to different market equilibriums in different
countries (Della Giusta et al., 2009; Immordino & Russo, 2015a). All
else equal, reduced stigmatization increases the marginal net gain of
supplying sex as well as the marginal willingness to pay for it. Converse-
ly, increased stigmatization reduces the marginal willingness to buy and
sell sex, hence reducing the equilibrium quantity exchanged.
In addition to this, several scholars have theoretically emphasized
that social sanctions, or punishment of not obeying the underlying
norm, might matter even more for compliance than hard monitoring
(McAdams, 2000; O'Donnell, 2007; Posner, 2000). Accordingly, heavy
financial punishment is not sufficient in itself for restraining from one
type of illicit behavior. For example, a high percentage of persons do
obey the tax policy in the US, even though the risk of getting caught is
minimal (Posner, 2000). It is thus plausible that the ‘induced feelings
of guilt or shame, gossip, shunning, ostracism, and not infrequently, vi-
olence’ that would come by breaking a social norm is much more
constraining on the individual's behavior than the fiscal cost
(O'Donnell, 2007). Sunstein, for example, refers to shame as a social
tax, which could be ‘enough to produce compliance’ (Sunstein, 1996:
2030). Thus, people are not only rational when it comes to fiscal costs
and benefits but approval and disapproval from others should also be
considered in such calculations (McAdams, 2000; Posner, 2000). Laws
are in this sense norm carriers displaying the prevailing social norm in
a society (McAdams, 2000). Policymakers that manage to signal what
is desirable with the introduction of particular laws can create norma-
tive feedback effects (Svallfors, 2010). Studies that empirically examine
the causal relationship between laws and attitudes are scarce, but sever-
al scholars have examined the relationship between institutions and
policies on attitudes cross-sectionally (Alesina & Fuchs-Schündeln,
2007; Fong et al., 2006; Soss & Schram, 2007; Svallfors, 2010). For exam-
ple, several studies showing that laws prohibiting smoking in public
spaces are associated with attitudes often rely on cross-sectional data
without control groups, and can therefore not identify causal effects
(Gallus et al., 2007; Tang et al., 2003). Only one study has revealed the
effect of an Irish smoke-free law on attitudes using longitudinal data
with UK residents as the control group. They find clear increases in sup-
port for total bans among smokers (Fong et al., 2006).
One of the mechanisms put forward by the trafficking literature–
that different types of prostitution laws should affect attitudes
60 S. Jonsson, N. Jakobsson / Women's Studies International Forum 61 (2017) 58–69
differently – has only to a limited degree been tested, and thus, there
might be a spurious relationship between prostitution laws and inflow,
so that there in fact is a third variable causing both policy and inflow in-
dependently, resulting in correlation without causality. It is thus of im-
portance to examine if a link between prostitution legislation and
attitudes exists, since it also could help us to understand the potential
connection between prostitution policy and inflow of trafficked victims
for the purpose sexual exploitation.
Weitzer (2015) encourages research using comparable data across
countries on attitudes among the general public in order to better test
the mechanism (for an extensive review see Weitzer, 2015). Yet, few
studies have been able to examine attitudes among the general public
cross-nationally (Immordino & Russo, 2015a; Jakobsson & Kotsadam,
2011a; Kotsadam & Jakobsson, 2014). Kuosmanen (2011) maps atti-
tudes toward prostitution in Sweden. His sample consists of 2500 re-
spondents in 2008 (for an extensive summary of literature on
attitudes toward prostitution in Sweden, see Kuosmanen, 2011). Addi-
tional studies, rather than examining broad attitudes among the public,
instead review women in prostitution and clients' or students' attitudes
toward prostitution (Basow & Campanile, 1990; Cotton, Farley, & Baron,
2002).
To our knowledge, only one study has examined attitudes toward
prostitution among the general public across several countries
(Immordino & Russo, 2015a). The authors show empirically that there
is a relationship between national prostitution policy and attitudes to-
ward prostitution. Three studies focus on attitudes toward prostitution
in Norway and Sweden (Jakobsson & Kotsadam, 2011a; Kotsadam &
Jakobsson, 2011; Kotsadam & Jakobsson, 2014), finding more accep-
tance toward prostitution in Norway in 2008 but no general attitudinal
effects of the criminalization of buying sex in Norway in 2009, when
implementing a difference in difference estimation. Immordino and
Russo (2015a) use World Values Survey's question about whether the
respondent thinks that prostitution is justifiable or not. Similar to
Jakobsson and Kotsadam we use a more specific measure on attitudes
toward prostitution by asking the respondents whether they find it
morally acceptable or morally wrong to purchase sex.3 In addition to
this, we ask about attitudes toward the criminalization of buying sex.
These two measures better captures moral acceptance toward specifi-
cally the purchase of sex (demand), compared to studies that only ask
about attitudes toward prostitution in more general terms.
We use individual-level data from eight West European countries
with varying prositution legislation (the UK, the Netherlands, Germany,
France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden). The data thus gives us
the opportunity to test more specific hypotheses on individual attitudes.
Hypotheses
The hypotheses to be tested in the present paper build on previous
empirical and theoretical research on the relationship between laws
and attitudes. A relatively big portion of the literature on sex trafficking
has emphasized the relationship between prostitution legislation type
and the inflow of trafficked victims. Few studies examine the associa-
tion between law and attitudes among the general public, or if attitudes
toward prostitution differ across different prostitution regimes.
A key idea in the literature on attitudes toward prostitution is that
the social stigma is a consequence of the legal framework surrounding
prostitution in a country (e.g. Immordino & Russo, 2015a). Specifically,
stigma would be higher in countries that prohibit prostitution and
lower in the countries where it is legal or regulated. We present two hy-
potheses regarding prostitution laws and attitudes.
3
Further on we refer to this sometime as accepting or tolerating in the text of the article
even though the question is if the respondent considers this as a moral or immoral act on a
scale from 1 to 10.
H1. Citizens in a country where prostitution is legalized or regulated
are more accepting of the buying of sex compared to citizens in coun-
tries where the purchase of sex is criminalized.
H2. Citizens in countries where the purchase of sex is legal but where
running a brothel is criminalized are less accepting of the purchase of
sex compared to citizens living in countries where also brothels are
legal.
We further hypothesize that opposition to prostitution can be based
on very different worldviews. Feminist movements have both argued
for criminalization and legalization or regulation as improving women's
situation (Outshoorn, 2005). A feminist can see prostitution as violence
against women in a patriarchal society, and we propose that people be-
lieving that gender equality is important are more inclined to view buy-
ing sex as immoral in countries where buying sex is forbidden. In an
abolitionist view women in prostitution are considered victims of vio-
lence and the purchasers as perpetrators. However, there is also another
feminist perspective suggesting that prostitution should be seen as a job
and that criminalizing prostitution is a way to decrease the choice set of
women. Now, women are seen as sex workers and the purchasers as cli-
ents. We thus propose that people believing that gender equality is im-
portant are less inclined to view buying sex as immoral in countries
where buying sex is legal.
H3A. People saying that gender equality is important should be less
accepting of the purchase of sex in countries where such a purchase is
prohibited.
H3B. People saying that gender equality is important should be more
accepting of the purchase of sex in countries where such a purchase is
legal.
Data and descriptive statistics
A novel micro data set allows us to capture citizens' individual atti-
tudes toward prostitution across eight European countries: the UK,
Spain, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Den-
mark. These countries have been selected because of their geographical
location, they are all situated in Western Europe, and because of the
large spread in the legal status of prostitution (Crowhurst et al., 2012).
Some of the countries (Sweden and the Netherlands) were some of
the first nations to test new types of solutions to the problems that
followed with prostitution, while others became followers to such pol-
icy change, such as Germany and Norway. Simultaneously there is an
ongoing discussion on whether to change the legal framework of pros-
titution in several of these states. Scholars have emphasized, although
not agreeing on, that it is foremost this variation ranging from prohibi-
tion to legalization that is the main driver of the variation in the demand
for the purchase of sex. These features make these eight countries per-
fect for comparing attitudes toward prostitution.4 Table 1 shows the dif-
ferences in legal status of owning a brothel and paying for sex. In the
Netherlands, the ban on brothels was removed in 2000, and prostitution
was regulated; it was shortly followed by Germany, which removed
such a ban in 2002. Contrary to this approach, Sweden banned the pur-
chase of sex in 1999. Not long ago, Norway decided to follow the Swed-
ish example and prohibited the purchase of sex in 2009 (Skilbrei &
Holmström, 2011). In Spain, the UK, Denmark and France buying sex
is legal, but running a brothel is criminalized.5 The French lower house
4
An additional advantage of selecting these eight countries is that it enables us to ex-
plore variation in attitudes as an effect of time. Although Norway and Sweden have very
similar legal frameworks compared to for example the Netherlands and Germany, the
time for when the countries implemented the law differs with almost 10 years, and hence,
it is plausible that the law in Sweden has had a greater impact on attitudes compared to
the Norwegian law.
5
Northern Ireland criminalized the purchase of sex in 2015 Immordino and Russo
(2015a)
 S. Jonsson, N. Jakobsson / Women's Studies International Forum 61 (2017) 58–69
Table 1
Type of prostitution law 2014.
Brothel owning is Brothel owning is Brothel owning is
criminalized, purchase is criminalized, purchase is regulated, purchase is
criminalized legal legal
Sweden Denmark Germany
Norway UK The Netherlands
Spain
France
passed a reform that resembled the Swedish policy in 2013, however, in
March 2015 the Senate rejected the ‘planned 2013 law penalizing peo-
ple who pay for sex, and has chosen to maintain the offence of soliciting’
(BBC, 2015). The data on prostitution policy type was partly collected
from The Guardian's web page (Guardian, 2013).
The responses were collected using an Internet-based survey sent
out in February–March and October–November 2014 to a total of
45,478 potential respondents, being a representative sample based on
gender, age, and region. By the end of the survey period, 16,948 (37%)
had responded.6 Although the response rate is not high it is not low in
comparison to other surveys with similarly sensitive questions. In addi-
tion to this, the trend in survey method seems to be that response rates
are falling in the wealthier countries of the world (De Leeuw & De Heer,
2002). We have tried to remedy the potential for very low response
rates, given the sensitive character of the questions posed in the survey,
by using a self-administrated survey, compared to an interview-admin-
istrated survey, since this has been showed to reduce the non-response
rates for surveys asking sensitive questions (Tourangeau & Smith,
1996). In addition to this, a low response rate does not immediately
translate into low representativeness (Krosnick, 1999). Groves and
Peytcheva (2008) have found that non-response differences in fact
can be quite similar across a broad range of nonresponse rates. By pre-
senting the demographic statistics of the individuals who responded
and compare these statistics with population statics from Eurostat, we
do believe that the results from the survey may have an impact on
how we can understand attitudes toward prostitution for a large seg-
ment of the population, although not representative for the total popu-
lations (more on this later in this section).
SIFO was hired to conduct the survey for the Scandinavian countries
(Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) and Alstra AB for the other countries
(France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, and the UK). All respondents
were provided with total anonymity. The response period for the Scan-
dinavian countries was from February 7 to March 25, 2014, and for the
other countries, from October 28 to November 4, 2014.
The survey included several questions about people's attitudes to-
ward prostitution. In this paper we have chosen two of these, more ex-
actly, the respondents were asked whether they think it is morally
acceptable or morally wrong to buy sex. They responded on a scale
from 0 to 10, where 0 implied ‘Morally completely justified’, and 10 im-
plied ‘Morally entirely wrong’. The respondents were also asked wheth-
er they think it should be illegal to buy sex; here, the possible answers
were yes and no. Fig. 1 shows the variation in the responses to the ques-
tions on attitudes toward the purchase of sex, with histograms for each
country separately. There seems to be variation in the expressed atti-
tudes, not only within each country, but also between the countries,
with Swedes and Norwegians being more skeptical of the purchase of
sex compared to the rest of the nationalities, with citizens from Spain,
the UK, and France being more accepting, and the Dutch and Germans
being most accepting. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test also indicates that
the difference in attitudes between all countries is statistically signifi-
cant at the 1% level, except for between the three country pairs: Den-
mark and the Netherlands, the UK and France, the UK and Spain.
6
Denmark had 1002 respondents and a 36% response rate; Norway had 1001 and 36%;
Sweden had 1801 and 32%; the UK had 3040 and 43%; France had 3030 and 36%; Germany
had 3029 and 39%; Spain had 2037 and 43%; the Netherlands had 2008 and 29%.
61
Table 2 shows the variation in whether the respondents think that it
should be illegal to buy sex. Again, there is a difference between citizens
in Norway and Sweden compared to the rest of the respondents: 53% in
Norway and 63% in Sweden think that the buying of sex should be illegal
compared to 16–34% in the rest of the countries.
In addition to these questions, we also included questions regarding
the respondents' attitudes toward gender equality, the ideology of the
respondent, and religiousness. We also have information about the indi-
vidual background such as the respondents' age, gender, income, cohab-
itation status, education, and region of residence. In Appendix Tables
A1–A2 present descriptive statistics for the pooled sample, and per
country. The average age of the pooled sample is 47.9 years and 48.8%
of the respondents are male. Of the respondents, 11.56% live in the cap-
ital city of their country, 61.85% share their household with their partner
or are married, and 48.84% have at least some university education.
We compare statistics of our final samples of respondents with the
population statistics for each country in order to see if our country sam-
ples are representative of their respective national populations. In Ap-
pendix Table A3 we present percentages for the data per subsample
together with national population statistics. The national statistics are
gathered from Eurostat in June and September (Eurostat, 2015). Our
samples are fairly representative except when it comes to the group of
highly educated respondents. The respondents in our samples seem to
be more educated than in the populations for Norway, Germany, the
Netherlands, and Denmark. The problem is somewhat handled in the
regression analysis since we control for socio-economic background
variables, but we urge readers to be cautious in interpreting the results
as representative of the total population in the different countries and
rather view the results as indications of patterns within large segments
of the populations.
There are several methodological challenges with making a web sur-
vey (Dillman & Bowker, 2001). For example, Dillman and Bowker
(2001) emphasize that it is important to describe whether the individ-
uals who did not respond would have responded differently compared
to the responding individuals. Although there are nonresponses, the
resulting group of respondents come from a broad range of categories,
for example in terms of age, gender, and whether the respondent is a co-
habitant or not, and thus, the responses we get from this group is suffi-
ciently broad to say something important about many inhabitants in
these eight countries.
Except the variable needed to study our hypotheses, we include a
number of control variables building on previous studies. Earlier studies
on the formation of attitudes toward prostitution stress several individ-
ual-level factors as important for condemning or accepting the purchase
of sex. We control for gender, since women compared to men are less
accepting of buying sex (Jakobsson & Kotsadam, 2011a). However,
Immordino and Russo (2015a) do not find strong support for this
claim, this might be due to their somewhat less specific question used
for the dependent variable and because they use an average level of fe-
male respondents. We control for age and age squared, since Kotsadam
and Jakobsson find that ‘Younger people changed their attitudes more
than older people’ (2011:109) in their longitudinal study of Norway. In-
come has been showed to have a positive effect on attitudes
(Immordino & Russo, 2015a), and we, similar to Jakobsson and
Kotsadam (2011a) include a control variable for low income, and a
dummy for respondents that chose not to report their income. We in-
clude a control for how often the respondent attends religious activities,
since religiousness (Jakobsson & Kotsadam, 2011a) and type of religion
(Immordino & Russo, 2015a) are associated with attitudes toward pros-
titution. Immordino and Russo (2015a) include a measure on percent-
age of Buddhists and Muslims and find negative and significant
results. We also include a variable on whether the respondent lives in
the capital city or not, since show that people living in the capital city
Oslo changed their attitudes after the introduction of the law in Norway.
Eduction, ideology, and whether the respondent is married or living
with a partner are additionally included as controls.
62 S. Jonsson, N. Jakobsson / Women's Studies International Forum 61 (2017) 58–69
Fig. 1. Distribution of attitudes toward buying sex. Note: Attitudes toward buying sex are measured by answers to the question, ‘Is it according to you morally justified or morally wrong to
pay for sex?’ ranging from 0 for ‘Morally completely justified’ to 10 for ‘Morally entirely wrong’.
Method
Attitudes toward buying sex are measured with the question, ‘Is it
according to you morally justified or morally wrong to pay for sex?’
ranging from 0 for ‘Morally completely justified’ to 10 for ‘Morally en-
tirely wrong’. The dependent variable is skewed for each subsample.
However, we choose OLS regression, over ordered logit/probit, as the
analytical method, since the residuals are normally distributed (see
Figs. A3–A4 in the Appendix). Results are also very similar if we use or-
dered logit or ordered probit estimations instead.
First we run a regression on the pooled sample with country fixed ef-
fects. Second, rather than using country dummies, we control for type of
prostitution regime, grouping the eight countries into the three catego-
ries: 1 = Buying and running a brothel is criminalized, 2 = Buying is
legal but running a brothel is criminalized, 3 = Buying sex and running
a brothel are legal. Third, we include an interaction term between the
type of prostitution regime and attitudes toward gender equality. The
specification for the pooled sample is
yi ¼ β0 þ β1 xi þ β2 zi þ β3 qi þ β4 V i þ εi
where xi is a vector of individual-level factors for each individual i, z is a
Table 2
Attitudes toward the law on buying sex (%).
Answers to the question: Do you think it should be prohibited to buy sex?
Denmark France Germany Netherlands Norway Spain Sweden UK
Yes 24 28 16 19 53 25 63
No 76 72 84 81 47 75 37
vector of each individual i's attitudes toward gender equality, q is a vec-
tor of each individual i's religiousness, and Vi is a vector for country-level
characteristics (country dummy and/or prostitution regime).
To see if there are any differences in association between individual-
level characteristics and attitudes toward prostitution across countries,
we additionally run the regression, excluding macro variables, for each
subsample. We then compare the strength of the coefficients and signif-
icance levels, and intercepts between countries to see if there are any
national differences. We additionally use visualization to present the as-
sociation between attitudes toward gender equality and prostitution.
With a limited set of countries (or few units for the macro level),
Bowers and Drake (2005) recommend visualization if macro variables
are of interest.
Results
Model 1 in Table 3 tests hypotheses 1 and 2. We find that the type of
prostitution law is associated with attitudes toward prostitution. We
can see that citizens in a country where prostitution is legalized or reg-
ð1Þ ulated are much more accepting of the buying of sex compared to citi-
zens in countries where the purchase of sex is criminalized (in
countries where both buying sex and running a brothel are legal they
score 2.846 less, and in countries where buying sex is legal but not run-
ning a brothel they score 1.550 less on the attitude scale from 0 to 10).
Also, citizens in countries where the purchase of sex is legal but where
running a brothel is criminalized are less accepting of the purchase of
sex compared to citizens living in countries where brothels are also
legal. The coefficients are significantly different (F(1, 16,778) =
34 563.37, Prob. N F = 0.000). The results might be due to other country
66
characteristics that are typical for the Netherlands and Germany,
 S. Jonsson, N. Jakobsson / Women's Studies International Forum 61 (2017) 58–69 63

Table 3 that gender equality is important are more accepting of the purchase of
OLS regression pooled sample. DV = attitudes toward buying of sex. sex in countries where such a purchase is legal and brothels are not
Regime Interaction gender equality and criminalized (Law = 2). Thus, we only find support for hypothesis 3A.
dummies prostitution law Fig. 2 illustrates the interaction. Again, we can see that there seems
1 2 to be a positive relationship between gender equality attitudes and atti-
Law = 1 −1.550⁎⁎⁎ −0.992⁎⁎⁎ tudes toward the buying of sex in abolitionist countries (Law = 0) and a
(0.07) (0.17) negative relationship in countries where both buying sex and running a
Law = 2 −2.846⁎⁎⁎ −1.665⁎⁎⁎
brothel are legal (Law = 2). However, in countries where only buying is
(0.07) (0.18)
Gender equality = 1 1.152⁎⁎⁎ legal and running a brothel is criminalized (Law = 1), there seems to be
(0.16) a slight positive association between people's view on gender equality
Gender equality = 1 # −0.654⁎⁎⁎ and attitudes toward prostitution. Again, when moving along this spec-
Law = 1 (0.18) trum from not viewing gender equality as important (0) to viewing it as
Gender equality = 1 # −1.419⁎⁎⁎
Law = 2 (0.19)
important (1), people are less accepting of prostitution in abolitionist
Is gender equality 0.058⁎⁎⁎ countries and more accepting in countries where both buying sex and
important? (0.01) running a brothel are legal.
Male −0.996⁎⁎⁎ −1.009⁎⁎⁎ Fig. 3 presents coefficient sizes and confidence intervals for each
(0.05) (0.05)
country for the association between gender equality and attitudes.
Age −0.090⁎⁎⁎ −0.088⁎⁎⁎
(0.01) (0.01) These regressions are run without control variables. The countries are
Age2 0.099⁎⁎⁎ 0.098⁎⁎⁎ being ranked so that highest up are countries where purchase and
(0.01) (0.01) owning a brothel are legal, for countries in the middle category brothel
Low income 0.169⁎⁎⁎ 0.173⁎⁎⁎ owning is prohibited but the purchase of sex is legal, and in the bottom
(0.06) (0.06)
category we find countries where the purchase of sex together with
No response (income) 0.347⁎⁎⁎ 0.338⁎⁎⁎
(0.07) (0.07) running a brothel are criminalized. Again, the results indicate that the
Capital −0.052 −0.067 association is positive in the two countries where buying is criminalized
(0.07) (0.07) but negative in countries where buying sex and running a brothel are
Cohabit 0.255⁎⁎⁎ 0.253⁎⁎⁎
legal.
(0.05) (0.05)
High education −0.012 −0.018
However, the results from the subsample regressions (Table 4) indi-
(0.05) (0.05) cate that attitudes about gender equality seem important for attitudes
Religion 1.471⁎⁎⁎ 1.462⁎⁎⁎ toward the purchase of sex in all countries except for respondents in
(0.07) (0.07) Germany and the Netherlands. The more respondents think that gender
Right −0.332⁎⁎⁎ −0.331⁎⁎⁎
equality is important, the more they condemn the purchase. The associ-
(0.07) (0.07)
Left 0.068 0.069 ation is strongest in Sweden, followed by Norway and Spain.
(0.07) (0.07) Table 4 further presents the results for the control variables. The as-
Constant 8.937⁎⁎⁎ 8.433⁎⁎⁎ sociation between socio-economic factors, ideology, religiousness, and
(0.28) (0.30)
attitudes toward buying sex is puzzling, and requires further research,
R-squared 0.132⁎ 0.135
Observations 16,793⁎⁎ 16,823
since it differs quite a lot between the countries. For example, although
the results indicate that women are less accepting of the purchase com-
Standard error in parentheses.
⁎ p b 0.10.
pared to men in all countries, the strength of the association differs
⁎⁎ p b 0.05. across countries and is strongest in Norway and weakest in Germany,
⁎⁎⁎ p b 0.01. the Netherlands and France. Another example is how demography has
a different role in different countries. In Sweden, older people are less
accepting of prostitution (age squared is negative), while this is the op-
posite in Denmark, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and France (age
Spain, Denmark and the UK, and Sweden and Norway, respectively. In squared is positive). Also, while people in the low income groups in Ger-
Appendix Table A5 we redid the regression including country dummies many are less accepting of prostitution, the association is weaker in the
instead of dummies for legal classification. There we clearly see that Netherlands, Spain, and the UK. Living in the capital city seems impor-
Swedes and Norwegians are most negative toward buying sex and tant for attitudes in Sweden, Denmark, and France. In Sweden and Den-
that Germans and the Dutch are most positive. mark, living in a bigger city is associated with being less accepting of the
We continue by examining the association between attitudes to- purchase of sex, while in France people living in the capital are more
ward gender equality and prostitution between the countries, since accepting of buying sex.
these countries are differing in the legal approach toward prostitution. Swedish respondents with at least some university education are
Model 2 in Table 3 tests hypotheses 3A and B by introducing an interac- less accepting of buying sex, but for respondents in the UK this is
tion term between a dummy indicating that the respondent thinks that the contrary, where respondents with at least some university educa-
gender equality is not so important (0) or important (1),7 and the type tion are more tolerant of the purchase of sex compared to respondents
of prostitution law. We find that the association between how impor- with lower education. People who are married or living with a partner
tant the respondent thinks that gender equality is, and the respondents' are less accepting of the purchase of sex in Sweden, the UK, the
attitudes toward prostitution, differ between different types of prostitu- Netherlands, and Germany. Religiousness has a strong and positive
tion regimes. People saying that gender equality is important (Gender association with attitudes in all countries, with the strongest associa-
equality = 1) are less accepting of the purchase of sex in countries tion visible in the Netherlands. Attitudes toward prostitution divide
where such a purchase is prohibited (Law = 0), whereas people saying left-leaning citizens in the surveyed countries. In all three Nordic
countries being more left leaning is associated with being less tolerant
about the purchase of sex, whereas in the UK this has the opposite
effect. However, this could also be the result of how ideology types
7
The dummy is created from the 10-point scale on whether the respondent thinks that
are conceived differently in each of the countries. People being more
gender equality is not so important (0) and important (10), where 0–5 is rescaled to 0, and conservative consider the buying of sex more acceptable across all
6–10 is rescaled to 1. countries.
64 S. Jonsson, N. Jakobsson / Women's Studies International Forum 61 (2017) 58–69
Fig. 2. Interaction of attitudes toward gender equality and prostitution regime type, and its relation to prostitution attitudes.
Conclusion
The present article assesses people's attitudes toward prostitution in
eight West European countries in 2014. Understanding attitudes among
the general public is important since they affect stigmatization, which in
turn affects market behavior. Looking at our main findings, we can con-
firm the hypotheses that citizens living in countries where the purchase
of sex is criminalized are less tolerant toward the buying of sex com-
pared to citizens living in countries where the purchase of sex is legal-
ized, also when controlling for individual factors. Additionally, Swedes
and Norwegians are more in favor of a law criminalizing the purchase
of sex compared to the other nationalities. We also find that citizens liv-
ing in a country where both buying sex and running a brothel are legal
(Germany and the Netherlands), compared to citizens living in a coun-
try where running a brothel is illegal (Spain, the UK, Denmark, and
France), are more positive toward buying sex. The respondents of the
survey we have conducted belong to large segments of the population,
still we urge readers to be careful in interpreting the results as represen-
tative to the total populations in these countries. Even though we have a
Fig. 3. The association between gender equality attitudes and attitudes toward
prostitution. Coefficients and standard error.
relatively high response rate (37%) given the sensitive issue surveyed
our findings cannot necessarily be generalized to the full populations.
In this study we cannot conclude what comes first, attitudes or pol-
icy. The clear differences in attitudes between the country samples that
we find, indicate that attitudes toward prostitution may be reflected in,
or may be due to, the different legal frameworks. Kotsadam and
Jakobsson (2011) try to assess the causality in the short run in Norway
and find small or no effects while Immordino and Russo (2015a) use an
instrumental variable approach and find some effects on attitudes to-
ward prostitution, but further research is needed to conclude causality
between prostitution policy and, attitudes and behavior, and to map at-
titudinal variation in more regions of the world.
What is certain though is that the type of prostitution regime reflects
attitudes among a large segment of the general public, and this has an
impact on the way we view prostitution. Prostitution does not seem
to be an inelastic phenomenon, but rather, citizens in different types
of prostitution regimes also express different attitudes toward the pur-
chase of sex.
One of the reasons for the various legal approaches to prostitution in
Europe is to combat human trafficking for sexual purposes. On the one
hand, the criminalization of the purchase is seen as a tool to reduce
the demand for the purchase of sex, which will reduce the inflow of
sex trafficking, on the other hand policymakers are more recently con-
cerned that such an approach pushes prostitution underground, and in-
stead propose legalization or regulation as alternatives to combat
trafficking. In addition to this, scholars have stressed that prostitution
has a different meaning in terms of gender equality (Outshoorn,
2005). In Sweden the purchase of sex is looked upon as an act of vio-
lence against women (Ekberg, 2004), whereas countries such as the
Netherlands take the stand that women in prostitution should be
regarded as sex workers, rather than victims, and laws regulating pros-
titution are used as tools to protect the workers and improve their
working conditions. Bucken-Knapp, Schaffer, and Levin (2014), for ex-
ample, stress that one of the reasons why the abolitionist movement
in Sweden was so successful in implementing the law to criminalize
the purchase of sex was because they managed to frame prostitution
as an issue of gender equality, concerning men's violence against
women.
The findings in this article strengthen the idea that views on gender
equality are associated with attitudes toward prostitution in different
ways depending on the type of prostitution regime. We can confirm
 S. Jonsson, N. Jakobsson / Women's Studies International Forum 61 (2017) 58–69 65

Table 4
OLS attitudes toward prostitution. Subsamples.

Sweden Norway Denmark UK Netherlands Germany France Spain

Male −1.672⁎⁎⁎ −1.847⁎⁎⁎ −1.690⁎⁎⁎ −1.232⁎⁎⁎ −0.653⁎⁎⁎ −0.630⁎⁎⁎ −0.650⁎⁎⁎ −0.726⁎⁎⁎

(0.13) (0.19) (0.19) (0.11) (0.14) (0.12) (0.11) (0.14)
Age 0.083⁎⁎⁎ −0.016 −0.094⁎ −0.102⁎⁎⁎ −0.163⁎⁎⁎ −0.155⁎⁎⁎ −0.095⁎⁎⁎ −0.027
(0.03) (0.05) (0.05) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.04)
Age2 −0.062⁎⁎ 0.035 0.100⁎ 0.104⁎⁎⁎ 0.173⁎⁎⁎ 0.163⁎⁎⁎ 0.093⁎⁎⁎ 0.034
(0.03) (0.06) (0.06) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.03) (0.04)
Low income −0.015 −0.237 −0.255 0.212⁎ 0.331⁎ 0.607⁎⁎⁎ 0.073 0.277⁎
(0.16) (0.23) (0.23) (0.12) (0.17) (0.15) (0.13) (0.17)
No response (income) 0.042 0.057 −0.239 0.703⁎⁎⁎ 0.411⁎⁎ 0.436⁎⁎ 0.409⁎⁎ 0.148
(0.21) (0.27) (0.26) (0.16) (0.17) (0.18) (0.20) (0.24)
Capital 0.343⁎⁎ −0.283 0.575⁎⁎⁎ −0.176 −0.469 0.017 −0.685⁎⁎⁎ 0.334
(0.16) (0.21) (0.20) (0.16) (0.35) (0.26) (0.25) (0.21)
Cohabit 0.566⁎⁎⁎ 0.179 −0.139 0.292⁎⁎⁎ 0.341⁎⁎ 0.428⁎⁎⁎ 0.145 0.007
(0.14) (0.19) (0.21) (0.11) (0.15) (0.14) (0.12) (0.15)
High education 0.216⁎ 0.153 0.230 −0.465⁎⁎⁎ −0.191 0.053 −0.016 −0.213
(0.13) (0.20) (0.20) (0.11) (0.15) (0.12) (0.11) (0.14)
Religion 1.129⁎⁎⁎ 1.958⁎⁎⁎ 1.645⁎⁎⁎ 1.601⁎⁎⁎ 2.453⁎⁎⁎ 1.437⁎⁎⁎ 0.938⁎⁎⁎ 0.796⁎⁎⁎
(0.24) (0.29) (0.37) (0.15) (0.19) (0.17) (0.18) (0.18)
Is gender equality important? 0.204⁎⁎⁎ 0.146⁎⁎⁎ 0.084⁎⁎ 0.061⁎⁎⁎ −0.034 −0.000 0.098⁎⁎⁎ 0.104⁎⁎⁎
(0.03) (0.04) (0.04) (0.02) (0.02) (0.03) (0.02) (0.04)
Ideology right −0.435⁎⁎⁎ −1.001⁎⁎⁎ −0.580⁎⁎ −0.206 −0.248 −0.006 −0.279⁎ 0.242
(0.17) (0.24) (0.24) (0.17) (0.20) (0.25) (0.14) (0.27)
Ideology left 0.479⁎⁎⁎ 1.042⁎⁎⁎ 0.555⁎⁎ −0.604⁎⁎⁎ −0.269 −0.262 0.053 −0.023
(0.17) (0.27) (0.25) (0.18) (0.21) (0.19) (0.15) (0.16)
Constant 3.623⁎⁎⁎ 6.494⁎⁎⁎ 7.274⁎⁎⁎ 8.188⁎⁎⁎ 8.664⁎⁎⁎ 7.406⁎⁎⁎ 7.459⁎⁎⁎ 5.980⁎⁎⁎
(0.80) (1.10) (1.15) (0.65) (0.76) (0.78) (0.70) (0.90)
R2 0.171 0.185 0.134 0.106 0.120 0.047 0.039 0.032
Observations 1792 999 995 3006 1986 3000 2997 2018

Standard error in parentheses.

⁎ p b 0.10.
⁎⁎ p b 0.05.
⁎⁎⁎ p b 0.01.

that people who view gender equality as important are less morally
accepting of the purchase of sex in countries where buying sex is
prohibited, but more morally accepting in countries where running a
brothel and such a purchase are legal. Several of the results are quite
puzzling and require further research.
There is still an ongoing scholarly debate on the relationship between
the inflow of trafficking and type of prostitution regime. At the same time,
few studies present cross-sectional evidence that prostitution law is asso-
ciated with attitudes toward the buying of sex. The findings of this article
suggest that policy makers should consider the broad spectrum of views
on prostitution in Europe when discussing how to handle the demand
for the purchase of sex in different prostitution regimes in the future.
Funding
This work was supported by the Swedish Crime Victim
Compensation Authority (3977/2013) under Grant the Crime Victim
Fund.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Victor Lapuente, Richard Svensson and Jari
Kousmanen for useful comments and suggestions. One of the authors
would also like to thank FBK-IRVAPP in Trento (Italy) for the time spent
there while working on this article.

Appendix A

Figs. A1–A2. Distribution of attitudes toward buying sex for women and men. Note: Attitudes toward buying sex are measured by answers to the question, ‘Is it according to you morally
justified or morally wrong to pay for sex?’ ranging from 0 for ‘Morally completely justified’ to 10 for ‘Morally entirely wrong’.
66 S. Jonsson, N. Jakobsson / Women's Studies International Forum 61 (2017) 58–69

Fig. A3. Normally distributed residuals. Fig. A4. Residuals spread compared to fitted values.

Table A1
Descriptive statistics.

Variable Explanation Pooled mean (st. dev.)

Buying wrong “Is it according to you morally wrong or morally justifiable to pay for sex?” ranging from 0 “entirely morally justifiable” to 10
5.833
“entirely morally wrong” (0.025)
Criminalize 1 = if respondent thinks it should be illegal to buy sex 0.696
buying (0.004)
Male 1 = male 0.488
(0.004)
Age Age 47.945
(0.106)
Low income 1 = if respondent is among the about 30% that earns less in the sample 0.311
(0.004)
Capital 1 = if respondent lives in the capital city 0.116
(0.002)
Cohabit 1 = if respondent is married or cohabiting 0.619
(0.004)
High Education 1 = if respondent has at least some university 0.489
(0.004)
Religion 1 = if respondent participates in religious activities at least once a month 0.134
(0.003)
Gender equality “Do you think that gender equality is an important issue?” ranging from 0 for “No” to 10 for “Yes” 8.243
(0.019)
Right 1 = if respondent answered 8–10 on a 0–10 scale, where 0 indicates political left and 10 political right 0.133
(0.003)
Left 1 = if respondent answered 0–2 on a 0–10 scale, where 0 indicates political left and 10 political right 0.152
(0.003)
Prostitution law 1 = purchasing sex is criminalized | 2 = brothel owning is criminalized, purchase legal 3 = brothel owning is regulated, purchase 1.715
legal (0.009)
Norway 1 = if respondent lives in Norway 0.059
(0.002)
Denmark 1 = if respondent lives in Denmark 0.059
(0.002)
The UK 1 = if respondent lives in the UK 0.179
(0.003)
The Netherlands 1 = if respondent lives in the Netherlands 0.118
(0.002)
Germany 1 = if respondent lives in Germany 0.179
(0.003)
France 1 = if respondent lives in France 0.178
(0.003)
Spain 1 = If respondent lives in Spain 0.120
(0.003)

Table A2
Descriptive statistics subsamples.

Variable Explanation Sweden Norway Denmark

Mean (st. dev.) Mean (st. dev.) Mean (st. dev.)

Buying “Is it according to you morally wrong or morally justifiable to pay for sex?” ranging from 0 “entirely 7.639 7.061 5.272
wrong morally justifiable” to 10 “entirely morally wrong” (0.069) (0.099) (0.097)
Criminalize 1 = if respondent thinks it should be illegal to buy sex 0.371 0.469 0.760
buying (0.011) (0.016) (0.014)
Male 1 = male 0.537 0.491 0.507
 S. Jonsson, N. Jakobsson / Women's Studies International Forum 61 (2017) 58–69 67

Table A2 (continued)

Variable Explanation Sweden Norway Denmark

Mean (st. dev.) Mean (st. dev.) Mean (st. dev.)

(0.012) (0.016) (0.016)

Age Age 52.141 44.469 47.657
(0.337) (0.433) (0.420)
Low income 1 = if respondent is among the about 30% that earns less in the sample. 0.269 0.329 0.319
(0.010) (0.015) (0.015)
Capital 1 = if respondent lives in the capital city 0.184 0.252 0.314
(0.009) (0.014) (0.015)
Cohabit 1 = if respondent is married or cohabiting 0.719 0.633 0.688
(0.011) (0.015) (0.015)
High 1 = if respondent has at least some university 0.536 0.618 0.668
education (0.012) (0.015) (0.015)
Religion 1 = if respondent participates in religious activities at least once a month 0.077 0.106 0.066
(0.006) (0.010) (0.008)
Gender “Do you think that gender equality is an important issue?” ranging from 0 for “No” to 10 for “Yes” 8.452 8.088 8.047
equality (0.055) (0.076) (0.076)
Right 1 = if respondent answered 8–10 on a 0–10 scale, where 0 indicates political left and 10 political right 0.193 0.179 0.192
(0.009) (0.012) (0.013)
Left 1 = if respondent answered 0–2 on a 0–10 scale, where 0 indicates political left and 10 political right 0.174 0.141 0.179
(0.009) (0.011) (0.012)

Variable Explanation UK Netherlands Germany

Mean (st. dev.) Mean (st. dev.) Mean (st. dev.)

Buying “Is it according to you morally wrong or morally justifiable to pay for sex?” ranging from 0 “entirely 6.069 5.163 4.445
wrong morally justifiable” to 10 “entirely morally wrong” (0.057) (0.070) (0.062)
Criminalize 1 = if respondent thinks it should be illegal to buy sex 0.660 0.810 0.841
buying (0.009) (0.009) (0.007)
Male 1 = male 0.486 0.507 0.437
(0.009) (0.011) (0.009)
Age Age 49.475 50.906 47.971
(0.258) (0.313) (0.241)
Low income 1 = if respondent is among the about 30% that earns less in the sample. 0.339 0.275 0.313
(0.009) (0.010) (0.008)
Capital 1 = if respondent lives in the capital city 0.132 0.038 0.056
(0.006) (0.004) (0.004)
Cohabit 1 = if respondent is married or cohabiting 0.614 0.659 0.596
(0.009) (0.011) (0.009)
High 1 = if respondent has at least some university 0.460 0.245 0.496
education (0.009) (0.010) (0.009)
Religion 1 = if respondent participates in religious activities at least once a month 0.173 0.147 0.146
(0.007) (0.008) (0.006)
Gender “Do you think that gender equality is an important issue?” ranging from 0 for “No” to 10 for “Yes” 7.957 7.264 8.744
equality (0.050) (0.063) (0.040)
Right 1 = if respondent answered 8–10 on a 0–10 scale, where 0 indicates political left and 10 political right 0.117 0.128 0.065
(0.006) (0.007) (0.005)
Left 1 = if respondent answered 0–2 on a 0–10 scale, where 0 indicates political left and 10 political right 0.105 0.112 0.123
(0.006) (0.007) (0.006)

Variable Explanation France Spain

Mean (st. dev.) Mean (st. dev.)

Buying wrong “Is it according to you morally wrong or morally justifiable to pay for sex?” ranging from 0 “entirely morally justifiable” to 5.852 6.243
10 “entirely morally wrong” (0.056) (0.070)
Criminalize 1 = if respondent thinks it should be illegal to buy sex 0.722 0.753
buying (0.008) (0.010)
Male 1 = male 0.470 0.524
(0.009) (0.011)
Age Age 47.616 41.344
(0.239) (0.269)
Low income 1 = if respondent is among the about 30% that earns less in the sample. 0.334 0.293
(0.009) (0.010)
Capital 1 = if respondent lives in the capital city 0.053 0.125
(0.004) (0.007)
Cohabit 1 = if respondent is married or cohabiting 0.534 0.619
(0.009) (0.011)
High education 1 = if respondent has at least some university 0.496 0.559
(0.009) (0.011)
Religion 1 = if respondent participates in religious activities at least once a month 0.105 0.184
(0.006) (0.009)
Gender “Do you think that gender equality is an important issue?” ranging from 0 for “No” to 10 for “Yes” 8.140 9.026
equality (0.045) (0.042)
Right 1 = if respondent answered 8–10 on a 0–10 scale, where 0 indicates political left and 10 political right 0.188 0.073
(0.007) (0.006)
Left 1 = if respondent answered 0–2 on a 0–10 scale, where 0 indicates political left and 10 political right 0.159 0.268
(0.007) (0.010)
68 S. Jonsson, N. Jakobsson / Women's Studies International Forum 61 (2017) 58–69

Table A3
Representativeness of the samples.

% Male Cohabitat High education

Country Population year 2014 Our sample Population year 2012 Our sample Population Our sample

Denmark 50.39 50.6 0,599,733,578 68.76 44.1 66.67

Germany 50.38 43.73 0,650,716,433 59.46 31.4 49.59
Spain 50.35 52.43 N/A 61.95 42.3 55.57
France 49.38 46.78 0,583,261,753 53.37 44.1 49.64
Netherland 50.28 50.55 0,619,430,171 65.79 44.6 68.63
Sweden 50.83 53.75 0,524,604,362 72.02 49.9 53.58
United Kingdom 49.82 48.58 N/A 61.22 47.7 45.86
Norway 51.25 49.25 0,521,887,215 63.34 52.1 61.84

Table A4
Bivariate correlations (obs = 16.793).

Attitudes Male Age Age2 Low income No response income

Attitudes 1
Male −0.1483 1
Age −0.005 0.1015 1
Age2 0.0071 0.1011 0.9881 1
Low Income 0.0342 −0.1396 −0.113 −0.0914 1
No response income 0.0248 −0.0757 0.022 0.0235 −0.2737 1
Capital 0.0412 0.0071 −0.0402 −0.0364 −0.0373 0.009
Cohabitat 0.0376 0.048 0.1848 0.1696 −0.2391 0.0454
High education −0.0003 0.0136 −0.1194 −0.1135 −0.1296 0.0082
Religiousness 0.1335 0.0179 −0.0189 −0.0123 −0.0104 −0.0119
Gender equality 0.054 −0.0875 −0.0263 −0.0231 0.0123 −0.0251
Right −0.0193 0.0695 0.0554 0.0567 −0.053 −0.0182
Left 0.0236 −0.0203 −0.0363 −0.0362 0.0493 −0.036
1.0
Capital Cohabitat High education Religiousness Gender equality Right Left

Capital 1
Cohabitat −0.0282 1
High education 0.077 −0.0018 1
Religiousness 0.0107 0.0414 0.0566 1
Gender equality 0.0191 −0.0478 0.0339 −0.0848 1
Right 0.0525 0.0304 0.0074 0.0215 −0.0972 1
Left 0.0154 −0.0482 0.0171 −0.0512 0.1066 −0.1658 1

Table A5
OLS regression pooled sample. DV = Attitudes toward buying of sex.

Country dummies

Norway omitted 0.000

(.)
Denmark (0.14)
−1.165⁎⁎⁎
France (0.11)
−2.781⁎⁎⁎
Germany (0.11)
−1.941⁎⁎⁎
Netherlands (0.12)
−0.943⁎⁎⁎
Spain (0.12)
0.602⁎⁎⁎
Sweden (0.12)
−1.123⁎⁎⁎
United Kingdom (0.11)
−1.010⁎⁎⁎
Male (0.05)
−0.082⁎⁎⁎
Age (0.01)
0.091⁎⁎⁎
Age2 (0.01)
0.182⁎⁎⁎
Low income (0.06)
0.335⁎⁎⁎
No response (income) (0.07)
0.039
Capital (0.08)
0.250⁎⁎⁎
Cohabit (0.05)
 S. Jonsson, N. Jakobsson / Women's Studies International Forum 61 (2017) 58–69
Table A5 (continued)
High education
Religion
Is gender equality important?
Right
Left
Constant
R2
Observations
⁎⁎⁎ p b 0.01.
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