Background

The last two decades have seen a wave of legislative reforms in the regulation of the sex industry in many countries around the world. One particularly controversial reform is known as “End Demand” legislation: laws that criminalize clients of sex workers.

Methods

This study explores what predicts public attitudes regarding the impact of end demand legislation, based on an online survey, conducted in January 2020, of 2012 Israeli adults, just after such a law passed in Israel in December 2018. We focus on attitudes regarding the impact of end demand legislation, as correlated with attitudes toward women who sell sex (WSS), men who pay for sex (MPS), and policies related to the sex industry and gender.

Results

We found that a majority of the Israeli public had not formed an opinion regarding whether the law would achieve its declared goals as well as regarding its impact. Most of those who held an opinion about the law’s impact thought that it would not reduce the selling of sex and that it would negatively impact people involved in the sex industry. We also found greater support of criminalization of WSS among those who supported end demand legislation.

Conclusion

The study presents these findings, explores their implications—and specifically the failure of supporters of the law to convince the public of its ability to positively impact WSS —and highlights the public’s troubling tendency to link support for the criminalization of MPS with that of the criminalization of WSS.

中文翻译：

---

公众对“最终需求”立法影响的态度预测：以色列调查结果

 背景

过去二十年，世界许多国家掀起了一波针对性产业监管的立法改革浪潮。一项特别有争议的改革被称为“终结需求”立法：将性工作者客户定为犯罪的法律。

 方法

本研究基于 2018 年 12 月以色列通过这项法律后，于 2020 年 1 月对 2012 名以色列成年人进行的一项在线调查，探讨了如何预测公众对最终需求立法影响的态度。我们关注的是对其影响的态度最终需求立法的影响，与对卖淫女性（WSS）、性付费男性（MPS）的态度以及与性产业和性别相关的政策相关。

 结果

我们发现，大多数以色列公众尚未就该法律是否能实现其宣称的目标及其影响形成意见。大多数对该法律的影响持看法的人认为，它不会减少性交易，而且会对从事性行业的人产生负面影响。我们还发现，那些支持最终需求立法的人更支持将 WSS 定为刑事犯罪。

 结论

该研究提出了这些发现，探讨了其含义，特别是该法律的支持者未能让公众相信其对 WSS 产生积极影响的能力，并强调了公众将 MPS 刑事定罪的支持与对 WSS 的支持联系起来的令人不安的倾向。 WSS 的刑事定罪。