Men are whore-mongering pervs. But only in their secret lives.

That has been the rap on American guys, at least since the postwar days when the infamous Kinsey report discovered that more than two-thirds of men had paid for prostitutes in their lifetimes.

New research published in Southern California is challenging this assumption:

University of Portland's Martin A. Monto alongside Christine Milrod conducted research published recently in SAGE's International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.

It found that only a little more than 1 in 10 men (14 percent) in the United States have paid for sex in their lifetimes. Only about 1 in 100 had done so in the last year, the researchers contend.

Milrod:

Credit: FBI

Credit: FBI

Our findings clearly contradict the 'john next door' notion perpetuated by some media. While it is noteworthy to recognize that the 1% of adult men who paid for sex in 2010 still result in a large number of customers, there is no credible evidence to support the idea that hiring sex workers is a common or conventional aspect of masculine sexual behavior among men in the United States.

Have these people seen The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire or Mad Men? Maybe times have changed.

The study also found that there's very little difference between those guys who do see ladies of night; no racial, ethnic or income stereotypes seem to apply.

However, researchers looked at data from escort evaluation site The Erotic Review and concluded that rich, married white guys were more likely to go online and that they might be more likely to get away with it. A summary:

A substantial portion of these married White men earn over 120K annually, have graduate degrees, and are more sexually liberal than any of the other groups in the study …

Milrod:

Privileged men, such as our wealthier sample of review website clients, are generally not marginalized or threatened due to their sexual behavior. In contrast, customers associated with street prostitution are likely to have fewer financial and social resources and it could be argued that these men are explicitly targeted by law enforcement in marginalized areas or transitional neighborhoods.

Aw. Anyone feeling sorry for these dudes? Didn't think so.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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