Sex clients are persons who patronise prostitutes. The slang terms punter (UK) and john (North America) are used among both prostitutes and law enforcement.

The term john may have originated from the customers' practice of giving their name as "John", a common name in English speaking countries, in an effort to maintain anonymity. Although discredited, the origin has also been proposed as reference to Pope John XII. The term john is American and the earliest known citation is from 1911 in a book by D.G. Phillips, "Susan Lenox, Her Fall and Rise". In it, the term is used in the sense of "sugar-daddy" as opposed to customer.

In the US, some sex clients call themselves mongers. A clipped form of whoremonger, this is a word that has altered from its meaning of a pimp or bawd, who deals in prostitutes as a fishmonger deals in fish, to include anyone keeping the company of prostitutes. The euphemistic term hobbyist is in circulation among sex clients who are active online.

External links

• "John Schools" as an attempt to educate prostitutes' clients
• "Street prostitution" by Michael S. Scott, US DOJ Problem-Oriented Guides for Police Series, No. 2

Prostitution

Seksiostjad