Taken from Wales Online 13th May 2012. An Interview with Madam Becky Adams who is a great supporter of Escort Buddys:
Increasing numbers of women are turning to the sex industry to make ends meet, according to insiders and researchers.
An ex-brothel madam has told us more women are becoming escorts and selling sex as the economic gloom shows no sign of letting up.
And an academic project to start next month will survey students who have turned to the sex industry as a means of paying tuition fees and living costs.
Madam Becky Adams, a former Brecon convent schoolgirl who ran brothels for two decades, says that a site for first-time escorts run by one of her close friends has seen interest soar.
The 44-year-old said the site caters for women who want to make cash from escorting but have never done it before.
She adds while many businesses are facing a struggle to survive in the face of the downturn, escorting is booming – with the number looking to give it a go having “gone up a lot”.
One of the biggest trends has seen students entering the industry, something Becky says isn’t a surprise when you consider the financial pressures of increased tuition and living costs.
She said: “It’s more the case these days, because students need to supplement their income and pay student loans.
“And with every passing generation and as the years pass,
more and more people become completely fine with sex work – they might not want to tell mates about it but they’re okay doing it.”
But as well as hard-up students, she said there were a whole host of women from different walks of life who are now investigating the possibility of becoming sex workers.
“It’s a whole mixture of people right across the whole range – an awful lot of people from the care and nursing industry,” she said.
In the wake of the seeming increase, academics are to launch a new three-year study into the extent of sex work being carried out by students and the motivations behind them getting into the profession.
Dr Tracey Sagar (corr) and her colleague Debbie Jones from the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at Swansea University have researched the field for a number of years.
Research they carried out last year showed that an increasing amount of men and women in Cardiff were turning to prostitution as a career choice.
And of nearly 400 off-street sex workers they found working either in brothels, for escort agencies or over the internet, they said more than three-quarters had qualifications.
With new funding they are set to launch The Student Sex Work Project from June 1.
You can find out more about Madam Becky here: http://www.madambeckyadams.co.uk
