Exploring terra incognita: Family values and prostitution acceptance in China

One of the unexamined issues in China is the public attitude toward prostitution. Little is known about public opinion on prostitution in China or Asia, and no work exists regarding the association between family values and public opinion on prostitution. Data from the World Values Surveys were used to explore social determinants of the attitude toward prostitution with a focus on the relationship between family values and acceptance of prostitution in China. The results from the multivariate logistic regression showed that family values were a significant predictor of the attitude toward prostitution, independent of tolerance, feminism, authoritarianism, and employment. While the effects of tolerance and feminism were consistent with the findings in the U.S., the effects of authoritarianism and religiosity were inconsistent. This article concluded with a call for reevaluation of the current harsh policy in order to gain a better handling of prostitution in China.