A prostitute can be motivated in many ways, the most
common of which is financial compensation. Other compensation may be material (e.g. jewels, designer clothes, luxury cars, real estate, or in general, an affluent life style) or satisfy a certain addiction (e.g. drugs or gambling).
Even an abstract reward
such as the socio-economic status associated with the sexual counterparty may serve as compensation.
Most prostitutes are women who offer their services to men, although there are male prostitutes as well.
The sexual counterparties of
prostitutes are known as; clients in Canada, johns in the United States and either clients or punters in the UK and in Sweden they are known as "Torskar", which means cod or loser. In some places, men who drive around red-light districts for the purpose of soliciting prostitutes are also known as kerb crawlers.
