The deviant sexual sale consists of seven stages, each involving an important task which the prostitute and customer accomplish together: the partners make contact, assess are another's suitability, agree to a sale, come to terms on the conditions of the sale, move to a protected setting, make the exchange, and terminate the affair. The sexual sale is compared with an ideal-typical model of the respectable sale in order to identify the generic features of the deviant sale. The deviant sale is relatively tenuous; the partners must attend to and deal with a wide range of respectable sales. The sale also is relatively dangerous; deviants face official sanctions and exploitation by their associates. To manage these risks, the partners rely on themselves, operating discreetly and taking special precautions. Some hypotheses on variation in the dynamics of deviant sales are developed. (Publisher abstract)