413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

Although law enforcement is aware of the prices that are charged on the streets and Internet, it is difficult
for them to estimate the amount of money that is generated through the UCSE:
Interviewer: And, as far as money goes, and how money is generated particularly with
some of these big escort agencies or pimps who work a number of girls, do you track the
amount of money that they are making, and how so
Respondent: We haven’t. We haven’t done that. That’s not a bad idea to be able to do; I
don’t know how we would do it because everything is cash. (Kansas City Law
Enforcement Official)
Another law enforcement official stated, “Our only purpose with money is to document the relationship
between a girl and a pimp; we don’t use money for anything else.”
American-born pimps are the primary facilitators in the Kansas City underground commercial sex
economy. According to stakeholders, pimps typically come from “economically disadvantaged
background” and few have graduated high school. In many cases, they have other family members who
are involved in the UCSE. They look for ways to improve their financial situation, whether it be selling
drugs or selling women and girls. However, as one law enforcement officer explained, you can’t determine
if someone is a pimp or trafficker just by looking at them:
You can’t just say, you can’t look at someone and say, this person is going to be a
trafficker. It’s not this one prosecutor has this slideshow and it shows the prototypical
pimp and shows that “This is not what we’re looking for.” It’s ranged from just a middle
aged man who drove trucks for FedEx to the pimp on the street that’s running several
girls. (Kansas City Law Enforcement Official)
Even for those individuals who are not being exploited by a pimp, the Internet serves as a recruitment tool
for pimps. They will scour advertisements on sites like Craigslist and Backpage, looking for women and
girls who might be working independently or looking to “choose up”:
When we place advertisements on Craigslist where we pose as a prostitute and have guys
come to us—we have had times where we get random text messages from individuals
seeing our ad and trying to recruit us into their agency or whatever. Guys are kind of
reaching out which means they’re trying to make contact. (Kansas City Law Enforcement
Official)
Pimps from Kansas City will on average have three girls in his “stable.” The women and girls that they
recruit tend to be “very disadvantaged and very traumatized” and can experience physical, verbal, and/or
psychological abuse from their exploiter. However, in the case where an adult is working for a pimp,
several stakeholders pointed out that it can be difficult to determine, or in many cases prove, exploitation.
These women often have the physical freedom to leave their pimp and benefit from the money they make.
They have access to drugs and alcohol, and are able to have their hair and nails done and go shopping
regularly. As one public defender explains,
Trafficking kind of evokes this idea of someone that’s a prisoner that’s kept in the
basement somewhere and can’t speak English, has no contact. Most of the cases we would
have that have involved human trafficking, they’re not confined. I mean, they may be,
they may be controlled or manipulated or physically threatened by the people that are
influencing them or persuading them to do this type of thing. But it would not be accurate
to say that they didn’t have connections to society, to other people, to family and friends.
(Kansas City Public Defender)
Even with a small operation of one to three employees, pimps can make a lot of money. Other than
spending their money on operational costs, such as hotels/motels rooms, and making sure their
“employees” are presentable, pimps spend most of their money on “jewelry, liquor, and crack.” Although
most pimps do not keep detailed records of their earnings and expenses, law enforcement has found that
some women and girls maintain charts on their customers, which document the number and types of
transactions.
97