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her back. She is giving me money. She was over 18 but she had younger girls that she was
running … I was watching her back, she gets caught. The police want a pimp. (E8)
Another respondent who started pimping at age 16 reported that he felt in part manipulated by a woman
and forced by circumstance to work as a pimp:
If you’re not a pimp but you get caught up in the lifestyle, you’re just trying to make ends
meet. Sometimes a girl will say either you accept me for what I am and mess with me, or
don’t. You’re 19, 20, or 22, trying to make ends meet. Are you going to accept it Who
wants to live in poverty Nobody. Who doesn’t want the finer things in life Nobody. You
are going to accept the things. The decision is to go along with the program. Not because I
am going to be labeled, it’s life. (E3)
Other interviewees did not necessarily feel they were compelled or manipulated to engage in pimping, but
described their entry into pimping as a result of a relationship with a woman. When discussing his entry
into the sex economy, one 28-year-old respondent explained:
[I was] 15 years old. It was the last day of school, and it was a girl that I knew. I knew she
slept around a lot. Her stepfather was molesting her or something. So she ran away,
ended up sleeping with me, then she slept with five of my friends. Somebody made a
proposition and from then on [I worked as a pimp] … that was the first one. (C8)
The same individual went on to explain, “My first female that I worked with, I didn’t know I was looking
for her. She came to me, and then life fell in my lap” (C8). Another respondent explained that the first
woman he pimped initially reached out to him to assist her with a call, but he quickly suggested that he act
as her pimp:
I was talking to one of her home girls and I tried to hook her up with one of my home
boys. He was supposed to give her a ride because she had business lined up. She called
my phone and asked if I would take her to the date, [and she would] give me half the
money. I met up with her, took her to the date. I said “You can give me all the money, you
don’t have to worry about anything else, and you can come live with me.” She wasn’t
working for anyone in particular, [but she] had a couple people she would go see. I said,
“Come live with me and don’t worry about nothing else.” (B3)
While pimps expressed that women first recruited them into pimping, they also quickly recognized the
financial opportunity the field presented to them:
She said, “Want me to help you make some money Take me somewhere where I can
hustle.” I knew what she was talking about. I took her to the track that Friday, and my
partner showed me a place where she could get some money. I dropped her off around
9:00 p.m. I picked her up around 1:00 a.m. I made like $2,400. I hadn’t had money and I
was like, “For real Are you serious” Well, after that I got in the game. (D13)
Women could serve as both recruiter and mentor, and some pimps first learned how to work the
underground commercial sex economy from women. One respondent explained that he was recruited as a
bodyguard for a sex worker, but she also taught him the business of pimping: “I was actually approached
by a female and she got me in. I was 17. She was at first looking for someone to be a body guard while she
goes on calls and stuff … I was making sure she wouldn’t get beat up. She gave me money. She taught me
about the business” (A7). Similarly, other pimps were engaged or approached to serve a particular role in
established businesses: “It was already structured when I walked into it. She said she already had the ads
on the Internet, had a friend at the strip club who had the clientele, and said ‘I just need someone to run
things, provide money, and decide what to do’” (A1). Pimps noted that women often already knew how to
work with a pimp, and taught new pimps about their role in the business structure.
Women also taught some pimps about the rules and regulations that were generally enforced upon
employees. A 41-year-old interviewee explained his initial surprise at this power dynamic: “That was one
thing that threw me off. She was already advanced. She let me know certain things she was doing she
shouldn’t do. I wasn’t pimping at first … She gave me the dos and don’ts” (E12). Another interviewee
reported: “My girlfriend was the first to get me into it. She taught me the rules, but only the way she
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