413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

wanted me to know. She fed me the game under false pretenses. So, after I read a lot of books and figured
it out myself, I switched the tables on her” (A3).
Drug Dealing to Pimping
When you do underground stuff, other underground people come to you. (H7)
Findings from this study support the research of May, Harocopos, and Hough (2000) who found the
respondents in their study were intertwined with other underground economies and that several sex
workers described their pimps as also being their drug dealers. The pimps in this study described how
other illegal economies served as one entry to pimping. Eighteen respondents (25 percent) worked as drug
dealers prior to working as pimps; 13 respondents (18 percent) continued to deal drugs while they
pimped. Respondents described this relationship as largely driven by links between the demand for drugs
and the demand for sex. For one interviewee, that connection became apparent when his drug customers
sought sex at the same time they sought drugs: “Like I say, they weren’t my hobby, I sold dope. When I
sell, people would say, ‘Hey, do you know where I can get girls at’ and I say, ‘I got you’” (D4).
As a result, respondents reported that the same individuals often pimped and sold drugs. One individual
who continued to deal drugs while pimping explained that people in his childhood community often
engaged in both businesses simultaneously: “Coming up as a kid, it was all around me, people who
venture into business activity in drugs, and people who gravitated to that business. It was a combination
of drugs and females; they go hand in hand” (A2). Similarly, some respondents reported that drug dealers
became pimps after meeting women through drug dealing. An interviewee who dealt drugs prior to
working as a pimp explained, “Where I’m from, the majority of guys get women because they sell them
weed … Drug dealers end up being pimps” (G12). Another respondent explained that many drug dealers
were already involved in sex trafficking networks:
The game has changed. It’s all ex-drug dealers. Everyone who is an ex-drug dealer is in
the game. Most of them were already in the business. When you’re drug dealing you
accommodate so many females. You’re paying them for sex. The drug dealers end up
flipping it. (C4)
Respondents cited different reasons to switch from drug dealing to pimping. One interviewee noted the
impact of drug sentencing laws: “Guys I used to hang out with, former drug dealers became pimps. All of
us ran circles together. That’s the new thing. Guys are getting too much time for selling drugs. They
already know a lot of girls from selling drugs” (C4). Beyond the threat of long sentences, droughts in the
drug supply in the mid-2000s also may have caused some dealers to transition into pimping:
There was a drop where no one could get dope, in the middle of ’06 or ’07. Unless you
were a crack addict, it was way too hard to find. So it wasn’t easy to get anything to sell.
My girlfriend at the time said, “I’ll do anything for you, Daddy.” I mean, I looked like a
pimp but I was a square, really. I knew what she meant, but I didn’t know what to do. But,
it’s not hard to get into if you’re hood or street. (A3)
Finally, some pimps simply saw pimping as an easier and more lucrative economy than drug dealing. One
respondent explained why he transitioned from dealing marijuana to pimping: “All I sold was weed. It
was too much. I had to have pounds to make money. [With pimping,] you didn’t have to re-up. With
females, you didn’t have to wait. It’s all there” (C8).
Legality in a Foreign Country
This study’s interview sample included five respondents who reported that they were born outside the
United States. Of those five respondents, three reported that prostitution was legal in their country of
origin. For those respondents, the legality of prostitution in their country influenced their decision to
engage in the UCSE in the United States. In some cases, interviewees stated that they did not understand
the illegality of prostitution and pimping when they became involved in the UCSE within the United
States: “I grew up in a country where prostitution is legal, so when I got involved here, I didn’t look at it as
illegal. I didn’t fear that I was doing something wrong” (H5). A foreign-born interviewee, who identified as
Latino, shared a similar sentiment: “I didn’t think the work was risky. I thought the work was legal” (G6).
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