413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

The three individuals reporting legality of prostitution in their home country were born in the Americas.
The legal status of prostitution in countries outside the United States greatly varies, ranging from
completely illegal to legal and regulated.
Self-Perception and Emotional Motivations
You have to understand that when the economy is moving fast, you got to move fast. It
is not a lifestyle for a slow or boring person. If you get into it, you have a wild streak in
you. (G9)
While many respondents highlighted the role of external influences in their entry into pimping, personal
motivations and self-perception were equally important motivators for some interviewees. One pimp
recalled a childhood memory that shaped his self-perception:
My little homies were always trying to do weird shit. I was always money-motivated.
They’d be off breaking windows; I’d go inside and get the money. There was an ice cream
truck parked on our block for a week. They stole the ice cream; I went for the cash box … I
liked to have money, so people would hang out with me. For me if we are going to do this,
[I would ask,] “How are we going to make money off it” (E11)
Another respondent explained that he started pimping at an early age because his personality enabled him
to convince women to do what he wanted:
It started in high school, middle school really. [It was] 8th grade. Just being the dude that
can talk a female into having sex with me and a couple of buddies. Always having the gift
of the gab, always being able to talk to convince a female to see my point of view. It’s like
challenging yourself. Seeing how far you can get a female to go. That’s how it started.
Seeing what I could talk a female into doing. (B3)
Self-perception was also shaped by commentary from friends and family. One pimp noted, “I was 30
[when I started pimping]. All my life people always told me that’s what you need to be. ‘You’re good at it’”
(D13). Another respondent reported, “A friend of mine had watched me— when he was growing up and I
was growing up—and he said it was in me” (D7). Interviewees also drew comparisons between the types of
personalities that enable success in different illegal economies when discussing their own aptitudes. An
offender explained that “with leadership and the gift of gab, you’ll be able to excel in [the pimp] lifestyle. If
you have a more calculative mind, [you’d be] better in the other lifestyles—drugs and everything” (E5).
The choice to facilitate sex work could also be emotionally-driven. For one interviewee, his decision to
pimp came in part from an anger toward women and a desire for emotional escape. He explained, “I got a
divorce. I was real hurt, young at the time. A friend of mine said pimping was like therapy; I can alter my
feelings and direct them in a different direction” (E12).
Self-perceptions and emotional motivations informed respondent choices to engage in the sex market,
just as external factors did. One offender reflected: “It’s not for everybody. Some people might try, but it’s
like a calling … Many people around me tried to do it, but it didn’t last too long” (C8).
Women Who Pimp
Women become involved in facilitating prostitution in a variety of different ways. Their roles can range
from being simply the “bottom” and maintaining a more selective relationship to the pimp and clients to
personal control over the entire pimping operation (Raphael and Myers-Powell 2010; UNGIFHT 2008;
Williamson and Cluse-Tolar 2002). The limited research on women who pimp has shown that female
pimps often start as sex workers and can be coerced into pimping because of an intimate partner or
another pimp (Raphael and Myers-Powell 2010). While the majority of respondents in this study were
male, data collection included interviews with nine female pimps or bottoms convicted of charges related
to pimping or sex trafficking. One female respondent explained how her own childhood observations of
women engaging in sex work informed her choice to become a facilitator:
I saw women all the time with men, paying men everything they make and not making
anything. If they leave, they leave with nothing. I saw that as a child growing up with my
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