413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

Hiding Behind Legal Businesses
Legal business fronts minimized some respondents’
fears of arrest. Previous studies have found that
pimps often rely on legal businesses, as locations
for recruiting women or finding clients, or as
covers for illegal activities (Raymond et al. 2001).
These businesses can include bars, hotels, clubs,
and legal escort services. Sex work and sex
trafficking can also take place in massage parlors,
spas, saunas, and other legitimate businesses
(Weitzer 2009). Many studies confirm the
existence of sex work and trafficking within these
seemingly legitimate businesses (Bales and Lize
2005; Hughes 2000; May et al. 2000; Norton-Hawk
2004).
Seven respondents reported using escort services
or other legal structures to function as a front to
facilitate prostitution, such as adult entertainment
agencies, escorting services, and massage parlors.
Respondents were able to manage many
components of their business legally, while
working to conceal the fact that the bulk of profits
were earned through commercial sex. As one
respondent explained, “We filed taxes and opened
a business account … It was an escort service that
allowed for massage and strip tease, but it was the
acts of prostitution that made it illegal. We had
them sign contracts [that included prohibitions
against prostitution], but we turned our heads”
(A8).
Similarly, another respondent explained, “There are certain
lines that police couldn’t cross, so I’d have girls cross the
line, to see [what they did]” (A7). Other respondents felt that
by creating legal businesses to mask illegal activities, they
were less vulnerable to prosecution (see text box).
Respondents also believed that working with minors was the
primary reason that pimps were arrested and incarcerated.
As a result, pimps considered avoiding minors as the best
tactic to avoid arrest. An interviewee explained, “Honestly
you just have to stay away from minors. I’ve never known a
pimp that got in trouble for messing with adults. Law
enforcement focuses on minors” (E2). One pimp reflected on
his conviction and resulting incarceration: “It wasn’t a
question of color or background. The only thing that got me
caught up was the age difference. If I would have known
what I knew now I wouldn’t have had her working for me.
She was 13 but told me she was 18. She looked 18. She
carried every bit of the look of it” (D17). Another respondent
reported, “Now that I sit and think about it, it was risky.
Today’s kids and females grow up so fast that you can’t
determine who is 18 and who is younger. If I wasn’t caught
with an underage girl, I wouldn’t be picked bup” (G15).
The majority of respondents reported that they were aware
of the penalties associated with trafficking minors, and thus
took steps to ensure that their employees were above the age
of 18. Respondents stated that minors sometimes lied about
their age, leading some pimps to ask potential employees for
legal identification. Two pimps noted that it was a red flag if
an individual did not have or had lost legal identification:
“Even when I asked for ID—red flag in pimp game, if she
says ‘I don’t have no ID.’ If she’s 18, you got to have some
Legal business structures provided a sense of
kind of ID to do anything” (D5). Another respondent
security since they functioned under the guise of encountered fake forms of identification: “You got fake IDs.
legality; as a result, legal structures sometimes
You gotta go deeper, birth certificates and everything. If you
made respondents feel that their businesses would trying to go ahead and do this, you gotta believe what she
not come to the attention of law enforcement. says, that’s what I did, went ahead and took the risk. Having
someone younger is riskier. Cause their mind set—if the law
catch ’em, even if you give them directions on what to say
and what to do, they get jittery” (D7). Respondents also
reported incidents in which family members vouched for the age of a minor. One respondent explained,
“This person I was involved with had a fake ID, her mom cosigned for her, her story was accurate with her
mom’s. She was 16” (E2).
As a result, respondents explained that avoiding work with minors was more difficult than simply
requesting identification or attempting to verify age. One respondent reported his experience with a
juvenile, who he witnessed get booked in an adult jail facility, which made him think she was over 18 years
old:
This girl I had on my case, she lied to me for a whole year. She was 16. The first month I
had her she went to jail. I bonded her out on the information she gave me. I didn’t know
you could slip through a jail and be young. I brought this up before my lawyer and in
court. They said, “If you didn’t know she was 18, you should have known she was 18.”
(G3)
While arrest was a central concern for some respondents, other incarcerated pimps stated that they did
not know that their actions carried substantial punitive risks. A respondent explained his belief, “You
146