413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

of the underground commercial sex economy in the eight US cities; law enforcement’s understanding and
involvement in addressing the underground commercial sex economy; the pathways and risks involved in
pimping and trafficking; the network characteristics of pimping and sex trafficking; the business structure
and methods involved in running an underground commercial sex business; the role of technology and
networking in child pornography; and how the underground commercial sex economy has changed over
time from the perspectives of sex workers. Finally, chapter 10 provides overall conclusions and
implications of the study’s findings on policy and practice.
Background on the Prevalence of Human Trafficking in the
United States
A commercial sex act is defined by NIJ as any sex act in exchange for which anything of value is given to
or received by any person (e.g., prostitution). 6 Underground commercial sex acts are those acts that state
and/or federal law have deemed illegal. 7 Such acts include adult prostitution, sex trafficking of adults and
children, 8 and child pornography. 9 Unlawful commercial sex acts overlap with sex trafficking when
participation occurs by means of force, fraud, or coercion, or the commercial sex act involves a child
under the age of 18.
Although numerous studies and reports examine human trafficking in the United States, reliable
empirical research about the phenomenon is limited. A review of over 700 sources in the literature on
human trafficking found that less than half (46 percent) contained empirical research (Gozdziak and
Bump 2008) and only 12 percent of this research was peer-reviewed. Although the deficiencies of existing
estimates of human trafficking are well documented (Government Accountability Office 2006), few
attempts have been made to use other sources of data and research to study the prevalence of trafficking
in the United States.
In 2006, Caliber Associates developed an estimate of the number of individuals in eight countries who
were at risk of being trafficked into the United States; however, the study did not account for victims
trafficked domestically/internally (Clawson, Layne, and Small 2006). They found that in order for sound
estimates to be generated using statistical approaches, the field needed to collect systematic data on
trafficking victimization.
In “Finding Victims of Human Trafficking,” researchers at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC)
conducted surveys of law enforcement, prosecutors, and victim service providers in 60 US counties and
case reviews of potential human trafficking cases in a subset of counties. Researchers were unable to
provide an estimate of trafficking victims and potential victims of both labor and sex trafficking due to a
lack of systematic recordkeeping and a lack of awareness about human trafficking and anti-trafficking
laws, but did conclude that commercial sex economies are concentrated in large urban areas and span a
variety of venues, including escort services, massage parlors, Internet advertisements, and street-based
prostitution. However, without systematic data, they could not estimate the number of cases (Newton,
Mulcahy, and Martin 2008).
In 2009, researchers at Northeastern University, Abt Associates, and the Urban Institute assessed and
analyzed data from 207 identified technical reports, published studies, and scholarly articles that included
6 https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/sl000887.pdf (see page 4).
7 Underground commercial sex acts do not include adult pornography and adult stripping, both considered part of the legal
commercial sex economy.
8 Sex trafficking involves the “recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for the purpose of” a
commercial sex act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person forced to perform
such an act is under the age of eighteen” a forced or coerced sex act (TVPA 2000, Section 103, 8a).
9 Debate exists over whether child pornography is a form of sex trafficking (see Small et al. 2008). Since the TVPA states that a
“commercial sex act” requires an exchange of value (i.e., drugs or money), it is questionable whether pornography is in all cases a
form of human trafficking. For the purposes of our research, we will categorize child pornography as distinct from child sex
trafficking.
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