413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

money. I took care of who took care of me. It was a good relationship, if you chose to
prostitute then you’d choose to be with the person that treated you the best. (G7)
A male pimp made a similar observation:
There is a term we use, “It only takes one.” That’s basically, once a prostitute chooses you
because of the way you act or the way you are seen, you don’t really have to do much else.
You can get rich off her. The way you treat her is the way other females are recruited into
the fold. I used the hands off approach. My mom came from an abusive relationship, and
I’ve always been taught you don’t put your hands on girls. There are other ways to get
what you want. I’ve always been a big dude. My momma told me, “If you’re gonna be big,
you’re gonna be fly doing it.” (E11)
Emphasizing the importance of reputation, respondents often openly discussed their work with
prospective employees. As one pimp explained, “I just found out that lying to people didn’t work, just
telling people straight up. They would ask ‘What do you do for a living’ I’d just tell them straight up”
(A7). Another respondent stated, “If you always tell the truth, can’t say nothing about you. If you tell the
truth, they’ll accept you no matter what. Other dudes smoke, beat them up, [and women] still do it for
them. If you tell the truth, they can’t say nothing about you” (E10). Respondents also reported simply
creating circumstances to make women feel more comfortable about or interested in sex work. One
respondent explained his approach, while acknowledging that it was a form of manipulation:
Recruitment was not what I was doing every day; I wasn’t looking for females to turn out
for me … there would just be certain people who would ask what I did. I’d say, “‘I’m a
pimp.” They’d be like, “Stop playing.” I was like, “No, I am. Do you want to get down” I’d
bring three or four other women so they would feel comfortable, and they would think,
“Oh, well it must be ok.” Manipulation is ok. (A7)
Building a reputation as a pimp was particularly important for recruiting women that were already
engaged in sex work. As one respondent noted, “Most of them know what I did. They chose to be out there
doing it on their own, and happened to see me or one of my girls and chose up” (G3). Other respondents
similarly expressed passive roles in the recruitment process:
Actually, I didn’t recruit. Because it was prostitution, and prostitution is a way of life, a
subculture, I didn’t have to solicit females. They came because of the lifestyle they chose
to live. And people recommended if they want to prostitute, you need to be with him, he’ll
look after you. (G7)
While not all respondents proactively recruited women, they discouraged individuals from independently
engaging in sex work by stressing the “need” for a pimp to provide protection within the UCSE. To some
respondents, a pimp’s reputation was critical to attract employees.
Women in Recruitment
As the section above indicates, women who were already selling sex under the control of a pimp often
played an instrumental role in promoting the business to prospective employees. In some cases, pimps
reported that employees would use their own social networks to recruit: “The girls who worked for me
would get their friends and bring them to me” (F6). Another pimp explained, “In the lifestyle … what
happens is a lot of girls meet girls who are doing the same thing they’re doing. Then they become cool and
say, ‘Why don’t you come be with me and my dude That way we can stay close and work together’” (E3).
Women also took a more direct and intentional role in recruitment. One pimp explained how recruitment
was managed entirely by his bottom: “[My bottom] did [the recruitment]. She would go to lesbian clubs.
She’ll be on the party grind … I act like I be selling dope and say ‘I want her.’ She’ll go sell dope to a dude,
and get at the girl [with him] on the low” (E11). Employees were able to help male pimps more covertly
approach individuals, a fact that was also noted by female pimps. A female offender described how her
past experience as a sex worker informed her recruitment method once she started her own business:
I always ask if they have folks—that means, “Do you have a pimp Are you currently
working for someone” You hear they’re working for such and such, you ask how they like
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