413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

connected through the same gang. There are more and more gang members involved in this, but I’m not
sure why. Probably more money I guess. [There are] different gangs working together. Bloods and Crips
were working together. That was weird. It was just around this that they got along, but when business was
over, [it was] ‘I hate you’” (E1). While new business relationships between gang rivals developed, old
tensions remained outside of the sex market.
Law Enforcement Attention
News stories within the past few years have focused on the shift from prosecuting sex workers to
prosecuting the clients, pimps, and traffickers involved in the UCSE (Buettner 2012). Many of these
reports provide anecdotal accounts from prosecutors, law enforcement, pimps, and sex workers about the
disparity in punishing commercial sex that has traditionally fallen on the sex worker. Now, a reported
shift in the priority of criminality has occurred across district attorney and lawmaking officers across the
country, with the penalties for pimping and trafficking becoming harsher and the consequences for
prostitution, especially that of minors, lessening (Grady 2008; Valley 2012).
Some study interviews corroborated these reports, and respondents observed a changing landscape of risk
surrounding the facilitation of sex work. Pimps believed that law enforcement has ramped up efforts to
arrest and prosecute offenders. When asked if he felt his work was risky, one pimp responded, “Now
Yeah. Back then No” (E13). Respondents also took note of the fact that many pimps are being charged
with sex trafficking, which interviewees had historically interpreted as a crime separate and apart from
pimping. One respondent reported, “I felt that the [pimping] arrest was a misdemeanor. I never thought
taking a chick from across the street [was sex trafficking]. All of us have the fear of trafficking [charges].
You didn’t start seeing it until the 2000s” (C4). Other pimps also demonstrated an increasing familiarity
with sex trafficking laws for pimps; one respondent would send his employees on work-related travel
without him, another respondent reported that his greatest work-related fear was to “get caught taking
girls across state lines” (D4). When asked how he knew that crossing state lines involved heightened
punitive risk, he responded “I watch the news. People be talking, I listen” (D4). These findings suggest
that media attention to sex trafficking has had some impact perpetrator interpretations of risk.
Chapter Summary
Pimps employed multiple operational tools and business practices to manage and market their businesses
on a day-to-day basis. Through the analysis of interview data with 73 respondents, this chapter provided
insight into these daily operations. While respondents reported substantial variance, common advertising
techniques, communication strategies, pricing structures, and operational costs were found. In addition,
respondents shared similar strategies regarding money management and the use of legal business
structures to bolster illegal and underground activities.
As previous chapters have observed, the widespread use of the Internet has triggered substantial changes
in the ways that pimps manage their business operations. Advertisements have moved from the street to
the Internet. Increasingly, pimps and their employees initially engage with customers online. In turn,
many of the spatial limitations that once governed the UCSE have been lifted; customers that may not
have ventured to their city’s track for commercial sex are able to connect to pimps and their employees
through the anonymity of Internet chat rooms and online classifieds. At the same time that the Internet
has introduced new opportunities to connect pimps with customers, technological advancements have
also brought new opportunities for law enforcement detection. As communications between pimps, their
employees, and customers increasingly move online or through text message, each transaction is
documented, becoming a possible piece of evidence. Some respondents thus saw the Internet as a doubleedged
sword, introducing both new opportunities and new hazards.
Beyond the increasing role of the Internet in recruiting employees and advertising sex, respondents
observed other changes to the market over time. With few exceptions, respondents felt that law
enforcement efforts surrounding pimping and sex trafficking have increased in recent years. In addition,
respondents observed that more youth have become involved in the UCSE as both facilitators and sex
workers. Finally, respondents noted the growing involvement of gangs in the facilitation and control of
sex market activities.
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