413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

a total of 142 sex traffickers/pimps, 29 child pornographers, and sex workers. See table 2.1 for the
breakdown of interview types by site.
Table 2.1 Interview Type by Site
Pimps/Traffickers
Child
Pornographers
Sex Workers
Denver, CO 7 5 11
Washington, DC 6 3 8
San Diego, CA 17 3 0
Miami, FL 7 3 0
Seattle, WA 3 3 3
Dallas, TX 15 7 6
Kansas City, MO 4 6 0
Atlanta, GA 13 2 8
Oversample 30 1 1 0
TOTAL 73 33 36
In order to maintain offender respondent confidentiality in chapters 5–9, each respondent was assigned
an alpha-numeric code based on the city of arrest. The pimps/traffickers and child pornographer alphanumeric
city codes were separated from the sex worker alpha-numeric city code in order to ensure
confidentiality.
The Evolution of UCSE Estimate
In order to estimate the underground commercial sex economy in the eight sites and address our first two
research questions regarding its operations, we began by considering approaches used to estimate other
underground or illicit economies, such as drug or weapons markets. We determined that these techniques
were not appropriate for our context but sought to adapt them.
To illustrate our general approach, consider the following illustration. Jane and Bob both spend money
only on apples, bananas, and carrots. Jane spent $30 this week and $20 last week, while Bob spent $30
this week and $40 last week. We refer to information such as “This week, Bob spent $15 on bananas” as
absolute information. In contrast, we refer to information such as “This week, Jane spent half as much on
apples as last week” as relative information. We often seek absolute information, but have no available
sources of that information. The key is that with enough relative information, we can determine absolute
numbers.
In other words, with enough sources of relative information, we can say how much money Jane and Bob
each spent on apples and bananas, this week and last week. Because we have two people (Jane and Bob),
three items (apples, bananas, and carrots), and two time periods (this week and last), we need 2 x 3 x 2 =
12 pieces of relative information, as well as how much was spent in total. With enough pieces of relative
information, one can calculate exactly how much Jane or Bob spent on apples, bananas, and carrots each
week.
Our method was an application of this general approach. Suppose that one can estimate the size of the
underground economy 31 as a whole, which will be discussed later in this section. If we assume that this
underground economy includes underground commercial sex, drug, and weapons markets, then we have
three items. We can use relative information on these three items to decompose aggregate spending into
29 Two of the oversample interviews met the criteria of our main sample, with the exception that they were not from one of the eight
main cities. However, since they provided crucial information to understanding the UCSE, we kept them in the qualitative portion of
the study, but they were not included in the estimate.
30 Two respondents who were identified as part of our BOP oversample also disclosed participating in UCSE-related activities. They
were not from one of the eight sites and are not included in the estimate (chapter 3). However their experiences are documented in
the qualitative chapters (chapters 5-9).
31 The underground economy includes all illicit, underground economies—not just commercial sex, drugs, and guns.
16