413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

while another respondent described how her pimp would attempt to keep her working strenuous hours in
order to make himself money (J1).
Sex workers who decided not to use pimps explained that they were not necessary to make lucrative
returns from the sex trade, with one respondent explaining “[Pimps] can’t do anything I can’t do for
myself” (J4). Several respondents report being approached or recruited by pimps, but ultimately turning
them down.
None of the transgender respondents in our sample had ever been approached by a pimp, which the
respondents attributed to their gender identity. As one respondent explained, “They never tried to recruit
me to work for them. I never had anyone [pimps] ask me to work for them because they knew that
transgenders don’t put up with nonsense, foolishness; we’re more mature than that” (L1). Many of these
respondents discussed the presence of “sponsors” in their lives, who were their regular clients and
ultimately made pimping irrelevant to their work.
Summary
The 36 respondents represented in this study provide an in-depth understanding of the diversity of sex
worker experiences in the United States’ underground commercial sex market. The respondents came
from a variety of demographic backgrounds, worked in a diverse set of commercial sex locations, and
engaged in sex work at different points in their lives and for different reasons. The respondents shared
several commonalities, including their dependence on sex work for economic reasons and their
perspective on potential health, client, and law enforcement risks. Two greater trends—the emergence of
crack cocaine in the mid-1980s and the Internet in the late 1990s—significantly changed the nature and
structure of sex work in the United States. Respondents described the emergence of crack cocaine as an
epidemic during the 1980s and 1990s as negatively impacting working conditions, prices, and interactions
with clients and law enforcements.
The emergence of the Internet as a tool to arrange dates was a significant development—the experiences
of online- and street-based sex workers diverged in terms of client engagement, perceived risks, and
pricing structures, although few sex workers worked exclusively online. Ultimately, while the experiences
of sex workers over the past several decades have been varied in nature, the emergence of larger structural
forces impacted the majority of respondents.
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