413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

Street
Street-based commercial sex activity occurs in Denver, although officials reported that the advent of the
Internet decreased the number of individuals marketing themselves outside. The street-based commercial
sex market includes both prostitution and sex trafficking. However, officials reported that the majority of
the street-based market is comprised of drug-addicted women in prostitution, with no presence/control of
a pimp. Given the link between street-based prostitution and drug addiction in Denver, prices charged for
prostitution are tied to the prices for crack cocaine and heroin. As a result, current prices charged for
sexual services (oral sex to intercourse) are around $20 to $40 from an individual soliciting on the street.
Compared to Denver’s other venues of the UCSE, the street-based market had the lowest prices. One
experienced law enforcement official described the diversity of customers of street-based prostitution:
The clientele on the street is as diverse as you could ever imagine, from religious people to
pro athletes to cops to judges. It is almost a crime of opportunity. Guys are driving down
[street name] and they will see a prostitute and they figure for $20 they can get [oral sex].
And so it will just pull random people in. Sometimes they are chronic offenders and other
times they are really just the one-time people. You will pop them and they will say, “I have
never done this before” and sure enough you pull up their record and they have never
done it before. (Denver Law Enforcement Official)
Internet/Escort Services
The Internet and smart phones have caused a shift in the market for underground commercial sex,
specifically sex trafficking. Denver law enforcement officials noted that as they have seen a decrease in the
street market for prostitution, they have seen an increase in the number of escort service advertisements
on websites such as Backpage.com and through local weekly newspapers (online and in print). Child sex
trafficking cases are primarily uncovered through investigations into escort services. Adult women have
also been sex trafficked through escort services.
Denver stakeholders believed that the Internet is used by pimps to exploit children and adults for a variety
of reasons. First and foremost, online advertising provides more of a cover from law enforcement than the
street. Second, the Internet enables pimps to advertise to a broader range of potential customers. Third, it
allows a level of marketing that can hide the nature of the enterprise, whether through marketing children
as adults or presenting women as individuals voluntarily involved in prostitution. Prices charged for
adults and children advertised through escort services are higher than drug-addicted women working in
prostitution on the street. Prices tend to average between $100 and $300 per hour, but can be much
higher. One official reported that women and children exploited through escort services in Denver have
been required to service an average of five customers per day, but that it can be higher depending on the
pimp. Customers of escort services were described as the more chronic offenders:
They are different because they kind of know what they are looking for. They generally
have done it or rather used the escort services before or have prostitution arrests in the
past. They know how to surf the web; they know what female attributes they are looking
for, like nationalities. They are savvier to the system. (Denver Law Enforcement Official)
Traffickers behind escort services are both domestic and foreign national men and women and range from
individuals to larger organized criminal enterprises, including gangs. As one law enforcement official
noted, while reflecting on the characteristics of traffickers in cases uncovered in Denver:
Respondent: For pimps they come in every shape, size, and color. We’ve arrested pimps
that are 50-year-old Chinese women, we’ve arrested pimps that are 20-year-old black
men. I would say in terms of controlling a couple girls or a smaller pimping or
prostitution ring, we do see a lot of black males, I’m not so much … I don’t think it has
anything to do with race, I think it has more to do with idea of … you could can get into
whole socioeconomic discussion of it, I think that being in prison, being in the system,
whether it’s already dealing drugs or being involved in gangs, there’s easier access and
understanding to the street life and kids and understanding of what the game is and how
to make money doing it … They are always usually very charismatic … but you know more
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