Study Cites Internet Ads as Source of Pimp Referrals; Suit Targets Backpage.com
A new study based on interviews with 25 former madams and pimps finds that the Internet is a common source of referrals, as are bartenders, hotel bellmen and cabdrivers.
The study was released at the same time as a new lawsuit targeting a website owned by Village Voice Media. The suit claims backpage.com knowingly allowed a 14-year-old girl’s pimp to post prostitution ads online, the Associated Press reports. The suit, filed in federal court in St. Louis, does not identify the girl, who became a prostitute after running away from home.
Robert Pedroli, the lawyer for the girl, told AP that online providers often aren’t liable under the Communications Decency Act for content posted by others. He says his suit argues that websites like backpage.com provide a safe house for pimps and customers, and they are aware of the online prostitution.
The new study (PDF), co-authored by a DePaul law school researcher, was based on interviews with 25 former madams and pimps, and found that 68 percent of them had been prostituted before turning to pimping, a press release reports. The pimps’ average age when they first prostituted themselves was 15. The overwhelming majority suffered physical abuse and physical assault growing up, and 60 percent had family members involved in prostitution.
Their annual earnings as pimps ranged from $150,000 to $500,000; others also shared in the wealth. “Pimps said they shared profits with a host of other actors,” the study said, “including lawyers and doctors, but also bellmen, hotel clerks, bartenders and cab drivers, all of whom were regularly paid for referring customers.” Sixty percent of the pimps said they paid off police officers. Gangs earned as much as $2,000 a week.
The study was co-authored by Jody Raphael, senior research fellow at the Schiller DuCanto & Fleck Family Law Center at the DePaul University College of Law, and prostitution survivor Brenda Myers-Powell.
“A common attitude pervades these interviews: pimping helped them regain a sense of missing power, but it also helped make amends; they were now getting paid for something that in the past had been taken from them,” the study says. “In running their lucrative small businesses, they believed they had the upper hand over the customers, who were seen as greedy suckers. And lastly, they saw support for the sex trade industry through various strata of society.”
