Woman pullers: pimping and sex trafficking in a Mexican Border City

Abstract

Much has been written about sex trafficking in the past decade, although empirical studies have remained few. Even less research has been done on those who make a living by facilitating the movement of women and children in the sex industry. This paper is based on a three-year study in Tijuana, Mexico, in which 92 sex trade facilitators were interviewed. Findings suggest a far more complex social process than portrayed by the anti-trafficking literature. Men and women of diverse backgrounds developed niches in Tijuana's sex industry, by bringing women into contact with customers. This business appeared to be dominated by Mexican entrepreneurs, with no evidence of any systematic collaborations with either local criminal organizations or foreign traffickers. There appeared to be no shortage of women willing to work in the sex industry, suggesting limited prospect for coerced prostitution. Still, a small number of pimps reported using "persuasion" to recruit women of particular types from interior Mexico. Commissions or referral fees were the most common form of income received by pimps for their services, and the rules on how money was to be made and split between sex workers and venue owners appeared well established. While a few respondents could sustain a livelihood through pimping, the majority held other jobs.

Brokers and the Earnings of Female Sex Workers in India

“…However, the high overlap inhibits comparison between multiple measures and we cannot be certain our results generalize to FSWs with brokers who did not collect money from the last client. Consistent with other research (Marcus et al 2014;Sanders et al 2009;Zhang 2011), there is heterogeneity among brokers. For example, a few interviewees distinguished between kinds of brokers.…”

“…Because the sample demonstrates considerable heterogeneity, Rajahmundry likely captures much of the diversity of sex work that can be found in India and other developing countries (Biradavolu et al 2009;Blankenship et al 2008;George et al 2010;Kotiswaran 2008;Sahni, Shankar, and Apte 2008). That said, Rajahmundry is likely different from large metropolitan centers in developing countries, such as Mumbai, which have closer connections to the global economy and tourism (Zhang 2011;Zheng 2009 colleagues (2009:1542) estimate there were approximately 1,500 FSWs in the area at the time of the first survey. In our sample, less than a quarter of FSWs can read or write, their average age was 31, about two-thirds were separated/divorced/widowed, and they had an average of 1.8 children (see Table A1 in the Appendix).…”

Prostitución de menores en locales registrados en México

“…Ellas fueron víctimas de explotación sexual y rehusaban admitir a menores. Sin embargo, como ha sido señalado en otros estudios (Orchard 2007;Katsulis 2010;zhang 2011;Sano 2012;Marcus et al 2014;Montgomery 2014Montgomery y 2015 resulta creíble la idea de que algunas menores constreñidas por una combinación de vulnerabilidades puedan ser a la vez víctimas y agentes autónomos que buscan empleos en establecimientos de comercio sexual.…”

The trafficking of women and girls in Taiwan: characteristics of victims, perpetrators, and forms of exploitation

“…The empirical support for the legal discourse is, however, limited. In Zhang’s study of pimping in a Mexican border city, no evidence was found for systematic collaboration of these pimps with criminal organizations [21]. Among the 92 pimps interviewed, most of them worked alone and had other jobs besides pimping.…”

“…Some argue that HT is an underground economy which is dominated by male perpetrators. In Zhang’s study of Mexican border city pimps, 83.7% are male [21]. Siegel and de Blank also reported that 81% of the HT suspects registered to the Netherlands in 2004 were men [22].…”