Pimp Control and Violence: Domestic Sex Trafficking of Chicago Women and Girls

Global Human Trafficking and Child Victimization

“…21,23,32,73 Studies of adult populations are also helpful inasmuch as adult women involved in sex work were often recruited as juveniles and continue to experience some of the same hardships as sex-trafficked youth. 69,74 In 1 study of prostitution in 9 countries, 32% to 68% of women engaged in prostitution began sex work as minors. 75 The lack of research on male victims of trafficking may indirectly support the cultural belief that boys cannot be victimized and may exacerbate the problem of underrecognition.…”

Victim or Whore: The Similarities and Differences between Victim's Experiences of Domestic Violence and Sex Trafficking

“…Regardless of the avenue in which they are sold, having sex outside the primary relationship (with their pimp or trafficker) is essential to their role in that relationship. Mitchell, et al (2009) report that minor victims of trafficking may see between 1 and 40 clients per week, and adult victims have reported seeing an average of 10 clients (or as many as 40) per day (Raphael, et al, 2010). It is difficult to estimate the length of time these victims engage such a high number of clients, but given the economic motivation for traffickers, it is essential to see this aspect of a trafficking victim's experience as something that should be specifically addressed.…”

“…A majority of trafficked women and girls report that the money they made engaging in prostitution was taken from them. They describe other forms of economic exploitation that pimps/traffickers utilize to maintain control, including threatening to kick them out of the home, providing drugs to encourage addiction (or withholding drugs from them), and claiming a victim is indebted to the trafficker after providing them with food, clothing, or gifts (Raphael, et al, 2010). While many of these forms of economic exploitation may occur in domestic violence and other abusive relationships, they are inextricably tied to sex trafficking relationships.…”

Overcoming barriers to services for domestic adult female sex trafficking victims in Georgia

“…Raphael, Reichert, and Powers (2010) revealed that violence is the initial method of control. Over time, the mechanism of control often changes to drug addiction, which causes the victims to be dependent on their pimps/traffickers for supply.…”

“…Many trafficked children do not think of their traffickers as perpetrators because, in some instances, they are their parents or close relatives (Roe-Sepowitz et al, 2014). Raphael et al (2010) argued that domestic female victims who experience these methods of coercion should be treated as victims of human trafficking.…”