The authors state that
The underground commercial sex economy (UCSE) generates millions of dollars annually, yet investigation and data collection remain under resourced. Our study aimed to unveil the scale of the UCSE in eight major US cities—Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Miami, Seattle, San Diego, and Washington, DC. Across cities, the UCSE's worth was estimated between $39.9 and $290 million in 2007, but decreased since 2003 in all but two cities. Interviews with pimps, traffickers, sex workers, child pornographers, and law enforcement revealed the dynamics central to the underground commercial sex trade—and shaped the policy suggestions to combat it.They indicate that
In 2010, the National Institute of Justice funded the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center to measure the size and structure of the underground commercial sex economy in eight major US cities. The goals of this study were to: (1) derive a more rigorous estimate of the underground commercial sex economy (UCSE) in eight major US cities and (2) provide an understanding of the structure of this underground economy. To date, no reliable data exist to provide national or state policymakers with a verifiable and detailed understanding of underground commercial sex trade networks or the ways in which these networks interact with one another on the local, state, or interstate level. In addition, there is no information regarding the relationship between the UCSE and the local commercial sex trade or commercial sex activity conducted over the Internet. This study aimed to close the gap in our understanding about the nature and extent of these activities.Their research was guided by four main questions:
1. How large is the underground commercial sex economy in eight major US cities? 2. To what extent are the underground commercial sex, drug, and weapons economies interconnected in the eight major US cities? 3. How do the ties between traffickers within the underground commercial sex economy impact the transportation of sex trafficking victims? 4. What are the network characteristics of the traffickers that operate within the underground commercial sex economy?Data was collected in San Diego, Seattle, Dallas, Denver, Washington, DC, Kansas City, Atlanta, and Miami, with an analysis of existing datasets documenting the market changes for illegal drugs and weapons to measure changes in these markets and estimate the overall size of these markets. The authors measured changes in a series of “proxy” variables, which were assumed to be proportional to underlying activity. Qualitative data was collected through interviews with 119 stakeholders and 142 convicted offenders, including federal/local law enforcement officers, prosecutors, pimps/sex traffickers, sex workers, and child pornographers. Stakeholders and offenders were interviewed about the structure of the UCSE, the profits generated through the UCSE, networking within the UCSE, and changes in the UCSE over time. 
The main findings are as follows -
Sex Trafficking and Sex Work Findings
Estimates of the UCSE in 2007 range from $39.9 to $290 million in the cities included in the study. In five of the seven cities, the size of the UCSE decreased from 2003 to 2007. During the same time period, the underground drug economy increased in five cities and the underground gun economy decreased in three cities, increased in three cities, and remained the same in one city.
In all eight study sites, there appears to be no connection between weapons trafficking and the UCSE. The overlap with drug trafficking varies by UCSE venue. In five of the study sites, gang involvement in sex trafficking and prostitution seems to be increasing. Neither offenders nor law enforcement stakeholders offered concrete evidence of a connection between domestic weapons trafficking and domestic sex trafficking or prostitution. The connection between drug trafficking and the UCSE varies by type of sex venue. 25% of pimp respondents (controlling street and Internet sex work) worked as drug dealers prior to working as pimps, and 18% of respondents continued to deal drugs while they pimped, creating overlap between the profits and networks within each economy. The connections between drug trafficking and indoor commercial sex venues such as brothels and erotic massage parlors are unclear at present and require additional investigation. The involvement of gangs in pimping was cited in five of the eight study sites.
Pimps travel in circuits and utilize social networks to facilitate the transportation of employees to different locations for work. Pimps transported women and girls along circuits that connect different cities with active UCSEs. Law enforcement respondents reported local, statewide, regional, and national circuits. Offenders reported that connections with pimps in other cities helped them stay informed about law enforcement activities and local events that could affect travel decisions.
Pimps and sex workers cited many of the same factors influencing their decision to become involved in the UCSE. Pimps described neighborhood influence, family exposure to sex work, lack of job options, and encouragement from a significant other or acquaintance as critical factors in their decision to engage in the UCSE. Sex worker respondents explained, and previous studies have also established, that street-based sex workers become involved in sex work for similar reasons such as economic necessity, family and peer encouragement, childhood trauma, and social acceptance.
Pimps rely on multiple actors to maintain control over UCSE operations. Individuals already under pimp control play a critical role in recruiting other individuals to engage in the UCSE; friends or family members work as drivers or provide security; and complicit legal businesses often enable sex trafficking operations. Though pimps can operate without the support of additional actors, their assistance often helps pimps expand their operations, maintain tighter control over their employees, and avoid law enforcement detection.
Different forms of coercion and fraud are used by pimps to recruit, manage, and retain control over employees. These forms include feigning romantic interest, emphasizing mutual dependency between pimp and employee, discouraging women from “having sex for free,” and promising material comforts. These methods are relatively advanced; for example, pimps reported adjusting their recruitment methods in response to their observations regarding the personal needs, experience, and vulnerabilities of the individuals they intend to recruit.
While pimps have varying levels of knowledge regarding law enforcement tactics and sentencing surrounding sex trafficking, offenders believed that pimping was less risky than other crimes, including drug trafficking. Though the majority of respondents stated that arrest is the foremost “risk” of pimping, they also routinely reported that they believed pimping was less risky than other crimes.
The widespread availability and rapid expansion of the Internet has redefined the spatial and social limitations of the sex market by introducing new markets for both recruitment and advertisement. Findings from this study corroborate extant literature on the expansion of Internet use to facilitate sex work. Offenders reported new marketing opportunities for pimps to connect with both recruits and clientele, including online classifieds, social media, and networking websites.
Although interviews with offenders did not uncover elements of organized crime, interviews with law enforcement suggest that the level of “organized crime” and degree of criminal network involvement varies by UCSE venue. Stakeholders and offenders described pimps that primarily facilitate street and Internet sex work as networked socially, rather than through traditional organized crime structures. Higher levels of organized crime were suspected by law enforcement within erotic massage parlors, strip clubs, and brothels, although these suspicions remain largely unconfirmed.
Findings suggest that the cases of pimping and sex trafficking investigated and prosecuted in the United States represent only a small fraction of the UCSE. Across sites, criminal justice stakeholders felt the UCSE was much larger than they were able to investigate, due to resource constraints, political will, or lack of public awareness about the prevalence of UCSE crimes. Multiple offenders expressed the sentiment that “no one actually gets locked up for pimping.”
Child Pornography Findings
Child pornography is an escalating problem and has become increasingly graphic with younger victims. Both stakeholders and offenders incarcerated on child pornography charges described a growing number of individuals viewing online child pornography. Both stakeholders and offenders pointed to increasingly graphic content, often featuring violent acts against infants and toddlers.
Child pornography is an international crime that transcends real and virtual borders. Child pornography is a crime that has become global in scope, particularly with the advent of the Internet. Through technology and the Internet, individuals can now download, trade, and produce child pornography with anyone in the world, anytime during the day, seven days a week, which may help offenders elude detection. Sex tourism was also cited by stakeholders interviewed for this study as an international problem that is growing in both scope and scale.
Child pornography is easy to access online and requires little technological savvy to download. Law enforcement officials and child pornography offenders unanimously agreed that the Internet has made child pornography extremely accessible and that individuals need very little technological knowledge to not only download but also trade child pornography content.
Many child pornography offenders want treatment. Inmates incarcerated on child pornography charges frequently described their relationship with child pornography as an addiction or sickness. They highlighted the paucity of treatment options within prison, which are only available at certain facilities for inmates close to release.
Child pornography is commonly considered a victimless crime by child pornographers who do not commit contact offenses. The majority of individuals interviewed for this study who were incarcerated for non-contact child pornography offenses (possession and distribution) claimed to never have engaged in contact offenses with children. Therefore, they believed their crime was “victimless” since they were downloading and/or trading the images—not producing new content.
For offenders, the prevalence of online child pornography communities reinforces and normalizes child pornography offenses. Many of the offenders interviewed were members of online child pornography communities. These communities allow them to be around like-minded individuals, share child pornography content, and discuss their fantasies, which may or may not involve first-hand contact with children. Online child pornography communities also allow individuals to communicate with one another under a cloak of anonymity.
Due to resource limitations, the least technologically savvy offenders are most likely to be detected. Both stakeholders and inmates incarcerated on child pornography charges described a variation in collecting behavior and networking levels across Internet child pornography offenders. While some offenders are technologically sophisticated, sharing strategies to evade law enforcement within structured trading networks, other offenders described themselves as “point and click,” using rudimentary methods to download, store, and share child pornography.
Policy and Practice Implications
The current findings expand our knowledge about the size and structure of the underground commercial sex economy. Further, the findings have implications for policy and practice:
- All states and DC should mandate training to ensure that law enforcement is equipped with the knowledge necessary to identify and pursue cases of human trafficking.
- All states and DC should develop human trafficking task forces or bodies to help coordinate law enforcement strategies statewide.
- All states should include fraud and coercion in their definitions of sex trafficking, and enact statutes that invite broad interpretations of fraud and coercion that include subtle, non-physical forms used to manipulate victims.
- All states and DC should allow law enforcement to use wiretaps to investigate human trafficking offenses.
- Federal law should require that trafficking hotlines are posted on websites hosting service advertisements, including Craigslist.com and Backpage.com. All states and DC should similarly mandate that local newspapers hosting classified advertisements post trafficking hotline information.
- Additional resources should be made available to local and state law enforcement agencies to maintain consistent and visible law enforcement attention to sex trafficking and pursue investigations.
- Cities and counties should address sex trafficking as a complex problem that requires a systemwide response, and schools, law enforcement, and social service agencies must work collaboratively to combat sex trafficking in their communities. Prevention campaigns must ensure that both boys and girls are educated about the role of force, fraud, coercion, and exploitation in sex trafficking.
- In coordination with prosecutors, law enforcement trainings should focus on both victim and offender interview techniques to identify signs of fraud and coercion. Local and federal prosecutors, law enforcement, and judges should be trained on the evidence necessary to prove fraud and coercion according to the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act standards and the legal standards of state human trafficking laws.
- Investigative techniques used to uncover organized crime, drug trafficking, and gangs should be adopted to better uncover the level of organized crime within all forms of the UCSE. Cross-training of narcotics, gang, and prostitution/sex trafficking investigators should be developed and promoted.
- Steps should be taken to increase law enforcement racial, ethnic, and gender diversity, and recruit individuals with fluency in languages spoken by suspected offenders and victims in the local UCSE.
- Authorities in countries where child pornography is being produced, traded, and downloaded, and where sex tourism is occurring, not only need to cooperate with one another but also need to make this issue a priority. One way to accomplish this is by developing and enforcing memoranda of understandings between the United States and other countries which detail how these offenders will be identified and who will be in charge of the investigation and prosecution.
- Accessible treatment is a vital part of the solution to combat child pornography. Though resources are available for online child pornography behavior, they are not well publicized in the United States.
- Child pornography laws need to be strengthened so that individuals who facilitate or host online child pornography content and communities are held criminally responsible for their actions.
- Due to constantly evolving technology, more resources should be invested in law enforcement to stay up to date on new methods. Additionally, the criminal justice system should properly distinguish between low-level and serious child pornography offenders.
