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.
NYT Summary: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/us/in ... .html?_r=3
A street prostitute in Dallas may make as little as $5 per sex act. But pimps can take in $33,000 a week in Atlanta, where the sex business brings in an estimated $290 million per year. It is not nearly as lucrative in Denver, where prostitution and other elements of an underground trade are worth about $40 million.
Those are some of the findings of a landmark government-sponsored report on the size and structure of the sex economy, including massage parlors, brothels and expensive escort services. The study also found that four in five pimps elect not to deal drugs and that little money trades hands in the child pornography business.
The report does not estimate the size of the illicit sex economy nationwide, instead analyzing the trade as of 2007 in eight cities: Miami, Dallas, Washington, Denver, San Diego, Seattle, Atlanta and Kansas City, Mo.
The report, commissioned by the Justice Department, is intended to address what researchers describe as wide gaps in the understanding of how the underground sex trade works, especially in the Internet age.
...
The study did find pricing was consistent across the country, with $150 an hour the common going rate for prostitution. The age, race and drug use of a sex worker affected the price. Pimps told the interviewers that they could charge more for white women and younger women. But, one said, “Honestly, you just have to stay away from minors.”
“I’ve never known a pimp that got in trouble for messing with adults,” the pimp said. “Law enforcement focuses on minors.”
...
Among the study’s most interesting findings is that the market for child pornography in the United States is small because it is generally traded for free. And most of the people interviewed about their use of child pornography described it as a victimless crime. “It’s like when you’re buying drugs you’re supporting crime or supporting terrorism,” one individual said. “They aren’t getting any money from me to do any bad things or other things.”
