Citation

Savoie-Gargiso I, Morselli C. Criminologie (Montr) 2013; 46(1): 243-268.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Presses de l'Université de Montréal)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The study focuses on the roles, interactions, and resource exchange process at the core of a prostitution network. The analysis illustrates how pimps and prostitutes contribute in different ways to a common network. Such an exchange system becomes the basis for understanding the structure of order and control within the network. This approach allows us to examine how prostitutes are not mere subordinates to pimps and, in many ways, occupy key positions and roles of privilege within the overall network. Thus, whereas the traditional focus on pimp and prostitute networks has maintained that pimps generally have complete control over prostitutes, our study demonstrates how prostitutes may control how others control them. The data for this study is based on electronic surveillance transcripts that were intercepted during a law-enforcement investigation that targeted the network under analysis. After demonstrating how the network was structured and how both pimps and prostitutes maintained key positions therein, a conversational analysis of all relevant telephone calls that were intercepted over a two-year period is pursued.

RESULTS demonstrate that the roles that prostitutes occupy in the network and the resources that they contribute make them vital participants in the overall structure of order. Analysis of such positions, roles, and resource sharing reveal the competitive environment that prostitutes create against one another and their indispensable value to the network beyond the evident servicing of clients. Such findings and insights are relevant for sex and human trafficking settings as well as general contexts of criminal networking. (English)


Keywords: Human trafficking