Understanding Pimps’ Relationships with Prostituted and Non-prostituted Women: Origins, Love, and Coercion

• In Event: Relationships in the Context of Sex Work

Abstract

Research indicates that familial, peer, and intimate relationships contribute to the immersion into and the persistence or desistance from offending (Sampson & Laub, 2003). Relationship influences can occur through direct and indirect cognitive persuasion or through emotional bonds with others. Pimps and sex offenders in general, might use relationship schemas to manage their relationships with prostitutes and non-prostituted women. Relationship schemas contain beliefs about the roles in the relationship, the abilities of women, the coercive or supportive strategies, and the nature of emotional bonds; schemas allow pimps to make decisions swiftly and effectively with minimal cognitive effort. Qualitative interviews with pimps in Chicago and Atlanta (N = 82) will be coded to examine the emotional bonds, coercive strategies, and cognitive beliefs toward their prostituted women, non-prostituted women, and family, and their plans to continue or desist in pimping. Preliminary coding indicates that a significant proportion of pimps also have served as clients of prostitutes and have also worked as prostitutes. Variations in their relationship schemas will be examined across these background measures: how they entered pimping, length of time in pimping, their roles in the sex industry, and conventional or non-conventional neighborhood context, and their ties to conventional others.

Authors

• Loretta J. Stalans, Loyola University, Chicago

• Mary A. Finn, Georgia State University