Quitting the Sex Trade: Pimps and Sex Workers and their Various Forms of Exiting

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

This panel focuses on why and how sex workers and pimps quit the sex trade. There is extensive literature on ‘desistance’ or veering off the ‘bad’ path with different theoretical frameworks explaining why people quit crime (see Bowen, 2013; Giardano, Cernkovich & Rudolph, 2002; Laub & Sampson, 2001; Månsson & Hedlin, 1999; Maruna, 2009; Oselin, 2010; Paternoster & Bushway, 2009; Sampson & Laub, 1993; Sanders, 2006 & 2007). Quitting and desisting are not synonymous. The presentations in this panel will address desistance, but also different forms of stopping on the spectrum of quitting. This spectrum of quitting includes consciously making an effort to stop to taking a break or drifting (see Matza, 1969; Bowen, 2009) to yo-yo’ing or going back and forth (Sanders, 2007) to retiring. Periods of quitting may be incited through events, such as an interaction with the criminal justice system (this sometimes includes forced quitting) or added life commitments or changes (Oselin, 2010). Understanding accounts of quitting the sex trade may give insight into the meaning of this work, how people in the sex trade view their engagement in licit/illicit spheres and it also may inform providers who interface with people from these communities.

Sub Unit

• Area V. Types of Offending / 24. Human Trafficking

Individual Presentations

• Commitments to Sex Work: An Exploration of Intersectionalities - Amalia Paladino, The Graduate Center, John Jay College / CUNY

• Fixing Broken Women: Examining the New York Anti-Trafficking Courts’ Mission to Reform Prostitution - Claudia Horning Cojocaru, The Graduate Center, John Jay College / CUNY

• Reconciling Selves: Pimps’ Plans to Desist and Their Neutralizations of Managing Sex Workers - Loretta J. Stalans, Loyola University Chicago; Mary Finn, Michigan State University

• Exit from The Game: Ex-Pimps and Desistance in the U.S.A - Holly Davis, The University of Edinburgh

• Retired Pimps’ Reflections on Quitting - Amber Horning Ruf, University of Massachusetts, Lowell; Sara Jordeno, Marymount Manhattan College

Discussant

• Anthony Marcus, The Graduate Center, John Jay College / CUNY