Sex Market Facilitators’ Social Networks: Description and Relationship to Coercive Tactics

• In Event: Human Trafficking: Victim Compensation, Forced Criminality, and Responsible Interventions

Abstract

This study describes sex market facilitators' (SMFs’) social networks and examines how their social networks are related to their economic and interpersonal coerciveness toward sex workers. Empirical studies have found that the nature of social networks contributed to persistence in illicit gun selling (Papachristos, Meares & Fagan, 2012) and juvenile delinquency (Giordano, Cernkovich & Rudolph, 2002). We interviewed 183 SMFs in Chicago and New York City. Our findings suggest that the social networks of those who quit versus those who persisted were similar, and this is counter to the idea that deviant networks contribute to persistence in deviant behavior. Similarities and differences in the density and deviance of social support are also examined across participants’ gender identity and sexual orientation and site location. We found when participants’ social networks had multiple members who were previously arrested, they were more likely to be economically coercive (i.e., taking over 80% of their profits). Social support indicators, however, did not predict being physically violent or untruthful with sex workers. Implications for social learning theory and the role of SMFs’ social network in their persistence and management strategies will be discussed.

Authors

• Amber Horning Ruf, University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Loretta J. Stalans, Loyola University Chicago

• Mena Whalen, Loyola University Chicago