Slave Next Door (19 page)

demand exists, and it is vast. Rachel Lloyd, director of Girls Educational

and Mentoring Service (GEMS), which offers shelter and direction to

sexually exploited girls, says, “A girl or woman might belong to five, or

maybe even ten pimps over the course of a few years; but how many

men have had her in that time? For every twenty kids out there every

night, there are maybe thousands of johns.”

Who are the men who pay for sex, often with enslaved women and

children? They go by several euphemistic names, but for the sake of this

discussion we’ll call them “johns.” They are ubiquitous and have been

for thousands of years. According to Rachel Lloyd, “There seems to be

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an unspoken understanding that men have the right to buy sex. The gov-

ernment wants to believe this, despite the fact that the law forbids it.

Remember, men in public positions have private flaws.”16 Consider all

the sex scandals surrounding our celebrities and officials, says Lois Lee.

“When the mayor of Syracuse is caught trying to buy sex from a fifteen-

year-old girl, or a famous movie star’s name appears on the client list of

a Hollywood brothel, the news is often met with a wink and a nod. It’s

just guys being guys.”17

Whatever the cultural and political ambivalence, the “Pretty

Woman” scenario happens only in the movies. There is no similarity

between a smiling, carefree Julia Roberts and a serially raped thirteen-

year-old girl, forced into service to a gorilla pimp, with no choices and

no exits but one. And let’s face it: most johns are not Richard Gere. Not

only is the “It’s-not-such-a-bad-life” message spread in the media falla-

cious; it stands directly in the path of the public understanding the real-

ities of “the life.”

Still, according to the sociologist Ronald Weitzer, not all johns are

ruthless villains: “As in other moral crusades, the perpetrators are pre-

sented as ‘folk devils.’ Customers are labeled ‘sexual predators’ that

brutalize women.” Weitzer quotes Michael Horowitz, senior fellow at

the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the conservative Hudson

Institute and an acknowledged leader in the antiprostitution campaign:

“We want to drive a stake through the heart of these venal criminals.

This is pure evil.”18 However, Weitzer points out, “Research on cus-

tomers cautions against sweeping characterizations and generalizations.

Customers vary in their background characteristics, motivation, and

behavior, and they buy sex for different reasons. There is no doubt that

some . . . act violently, that some seek out underage prostitutes, and that

some travel to other countries for this purpose.” But we would be jump-

ing to conclusions, states Weitzer, to presume that this is the norm. In

fact, “some analysts make the counterargument that only a small minor-

ity of clients mistreats prostitutes.”19 An opposing view states that the

very act of buying sex in and of itself debases the person in prostitution.

Whatever the john’s motivation, it is clear that prostitution is poten-

tially damaging for any woman involved. Given that prostitution is ille-

gal in most areas of the United States, one approach to reducing the

demand for commercial sex is the “john school,” an intervention program

pioneered in San Francisco. In the spring of 2008 the first in-depth assess-

ment of john schools was published.20 This approach is designed to reduce

the demand for commercial sex and human trafficking by educating men

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arrested for soliciting prostitutes about the negative consequences of

prostitution. Normally, the men are first-time offenders and are given

the choice of paying a fee and attending a one-day class (the “john

school”) or being prosecuted. The curriculum in the school focuses on

the legal consequences of subsequent offenses; on johns’ vulnerability to

being robbed or assaulted while involved in prostitution; on johns’ ele-

vated risk of HIV and STD infection; on the vulnerability of women

serving as prostitutes to rape and assault, health problems, drug addic-

tion, and various forms of exploitation; on pimps’ and traffickers’

recruitment, control, and exploitation of women and girls for profit; on

the links between local street prostitution and larger systems of human

trafficking; and on the drug use, violence, health hazards, and other

adverse consequences that co-occur with street prostitution. The 2008

report was extensive, but two findings are worth noting here: first, that

the schools have been effective in substantially reducing recidivism

among men arrested for soliciting prostitutes; and second, that this

approach is cost-effective, operating for over twelve years at no cost to

taxpayers and generating nearly $1 million for recovery programs for

providers of commercial sex.

Meanwhile, in most cities, the police generally don’t pursue the john

at all, and when they find him at the scene they’ll usually let him go. It’s

different for the woman or child he’s been abusing. Trafficking victim or

not, child or adult, she’s likely to be arrested, while the john goes home

to his wife and kids—a little shaky but none the worse for wear. And the

pimp who put that woman or child on the street has become one of the

new heroes of American popular culture.

T H E P I M P S

Pimps as Folk Icons

It is a cruel twist that victims are often punished by the system that

should protect them while the pimps who victimize them enjoy wide-

spread glamour. As the NGO Polaris Project regularly points out, from

Hollywood, to the major record companies, to the front-stoop stories

of wide-eyed school children, pimps have acquired a glitzy, dangerous,

“outlaw” persona. The 2006 Academy Award for best song went to

“It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” from a Sundance Film Festival

award-winning movie about a pimp with dreams of making it as a

rapper. Its star was Oscar nominated for his sympathetic, if unlikely,

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portrayal of a pimp in turmoil. Some rap and hip-hop music has been

criticized for denigration of women and glorification of the pimp

lifestyle. In 1999, HBO produced
Pimps Up, Ho’s Down,
an “up close

and personal” study of pimps. Apparently, it was popular enough to

justify a sequel.

Every year, pimps hold a “Players Ball” in various cities throughout

the nation, sometimes with the public endorsement of local mayors.

These events serve as showcases for outlandish and expensive clothes

and cars, and, aside from the usual drinking and dancing, include

awards for “No. 1 International Pimp of the Year” and “No. 1 Super

Player.” The Players Ball, first reputedly held in Chicago in 1979 to cel-

ebrate a famous pimp’s birthday, represents a tradition that grows in

popularity and mystique every year, with music and film celebrities

attending and joining in the festivities.21 Some of the balls have even

been covered by national television. The myth of the pimp has so cap-

tured the popular imagination that middle-class teens, college clubs and

fraternities, and adults hold themed “pimps and ho’s” parties. The lore

of pimps permeates our daily lives.

The Dark Side

The Players Ball is, in the words of one club owner, “strictly a dress-up

costume party that is wild and crazy,” having nothing to do with pimps,

prostitutes, or trafficking.22 Yet the pimps who attend are often facing

indictments for sex trafficking, involuntary servitude, sexual abuse of a

minor, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, and racketeering.23

They are men responsible for the kinds of damage listed on a

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) fact sheet: the phys-

ical damage of “drug and alcohol addiction; physical injuries (broken

bones, burns, concussions, genital/anal tearing); traumatic brain injury

resulting in memory loss, dizziness, headaches, numbness; sexually

transmitted diseases (e.g., HIV/AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis, urinary tract

infections, pubic lice); sterility, miscarriages, menstrual problems; other

diseases (e.g., TB, hepatitis, malaria, pneumonia); and forced or coerced

abortions,” and the psychological damage of “mind/body separation/

disassociated ego states, shame, grief, fear, distrust, hatred of men, self-

hatred, suicide, and suicidal thoughts . . . Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

(PTSD)—acute anxiety, depression, insomnia, physical hyper-alertness,

self-loathing that is long-lasting and resistant to change . . . [and]

suffer[ing] from traumatic bonding,” in which victims fall in love with

or grow dependent upon their traffickers.24

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Pimps frequently take a lax approach to safe sex; more often than

not, they don’t provide condoms, yet at the same time they expose their

victims to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of men. The law of averages

works against the victim; inevitably, she will acquire, and transmit,

STDs. A study released in late 2007 highlights “the link between HIV-

AIDS and human trafficking” and goes on to say, “We have been encour-

aging U.S. health officials over the past several years to incorporate

strong and clear policies that address this link, and to devote greater

energies and resources to the health aspects of human trafficking, or

modern-day slavery. . . . Health officials have just begun to recognize

this link, and stronger emphasis is needed.”25

The pimps don’t care if their “girls” contract a life-threatening dis-

ease so long as they can continue to make them money. A recent case,

successfully prosecuted by Innocence Lost, involved a Florida pimp

named Justin Evans who was accused of “enticing a minor to engage in

prostitution.” His indictment states that he set up “dates” for the child

at various hotels, checked up on her constantly, and kept every cent she

made. Then, in February 2005, the girl—referred to in the indictment as

“Jane Doe”—was hospitalized for nearly two weeks and diagnosed with

AIDS. Shortly after she left the hospital, Evans put her back to work.

The government secretly recorded a telephone conversation between

Justin Evans and an associate identified as CW, in which they discussed

the girl’s condition:

cw: She in her last stages, dog. You fucked that girl up, man. . . . When

I told you she was sick, dog, don’t put her on the street . . . you was

like, fuck it. I need the money. . . . That whore was too sick, dog.

. . . . . .

evans: What? You don’t think she can still make money?

. . . . . .

cw: That girl dying, dog. Right now, that girl dying.

Apparently, Evans had stripped and beaten the child, knowing she was

seriously ill. CW took him to task, and Evans responded:

evans: That’s part of being a pimp[,] man. In the pimp rulebook it says

when you beat ’em like that. You strip them down naked and beat them.

They respect you more. . . . You’re supposed to strip ’em butt naked . . .

and beat her ass.

cw: You shouldn’t did that girl like that, dog. I feel sorry for that girl,

Justin. . . . Basically, it’s not about her having AIDS. . . . It’s basically

about . . . You know what I’m saying? . . . when she was sick, dog. How

she was treated, dog. She shouldn’t been treated like that, dog.

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evans: Listen. Even though you’re sick, you can still get out there and

pull tricks. If you’re so sick where you can’t walk that’s one thing. But if

you’re still physically able to walk . . . she should be able to go get that

money.26

The child worked for Evans until May 2005, when she was again

hospitalized for AIDS treatment. Her body was covered with blisters

and sores. “Jane Doe” was fourteen years old.27

There is nothing glamorous or romantic here. Behind the flashy

clothes and expensive cars, these are bad guys. They degrade, exploit,

and brutalize the girls and women they control. All three trafficking

qualifiers—force, fraud, and coercion—are here. Pimps claim and dis-

play ownership of their victims, sometimes by tattooing their name on

them, sometimes by branding.28 They control them through beatings

with bats, chains, belts, coat hangers, and ropes; they burn them with

heated wire hangers; they have them gang raped, tortured, locked in car

trunks. They feign affection, even love; they make promises that they

have no intention of keeping; they withhold money. They pump girls

and women with addictive drugs, then use that addiction to control

them. They threaten serious physical injury or death to the girl or her

family; they create an atmosphere of terror; and they exercise total con-