Study about prostitution in Dallas and other cities

Dallas Morning News, March 12, 2014, "Dallas' illicit sex market estimated to be $99 million"

Dallas' illicit market for sex is estimated to be about $98.8 million, according to a study released Wednesday by the Urban Institute and commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Researchers studied eight cities including Dallas to find out more about the economy of the industry and try to fill in gaps about how the trade works for a study titled Estimating the Size and Structure of the Underground Commercial Sex Economy in Eight Major U.S. Cities.

The researchers found that the number of massage parlors increased over the past few years as the sex trafficking and prostitution moved behind legal fronts such as the massage parlors, or topless bars.

What was unique to Dallas, according to the report, is that American pimps operate the Asian massage parlors, creating partnerships with the owners of the shops, said Meredith Dank, senior research associate at the Urban Institute and lead author of the study.

Through interviews with sex trafficking victims and voluntary prostitutes as well as pimps and law enforcement, researchers also found that pricing varied by ethnic group and age. A street prostitute might charge $5 as an individual whereas a sex worker might charge $120 under a "facilitator."

The study also found that little money is exchanged for child pornography because most men exchange it for free.

Dank said there are a few unexpected elements of the illicit sex market that researchers learned. Law enforcement confirmed that some pimps were approached by female sex workers who asked for protection or a facilitator.

"It's a hard pill to swallow because people see men as the perpetrators and women as the victims," Dank said. "We don’t talk a lot about the pathways into this industry."

Researchers also learned that many pimps are not connected to other illicit businesses such as drugs.

"This an extremely complicated topic and economy," the researcher said. "It's hard to understand and the media puts out just a small piece of it."

Here's the link to the study:

Urban Institute, "The Hustle: Economics of the Underground Sex Industry"

A flicker of light in the decriminalization and regulation school of thought. Next week it will be forgotten and everyone will go back to their comfort zones. At least when money is the focus more people are inclined to listen. Duly noted.

Side note: my favorite part was where is states only 6% of pimps are concerned about the safety of their "employees". Safety being: raped, killed, assaulted, infected with an std.

Also, the study doesn't even mention independent providers at all except that we charge $5 for the same service a pimped lady would charge $120 for. Now that's just funny.

I got about half way thru the 348 pg PDF before I cought the same thing THN said. So if this study failed to adequately account for the Independent market what is the real numer? My guess is easily double the 99 mil. Not necciserily due to volume but rather based on price per transaction. The study seems to do a good job accounting for what I would call the "blue collar" prostitution but totally ignores the "independent" or white collar market. (I am trying to draw a distinction between the criminal elements the report focused on and what I can only describe as small business entrepreneurs)

That was my first reaction, too -- I think the report grossly underestimates the dollar amount of prostitution in Dallas -- by many multiples, I think.

The below is not my work I lifted it from another thread in austin but it is a good attempt at estimating a local market (I hope you don't mind Douglas_M)


Let's just consider the Austin area; do you really care about volume in Mexico City? Let's also consider that Eccie "volume' is characteristic of the rest of the industry.

15% of the 720,600 eccie user visits per month are attributed to the Austin area
2% of these 16K hits per day result in client hookups

There are approx 100 active providers on eccie, but about 200 current reviewed

320/200 = 1.5 average visits today

My gut feeling is that this a log-normal distribution with more than half the ladies doing it part-time

Therefore the +2 sigma point would be about 3.0 That is, 5% of the providers service 3 or more "Clients" per day

Whispers, what other metrics are available for a better estimate?

Assuming an average of $180/sesssion, then eccie flowthru business is $58K/day, or $21 million per year

I read this article on CNN a few days ago.

I'm now packing and I plan to move to Atlanta or Denver. LOL.

netman

Lol. That is in the study.


What I find most entertaining in that whole report is the blatant downplay and misrepresentation of independent providers. Looks like mainstream media isn't ready to admit to the masses that indie whoring is all that and a bag of chips!!

Lol. That is in the study.


What I find most entertaining in that whole report is the blatant downplay and misrepresentation of independent providers. Looks like mainstream media isn't ready to admit to the masses that indie whoring is all that and a bag of chips!!


Oh that - and the fact that they took the words of 22 pimps as even remotely credible.

What I find most entertaining in that whole report is the blatant downplay and misrepresentation of independent providers. Looks like mainstream media isn't ready to admit to the masses that indie whoring is all that and a bag of chips!! Originally Posted by thathottnurse

Largely due to their methodology. For example, the Dallas section mentions in the table both low-end independents - often drug addicts who charge very low rates, $5 -$10, money for a fix -- and high-end independents - $500 an hour, $4,500 for an overnight. The study interviewed law enforcement, and law enforcement doesn't prioritize the latter. First, because it's harder to infiltrate due to screening ("passwords"?). Second, because it's not considered as problematic - less likely to involve trafficking or violence.

Using LE as your source lends an air of credibility. But it's also inherently biased because of LE's priorities and the possible desire to dramatize to make a better story. I would have characterized the "Internet independent" quite differently than they did; there certainly are ladies like that, and I've seen some, but it leaves out the much more common mid-range with which we're familiar. But $500 an hour makes a better story.

There are studies that have taken a more nuanced view. I enjoyed Elizabeth Bernstein's work. But those require more effort and are difficult if not impossible to do in a way that would accomplish one goal of this study - quantification of the commercial sex market in major US studies.

I think the best approach to any discussion of P4P -- whether this study, or Bernstein's, or Alex Lieberman's book, or any of a number of others - is to look at it as, at best, a limited and partial "truth." The same would apply if one of us were telling the story. The P4P industry or lifestyle or however you want to characterize it is too large and complex and varied for any description to really capture it. Just like most human behavior.

Dallas' illicit market for sex is estimated to be about $98.8 million, according to a study released Wednesday by the Urban Institute and commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice. Originally Posted by ShysterJon

Aaahhh, music to Uncle Sam's ears!

...

Using LE as your source lends an air of credibility. But it's also inherently biased because of LE's priorities and the possible desire to dramatize to make a better story. I would have characterized the "Internet independent" quite differently than they did; there certainly are ladies like that, and I've seen some, but it leaves out the much more common mid-range with which we're familiar. But $500 an hour makes a better story.
.... Originally Posted by Chevalier

Nice dissection, Chev. Kinda like the 30,000 hookers that were coming to town for the Superbowl.

Nice dissection, Chev. Kinda like the 30,000 hookers that were coming to town for the Superbowl. Originally Posted by Glenn Quagmire

There were only 29,000. I know this because Logan banged every one of them.

I didn't read the link but if they're throwing $5 and $120 around as "donations", it tells me they've never heard of ECCIE, P411, TER or any other similar site.

There was a discussion on this subject on 570 KLIF, in that discussion the emphasis was place on human trafficking of prostitutes, the 'enormous' amount of money in the Dallas Sex industryand that a group called New friends new life is trying to "free" the involuntary sex workers, especially the underage ones.
I think this will lead to increased LE activity across the board for providers and hobbyists alike.

Independent providers who play the straight and narrow and don't draw attention to themselves are a pretty safe bet.

Unless you are causing problems or drawing attention from outside the walls of your incall then LE has no reason to even look in your direction.