Procuring,pimping, orpandering is the facilitation or provision of aprostitute or othersex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer.[1] Aprocurer, often called apimp if male, or amadam if female, (though the term "pimp" is often used for female procurers as well) or abrothel keeper, is anagent for prostitutes who collects part of theirearnings. The procurer may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing and possibly monopolizing a location where the prostitute may solicitclients. Like prostitution, the legality of certain actions of a madam or a pimp vary from one region to the next.
Examples of procuring include: helping to supporttrafficking a person into a country for the purpose of soliciting sex; operating a business where prostitution occurs; transporting a prostitute to the location of their arrangement; and deriving financial gain from the prostitution of another.
The termprocurer derives from the Frenchprocureur.
The wordpimp first appeared in English in 1600, inBen Jonson’s playEvery Man out of his Humor.[2] It is of unknown origin, though there are several hypotheses about its etymology.[2]Pimp used as a verb, meaning to act as a pimp, first appeared around 1640 inPhilip Massinger's play,The Bashful Lover.[3] In the 18th and 19th centuries, the term was commonly used to refer toinformers.[4] A pimp can also mean "a despicable person".[5]
RapperNelly tried to redefine the word "pimp" by saying that it is anacronym for "positive, intellectual, motivated person". He created acollege scholarship with the name "P.I.M.P. Juice Scholarship". Dawn Turner Trice of theChicago Tribune argues that there is "something truly unsettling, to say the least, about attaching such a vile word to a scholarship" and expresses concern about the glamorization of the term.[6]
In the first years of the 21st century, a new meaning of the word emerged in the form of a transitive verbpimp, which means "to decorate" or "togussy up". Compareprimp, especially in Scottish usage. This new definition was made popular byPimp My Ride, anMTV television show.[7] Although this new definition paid homage tohip-hop culture and its connection to street culture, it has now entered common, even mainstream commercial, use.[8]
In medical contexts, the verb means "to ask (a student) a question for the purpose of testing her or his knowledge".[9]
The word "pander", meaning to "pimp", is derived fromPandarus, a licentious figure who facilitates the affair between the protagonists inTroilus and Criseyde, a poem byGeoffrey Chaucer.[10] Pandarus appears with a similar role inShakespeare's interpretation of the story,Troilus and Cressida.
In theUnited Kingdom the term "pander" allows but does not require prostitution to be involved. TheShorter Oxford Dictionary defines it as "A go-between in illicit love affairs; a person who provides another with a means of gratifying lust; a pimp; a procurer".A person who assists the baser passions or evil designs of others."
Pimps and madams are diverse and varied, depending on the strata in which they work, and they enter and leave the sex industry for a variety of internal and external reasons, such as family pressure, interactions with the police, and in some cases recruitment from peer sex workers.[11][12][13]
Procuring can take abusive forms. Madams/pimps may punish clients for physical abuse or failure to pay, and enforce exclusive rights to "turf" where their prostitutes may advertise and operate with less competition.[14] In the many places where prostitution is outlawed, sex workers have decreased incentive to report abuse for fear ofself-incrimination, and increased motivation to seek any physical protection from clients and law enforcement that a madam/pimp might provide.[15]
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The madam/pimp–prostitute relationship is often understood to be abusive and possessive, with the pimp/madam using techniques such as psychological intimidation, manipulation, starvation, rape and/or gang rape, beating, tattooing tomark the woman as "theirs", confinement, threats of violence toward the victim's family, forced drug use and the shame from these acts.[16][17][18] In some cases, a pimp willkidnap orabduct a minor and keep them in aconfined space between acts of forced sexual intercourse.[19]
In the US, madams/pimps can be arrested and charged with pandering and are legally known as procurers.[20] A conviction underSORNA typically requires the procurer to be listed as a sex offender[21] This, combined with the tendency to identify pimping with African-American masculinity, may provide some of the explanation for why approximately three-fifths of all "confirmed" human traffickers in the United States are African-American men.[22] It has recently been argued that some of the extreme examples of violence cited in the article below come primarily from such stereotyping supported byHollywood screenwriters,[23] selective and decontextualized trial transcripts, and studies that have only interviewed parties to sex commerce in institutions of rescue, prosecution, and punishment, rather than engaging rigorous studyin situ.[24]
A 2018 study by researchers from the University of Montreal divided the concept of a pimp into three distinct categories: "low-profile" (primarily female), "hustlers" (predominantly male and violent, marking the common stereotype), and "abused" (even male–female split, more likely to be subjected to violence than to commit it).[25]
Whereprostitution is decriminalized orregulated, procuring may or may not be legal. Procuring regulations differ widely from place to place.
Procuring and brothels are legal in theNetherlands,Germany,Greece,New Zealand, and most ofAustralia and some counties inNevada.[26]
InCanada, there was a legal challenge to prostitution laws, which ended in the 2013 ruling ofBedford v. Canada. In 2010,Ontario Superior Court Judge Susan Himel overturned the national laws banningbrothels and procuring, arguing that they violated the constitution guaranteeing "the right to life, liberty and security".[27]
In 2012, theCourt of Appeal for Ontario reaffirmed the unconstitutionality of the laws.[28] The case was appealed by theCanadian government, and was under trial in theSupreme Court of Canada in June 2013.[29] Since the passing of theProtection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act in 2014, Canada has followed theNordic model of prostitution, which makes pimping and the purchasing of sexual services illegal.[30]
TheUnited Nations 1949Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others requires state signatories to ban pimping and brothels, and to abolish regulation of individual prostitutes. It states:[31]
Whereas prostitution and the accompanying evil of the traffic in persons for the purpose of prostitution are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person and endanger the welfare of the individual, the family and the community
The convention reads:
Article 1
The Parties to the present Convention agree to punish any person who, to gratify the passions of another:
(1) Procures, entices or leads away, for purposes of prostitution, another person, even with the consent of that person;
(2) Exploits the prostitution of another person, even with the consent of that person.
Article 2
The Parties to the present Convention further agree to punish any person who:
(1) Keeps or manages, or knowingly finances or takes part in the financing of a brothel;
(2) Knowingly lets or rents a building or other place or any part thereof for the purpose of the prostitution of others.
Various UN commissions however have differing positions on the issue. For example, in 2012, aUNAIDS commission convened by Ban Ki-moon and backed byUNDP and UNAIDS, recommended thedecriminalization of brothels and procuring.[32][33][34]
Attempts have been made in the US to charge pornographic-film producers with pandering under state law. The case ofCalifornia v. Freeman in 1989 is one of the most prominent examples where a producer/director of pornographic films was charged with pandering under the argument that paying porn actors to perform sex on camera was a form of prostitution covered by a state anti-pandering statute. The State Supreme Court rejected this argument, finding that the California pandering statute was not intended to cover the hiring of actors who would be engaging in sexually explicit but non-obscene performances. It also stated that only in cases where the producer paid the actors for the purpose of sexually gratifying themselves or other actors, could the producer be charged with pandering under state law. This case effectively legalized pornography in the State of California.[35][36][37] In 2008, the New Hampshire Supreme Court issued a similar ruling (New Hampshire v. Theriault) which declared that producing pornography was not a form of prostitution under state law.[38]
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Pimping is typically operated like a business.[39] In the US, a pimp may have abottom girl who serves as office manager, keeping the pimp apprised of law-enforcement activity and collecting money from the prostitutes.[40] Pimps recognize ahierarchy among themselves. In certain pimp strata, the least respected, or newer pimps, are the "popcorn pimps" and "wannabes". "Popcorn pimps" was a phenomenon which occurred among adolescent cocaine users of both sexes who utilized children younger than themselves to support their habits.[41]
In the US, a pimp who uses violence and intimidation to control his prostitutes is called a "gorilla pimp". Those who use psychological trickery to deceive younger prostitutes into becoming hooked into the system are called "finesse pimps".[42] In addition, a prostitute may "bounce" from pimp to pimp without paying the "pimp moving" tax.[43]
Some pimps in the United States are also documentedgang members, which causes concerns for police agencies in jurisdictions where prostitution is a significant problem.[44] Pimping rivals narcotic sales as a major source of funding for many gangs. Gangs need money to survive, and money equates to power and respect. While selling drugs may be lucrative for a gang, this activity often carries significant risk as stiff legal penalties and harshmandatory minimum sentencing laws exist. With pimping, gang members still make money while the prostitutes themselves bear the majority of the risk.[45]
Pimping has several benefits to the gang that the pimp belongs to. These benefits include helping the gang recruit new members because the gang has women available for sex. The money brought in by prostitution allows gang members to buy cars, clothes and weapons, all of which help to recruit younger members into the gang by increasing the reputation of the gang in the local gang subculture.[45]
Some pimp businesses have an internal structure – built around violence – for dealing with rule breakers. For example, some pimps have been known to employ a "pimp stick", which is two coat hangers wrapped together, in order to subdue unruly prostitutes.[40] Although prostitutes can move between pimps, this movement sometimes leads to violence. For example, a prostitute could be punished for merely looking at another pimp; this is considered in some pimp milieus to be "reckless eyeballing".[40] Violence can also be used on customers, for example if the customer attempts to evade payment or becomes unruly with a prostitute.
Some pimps employ what is known as the "Loverboy" or "Romeo pimp" method to recruit new prostitutes. This involves entrapping potential victims (usually young or vulnerable women) by first forming what appears to the victim to be a romantic relationship. After an initial period of "love bombing", the treatment of the victim then becomes abusive, and the victim is then forced into sex work by the pimp.[46][47]
Some pimps in America tattoo prostitutes as a mark of "ownership".[48] The tattoo will often be the pimp's street name or even his likeness. The mark might be as discreet as ankle tattoo, or blatant as a neck or face tattoo or large scale font across the prostitute's lower back, thigh, chest, or buttocks.[49]
Since theInternet became widely available, prostitutes increasingly use websites to solicit sexual encounters. This has bypassed the need for pimps in some contexts, while some pimps have used these sites to broker their sex workers.[50]
Some scholars andsex workers' rights advocates dispute portrayals of third-party agents as violent and extremely committed to a pimp subculture, finding them inaccurate exaggerations used to foster harmful policies.[citation needed] For example, one study found that pimps tend to drift in and out of pimping, with some of their goals and identities classified as predominantly mainstream, some as predominantly outside of that mainstream, and some as a hybrid of conventional and non-conventional.[51]
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In 1999, theHughes brothers released a documentary titledAmerican Pimp consisting of first-person interviews with people involved in pimping in the United States.
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{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)Recommendation: "Repeal laws that prohibit consenting adults to buy or sell sex, as well as laws that otherwise prohibit commercial sex, such as laws against 'immoral' earnings, 'living of the earnings' of prostitution and brothel-keeping."
378 F.3d 1281, (11th Cir.
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