{{Short description|Facilitation or provision of a prostitute}} {{Redirect2|Pimp|pimping}} {{Redirect|Procuress||The Procuress (disambiguation){{!}}The Procuress}} [[File:Jan Vermeer van Delft 002.jpg|thumb|''The Procuress'' by Jan Vermeer]]{{Sex and the law}} '''Procuring''', '''pimping''', or '''pandering''' is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer.<ref>Garner, B. & Black, H. (2004). Black's Law Dictionary. Belmont: Thomson/West.</ref> A '''procurer''', often called a '''pimp''' if male, or a '''procuress''', often called a '''madam''' if female, or a '''brothel keeper''', is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. 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 solicit clients. 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 support trafficking 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.
==Etymology== thumb|Pandarus, centre, with Cressida, illustration by Thomas Kirk to ''Troilus and Cressida''
===''Procurer''===
The term ''procurer'' derives from the French {{Lang|fr|procureur}}.
===''Pimping''=== The word ''pimp'' first appeared in English in 1600, in Ben Jonson’s play ''Every Man out of his Humor''.<ref name=":0">{{cite OED|pimp (n.1)|3838950571}}</ref> It is of unknown origin, though there are several hypotheses about its etymology.<ref name=":0" /> ''Pimp'' used as a verb, meaning to act as a pimp, first appeared around 1640 in Philip Massinger's play, ''The Bashful Lover''.<ref>{{cite OED|pimp (v.)|2049536876}}</ref> In the 18th and 19th centuries, the term was commonly used to refer to informers.<ref>{{cite news |date=Nov 7, 1765 |title=No Stamped Paper to be had |url=http://www.smithsoniansource.org/display/primarysource/viewdetails.aspx?PrimarySourceId=1004 |access-date=2013-06-17 |newspaper=Pennsylvania Gazette |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219004020/http://www.smithsoniansource.org/display/primarysource/viewdetails.aspx?PrimarySourceId=1004 |archive-date=19 December 2008 |type=transcription |via=Smithsonian Source}}</ref> A pimp can also mean "a despicable person".<ref>"Webster's College Dictionary", Random House, 2001</ref>
Rapper Nelly tried to redefine the word "pimp" by saying that it is an acronym for "positive, intellectual, motivated person". He created a college scholarship with the name "P.I.M.P. Juice Scholarship". Dawn Turner Trice of the ''Chicago 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Trice |first=Dawn Turner |date=April 27, 2005 |title=Scholarship is soured by unsavory name |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2005/04/27/scholarship-is-soured-by-unsavory-name/ |website=Chicago Tribune |language=en-US}}</ref>
In the first years of the 21st century, a new meaning of the word emerged in the form of a transitive verb ''pimp'', which means "to decorate" or "to gussy up". Compare ''primp'', especially in Scottish usage. This new definition was made popular by ''Pimp My Ride'', an MTV television show.<ref name="slate">{{Cite news |last=Sheidlower |first=Jesse |date=2008-02-12 |title=A History of Pimping |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2008/02/a-brief-history-of-the-verb-to-pimp.html |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=Slate |language=en-US |issn=1091-2339}}</ref> Although this new definition paid homage to hip-hop culture and its connection to street culture, it has now entered common, even mainstream commercial, use.<ref>{{cite news |date=20 September 2007 |title=Feet pimping: Local biz has plans for your feet |url=http://www.readthehook.com/81208/news-feet-pimping-local-biz-has-plans-your-feet |access-date=26 September 2007 |publisher=The Hook weekly |archive-date=27 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120527145935/http://www.readthehook.com/81208/news-feet-pimping-local-biz-has-plans-your-feet |url-status=dead }}</ref>
In medical contexts, the verb means "to ask (a student) a question for the purpose of testing her or his knowledge".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Brancati |first=Frederick L. |date=7 July 1989 |title=The Art of Pimping |url=http://www.neonatology.org/pearls/pimping.html |journal=JAMA |volume=262 |issue=1 |pages=89–90 |doi=10.1001/jama.1989.03430010101039 |pmid=2733128 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=4 July 2013 |access-date=26 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130704154427/http://www.neonatology.org/pearls/pimping.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
===''Pandering''=== The word "pander", meaning to "pimp", is derived from Pandarus, a licentious figure who facilitates the affair between the protagonists in ''Troilus and Criseyde'', a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer.<ref>{{cite book |last=Classen |first=Albrecht |title=Laughter in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: Epistemology of a Fundamental Human Behavior, Its Meaning, and Consequences |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2010 |isbn=978-3-11-024547-9 |page=462}}</ref> Pandarus appears with a similar role in Shakespeare's interpretation of the story, ''Troilus and Cressida''.
In the United Kingdom the term "pander" allows but does not require prostitution to be involved. The Shorter 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."
==Overview== 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.<ref name="auto">{{cite journal |last1=Horning |first1=Amber |last2=Thomas |first2=C. |last3=Marcus |first3=A. |last4=Sriken |first4=J. |display-authors=1 |date=2018 |title=Risky Business: Harlem Pimps' Work Decisions and Economic Returns |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329875237 |journal=Deviant Behavior |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=12–27 |doi=10.1080/01639625.2018.1556863 |s2cid=150273170 |access-date=2019-07-08}}</ref><ref name="Urban Institute - Underground Sex Economy">{{cite news |last=Dank |first=Meredith |display-authors=et al. |date=2014 |title=Estimating the Size and Structure of the Underground Commercial Sex Economy in Eight Major US Cities |publisher=New York: Urban Institute}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stalans |first1=Loretta J. |last2=Finn |first2=Mary A. |date=2019-07-04 |title=Self-Narratives of Persistent Pimps and Those Anticipating Desistance: Emotions, Conventional Work, and Moral Profitability Calculus |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15564886.2019.1628148 |journal=Victims & Offenders |volume=14 |issue=5 |pages=647–669 |doi=10.1080/15564886.2019.1628148 |issn=1556-4886|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
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.<ref name="Figueroa">{{cite web |last=Zahniser |first=David |date=13 May 2008 |title=L.A. seeks to thwart sex trade on Figueroa |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-13-me-figueroa13-story.html |access-date=27 September 2011 |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> In the many places where prostitution is outlawed, sex workers have decreased incentive to report abuse for fear of self-incrimination, and increased motivation to seek any physical protection from clients and law enforcement that a madam/pimp might provide.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Burns |first1=Tara |last2=Benz |first2=Allie |title=Four Years of FOSTA: The Survey |url=https://reason.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/FourYearsOfFosta.pdf |publisher=COYOTE RI}}</ref>
{{Kidnapping}} 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 to mark the woman as "theirs", confinement, threats of violence toward the victim's family, forced drug use and the shame from these acts.<ref name="Weitzer">{{cite journal |last1=Raphael |first1=Jody |last2=Shapiro |first2=Deborah |date=2004 |title=Violence in indoor and outdoor prostitution venues |journal=Violence Against Women |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=126–139 |doi=10.1177/1077801203260529 |s2cid=73100079}}</ref><ref name="SoMonstrous">{{cite book |last=Skinner |first=E. Benjamin |url=https://archive.org/details/crimesomonstrous00skin |title=A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery |publisher=Free Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7432-9007-4 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=De-branding my body |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/VSUj7yai4n/debranding-my-body |access-date=2020-06-03 |work=BBC News}}</ref> In some cases, a pimp will kidnap or abduct a minor and keep them in a confined space between acts of forced sexual intercourse.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cops: Alleged Pimp May Have Many Child Victims - CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cops-alleged-pimp-may-have-many-child-victims/ |access-date=2025-08-26 |website=www.cbsnews.com}}</ref>
In the US, madams/pimps can be arrested and charged with pandering and are legally known as procurers.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pandering |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/pandering |access-date=2013-06-17 |publisher=Dictionary.com}}</ref> A conviction under SORNA typically requires the procurer to be listed as a sex offender<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pimp sentenced to federal prison for sex trafficking {{!}} ICE |url=https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/pimp-sentenced-federal-prison-sex-trafficking |access-date=2025-08-26 |website=www.ice.gov}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Banks">{{cite web |author1=Banks, Duren |author2=Kyckelhahn, Tracey |year=2011 |title=Characteristics of suspected human trafficking incidents, 2008–2010 |url=https://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cshti0810.pdf |access-date=2013-08-07 |publisher=Bureau of Justice Statistics |location=Washington, DC}}</ref> It has recently been argued that some of the extreme examples of violence cited in the article below come primarily from such stereotyping supported by Hollywood screenwriters,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Horning |first1=Amber |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gy_VDQAAQBAJ&q=african+american+masculinity+pimping&pg=PA4 |title=Third Party Sex Work and Pimps in the Age of Anti-trafficking |last2=Marcus |first2=Anthony |date=2017-01-03 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-50305-9 |page=4}}</ref> 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 study ''in situ''.<ref name="Human Trafficking Reconsidered">{{cite book |last1=Marcus |first1=Anthony |title=Human Trafficking Reconsidered: Rethinking the Problem, Envisioning New Solutions |last2=Horning |first2=Amber |last3=Curtis |first3=Ric |publisher=Open Society Institute |year=2014 |editor1=Rhacel Salazar Parreñas |location=New York |pages=41–49 |chapter=Child Sex Trafficking: Toward an Agent Centered Approach |display-authors=1 |editor2=Kimberly Hoang}}</ref>
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{{ndash}}female split, more likely to be subjected to violence than to commit it).<ref>{{cite web |title=Pimps: they're not all alike |url=https://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2018/09/27/pimps-they-re-not-all-alike |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603125614/https://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2018/09/27/pimps-they-re-not-all-alike/ |archive-date=2020-06-03 |access-date=2024-09-05 |website=udemNouvelles}}</ref>
==Legal status and debates about legality== Where prostitution is decriminalized or regulated, procuring may or may not be legal. Procuring regulations differ widely from place to place.
Procuring and brothels are legal in the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, New Zealand, most of Australia, and some counties in Nevada.<ref name="Marneffe2012">{{cite book |author=Peter de Marneffe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JeDHBxQtmPwC&pg=PA18 |title=Liberalism and Prostitution |date=1 April 2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-972610-3 |pages=18–}}</ref>
===Canada=== {{Main|Prostitution in Canada}} In Canada, there was a legal challenge to prostitution laws, which ended in the 2013 ruling of ''Bedford v. Canada''. In 2010, Ontario Superior Court Judge Susan Himel overturned the national laws banning brothels and procuring, arguing that they violated the constitution guaranteeing "the right to life, liberty and security".<ref name="BBC">{{Cite news |date=September 28, 2010 |title=Canadian judge overturns brothel ban in Ontario |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11432138 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>
In 2012, the Court of Appeal for Ontario reaffirmed the unconstitutionality of the laws.<ref>{{Cite news |date=26 March 2012 |title=Ontario Appeal Court strikes down ban on brothels |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ontario-appeal-court-strikes-down-ban-on-brothels-1.1214460 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260122201344/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ontario-appeal-court-strikes-down-ban-on-brothels-1.1214460 |archive-date=2026-01-22 |work=CBC News |language=en-US |access-date=2019-09-23 |url-status=live }}</ref> The case was appealed by the Canadian government, and was under trial in the Supreme Court of Canada in June 2013.<ref>{{cite web |date=2013-06-13 |title=Canada's top court to hear prostitution challenge today | |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/canadas-top-court-to-hear-prostitution-challenge-today/ |access-date=2013-11-05 |website=CTV News |publisher=Ctvnews.ca}}</ref> Since the passing of the ''Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act'' in 2014, Canada has followed the Nordic model of prostitution, which makes pimping and the purchasing of sexual services illegal.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Allen |first1=Mary |last2=Rosenburg |first2=Cristine |title=Crimes related to the sex trade: Before and after legislative changes in Canada |url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2021001/article/00010-eng.htm |access-date=14 January 2025 |website=Statistics Canada}}</ref>
===United Nations=== The United Nations 1949 Convention 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:<ref>{{cite web |title=Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others |url=https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/trafficpersons.pdf |access-date=2014-04-29}}</ref>
<blockquote>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</blockquote>
The convention reads:
<blockquote>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.</blockquote>
Various UN commissions however have differing positions on the issue. For example, in 2012, a UNAIDS commission convened by Ban Ki-moon and backed by UNDP and UNAIDS, recommended the decriminalization of brothels and procuring.<ref>{{cite web |author=Michael Kirby & Michael Wong |date=2012-12-08 |title=Decriminalisation integral to the fight against HIV |url=http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4128420.html |access-date=2012-07-13 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation}}</ref>{{New archival link needed|date=April 2026}}<ref>{{cite web |author=Cheryl Wetzstein |date=2012-08-02 |title=AIDS used as reason to legalize prostitutes |url=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/2/aids-used-as-reason-to-legalize-prostitutes/ |work=The Washington Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=July 2012 |title=Global Commission on HIV and the Law |url=http://www.hivlawcommission.org/resources/report/FinalReport-Risks%2CRights%26Health-EN.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924030555/http://www.hivlawcommission.org/resources/report/FinalReport-Risks%2CRights%26Health-EN.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-24 |work=HIV/AIDS Group |publisher=UNDP |page=43 |quote=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."}}</ref>
===United States=== Attempts have been made in the US to charge pornographic-film producers with pandering under state law. The case of ''California 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.<ref>{{cite web |date=1989-02-01 |title=California v. Freeman |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/488/1311.html |access-date=2013-11-05 |publisher=Caselaw.lp.findlaw.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=First Amendment Lawyer - Creating Adult Content Outside California |url=http://www.firstamendment.com/content_outside_ca.php3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217223227/http://firstamendment.com/content_outside_ca.php3 |archive-date=2009-02-17 |access-date=2013-11-05 |publisher=Firstamendment.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=faq: part 11: legal issues |url=http://www.rame.net/faq/part11.html#xtocid21960 |access-date=2013-11-05 |publisher=rame.net |archive-date=2003-10-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031003223914/http://www.rame.net/faq/part11.html#xtocid21960 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |last=Timmins |first=Annmarie |date=December 5, 2008 |title=Offer to tape sex nullifies conviction: 'It's not prostitution but speech, court says' |url=http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/offer-to-tape-sex-nullifies-conviction |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620065544/http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/offer-to-tape-sex-nullifies-conviction |archive-date=June 20, 2010 |access-date=October 26, 2015 |work=Concord Monitor}}</ref>
==Business and methods== {{More citations needed section|date=May 2019}} [[File:The White Slave statue.jpg|thumb|''The White Slave'' statue by Abastenia St. Leger Eberle, location unknown]]
Pimping is typically operated like a business.<ref name="reallyreallypimping">{{cite web |title=Really Really Pimpin' in Da South |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/really_really_pimpin_in_da_south/ |access-date=2015-10-05 |work=Rotten Tomatoes}}</ref> In the US, a pimp may have a bottom girl who serves as office manager, keeping the pimp apprised of law-enforcement activity and collecting money from the prostitutes.<ref name="pipkins">{{cite web |year=2004 |title=U.S. v. Pipkins |url=http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200214306.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120911145823/http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200214306.pdf |archive-date=2012-09-11 |access-date=2012-09-11 |quote=378 F.3d 1281, (11th Cir.}}</ref> Pimps recognize a hierarchy 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Pagliaro |first1=Ann M. |title=Substance use among children and adolescents: its nature, extent, and effects from conception to adulthood |last2=Pagliaro |first2=Louis A. |date=1996 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-0-471-58042-3 |location=New York |pages=19}}</ref>
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".<ref>{{cite web |author=Eleventh Circuit |year=2004 |title=378 F. 3d 1281 - United States v. Pipkins |url=https://openjurist.org/378/f3d/1281/united-states-v-pipkins |website=OpenJurist}}</ref> In addition, a prostitute may "bounce" from pimp to pimp without paying the "pimp moving" tax.<ref>{{cite web |date=2010-11-13 |title=The Pimping Game |url=http://www.wmich.edu/destinys-end/pimping%20game.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101113021452/http://www.wmich.edu/destinys-end/pimping%20game.htm |archive-date=2010-11-13 |publisher=Western Michigan University}}</ref>
Some pimps in the United States are also documented gang members, which causes concerns for police agencies in jurisdictions where prostitution is a significant problem.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Knox |first1=George W. |date=2008 |title=Females and Gangs: Sexual Violence, Prostitution, and Exploitation |url=https://www.ngcrc.com/ngcrc/proffem2.htm |access-date=11 December 2019 |website=www.ngcrc.com |publisher=National Gang Crime Research Center}}</ref> 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 harsh mandatory minimum sentencing laws exist. With pimping, gang members still make money while the prostitutes themselves bear the majority of the risk.<ref name="Prostitution & Gangs"/>
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.<ref name="Prostitution & Gangs">{{cite web |last=O'Deane |first=Matthew |date=24 September 2010 |title=Prostitution & Gangs. Techniques for going after violent offenders |url=https://lawofficer.com/archive/prostitution-gangs/ |work=Law Officer}}</ref>
=== Violence === 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.<ref name="pipkins"/> 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".<ref name="pipkins"/> Violence can also be used on customers, for example if the customer attempts to evade payment or becomes unruly with a prostitute.
=== Romeo pimps and loverboys === {{see also|Sex trafficking#Romeo pimps and loverboys}} 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Veiligheid |first=Ministerie van Justitie en |date=2019-05-06 |title='Loverboys' - Human trafficking and people smuggling - Government.nl |url=https://www.government.nl/topics/human-trafficking/romeo-pimps-loverboys |access-date=2023-02-22 |website=www.government.nl |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Founder |first=Kim Westfall |date=2020-11-18 |title=How Trafficking Happens: Exposing the Loverboy Method |url=https://www.uncaged.org/post/how-trafficking-happens-exposing-the-loverboy-method |access-date=2023-02-22 |website=Uncaged |language=en}}</ref>
===Use of tattoos=== Some pimps in America tattoo prostitutes as a mark of "ownership".<ref>{{cite news |last=Urbina |first=Ian |date=27 October 2009 |title=Running in the Shadows (part 2 of 2): For Runaways on the Street, Sex Buys Survival |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/us/27runaways.html |access-date=20 November 2010 |work=The New York Times |page=1}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rowe |first=Claudia |date=June 26, 2008 |title=No way out: Teen girls sell bodies in Seattle |url=https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/No-way-out-Teen-girls-sell-bodies-in-Seattle-1277746.php |newspaper=Seattle Post-Intelligencer}}</ref>
===Internet effect=== Since the Internet 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.<ref>{{cite news |last=Poulsen |first=Kevin |date=February 25, 2009 |title=Pimps Go Online to Lure Kids Into Prostitution |url=https://www.wired.com/2009/02/pimping/ |newspaper=Wired}}</ref>
===Criticism of portrayals=== Some scholars and sex 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.{{fact|date=January 2023}} 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.<ref name="outsider">{{cite journal |last1=Horning |first1=A. |last2=Thomas |first2=C. |last3=Jordeno |first3=S. |display-authors=1 |date=2019 |title=Harlem Pimps' Accounts of their Economic Pathways and Feelings of Insiderness and Outsiderness |url=https://www.qualitativecriminology.com/pub/v7i3p4/release/1 |journal=Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=69–94 |archive-date=2021-03-04 |access-date=2020-12-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304153442/https://www.qualitativecriminology.com/pub/v7i3p4/release/1 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==In popular culture== ===Notable pimps and madams===<!-- PLEASE MAINTAIN ALPHABETICAL ORDER -->
{{Div col|colwidth=15em}} * Elizabeth Adams * Polly Adler * Ah Toy * Brenda Allen * Sydney Biddle Barrows * Scotty Bowers * Sean Combs * Belle Cora * Mary Ann Conklin * Kristin M. Davis * Shirley Finn * Heidi Fleiss * Marguerite Gourdan * Lou Graham * Dennis Hof * Xaviera Hollander * Don "Magic" Juan * Mary-Anne Kenworthy * Gangubai Kothewali * Isabel La Negra * Ghislaine Maxwell<ref>{{cite web |date=July 2, 2020 |title=Ghislaine Maxwell's journey from socialite to accused procuress in Epstein case |url=https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/ghislaine-maxwells-journey-from-socialite-to-accused-procuress-in-epstein-case-1008989.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812094651/https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/ghislaine-maxwells-journey-from-socialite-to-accused-procuress-in-epstein-case-1008989.html |archive-date=August 12, 2020 |access-date=July 25, 2020 |website=Breaking News}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=July 8, 2020 |title=Ghislaine Maxwell's journey from socialite to accused procuress in Epstein case |url=https://www.itv.com/news/2020-07-02/ghislaine-maxwells-journey-from-socialite-to-accused-procuress-in-epstein-case |website=ITV News}}</ref> * Enriqueta Martí * Elizabeth Needham * Dora Noyce * Deborah Jeane Palfrey * Justine Paris * Grace Peixotto * Lovisa von Plat * Jurjentje Aukes Rauwerda * Lindi St Clair * Fillmore Slim * Iceberg Slim * Sally Stanford * Al Swearengen * Anna Wilson * A Pimp Named Slickback {{Div col end}}
===In art=== <gallery widths="200px" heights="154px" perrow="4" caption="Procuring in art"> File:Dirck van Baburen - The Procuress - Google Art Project.jpg|''The Procuress'' by Dirck van Baburen, 1622 File:The contented cuckold (BM 1996,0608.1 1).jpg|An English engraving from 1673 titled "The Contented Cuckold". The final line reads "the disgrace is my wife's; the profit mine". File:Jan G. van Bronckhorst The procuress.jpg|''The procuress'' by Jan G. van Bronckhorst, 1636–1638 File:Bijlert At the procuress.jpg|''At the procuress'', by Jan van Bijlert, second quarter of 17th century (Albi) Au Salon de la rue des Moulins - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 1894 MTL.inv180( small).jpg|''In Salon of Rue des Moulins'', (La Fleur blanche), by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1894 Pimp, Hoes and Hellboy - Halloween in Atlanta 2000.jpg|A man ''(far right)'' dressed as a pimp and women dressed as "hoes" at a Halloween party, 2000 </gallery>
== Works == In 1999, the Hughes brothers released a documentary titled ''American Pimp'' consisting of first-person interviews with people involved in pimping in the United States.
==See also== {{Portal|Human sexuality|Prostitution}} * Brothel
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==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Wiktionary|procurer}} * {{Commons category-inline|Prostitution}}
{{Prostitution}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Prostitution Category:Organized crime activity