Getting Past 'the Pimp': Management in the Sex Industry - Softcover

Bruckert, Chris; Parent, Colette

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1487522495 ISBN 13: 9781487522490

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 2018

Synopsis

The issue of third parties in the sex industry – individuals who are neither the client nor the service provider – has become especially urgent in our current socio-political context. Surprisingly, in spite of an emergence of critical scholarship on the sex industry, as well as recommendations by key governmental committees, little attention has been extended to examining the role of individuals labelled pimps, procurers, and traffickers.

Addressing the function of third parties on the street and indoors, Getting Past 'the Pimp' incorporates solid empirical evidence including documentary analysis, 75 interviews with third parties, and 52 interviews with sex workers to unpack the roles and relationships of third parties in three sectors of the sex industry‒ incall/outcall, stripping, and street-based prostitution. Contrary to prevailing stereotypes that portray third parties as inherently abusive and controlling, these workers fulfill important roles and provide vital services as associates, fee-for-service hires, and agency owners or managers responsible for scheduling and arranging transportation and security. The sex industry, like mainstream businesses, rarely depend exclusively on client and worker to operate efficiently, and safely.

About this title

About the Author:

Chris Bruckert is Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa.
Colette Parent is a professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa.

Review:

"Getting Past the Pimp presents a clear, cohesive, soundly researched, and important contribution to scholarship in sex work studies. Placing sex workers and third parties in conversation with one another produces especially rich and complex findings and mitigates effectively against the stigmatizing gender and race dynamics that have limited sex workers’ agency and undermined their voices in this field of study."

(Shawna Ferris, associate professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, University of Manitoba)

"Getting Past the Pimp is a crucial body of work in its presentation of the issues that both sex workers and third parties face as they navigate within this stigmatized and criminalized area. The authors never idealize sex work, or exaggerate their findings. Instead, they follow the evidence, acknowledging, for example, that abusive managers exist, and demonstrating how blanket criminalization, in fact, makes it harder for sex workers to leave dangerous situations, or access protection or justice."

(Ummni Khan, associate professor in the Department of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1487522495
• ISBN 13: 9781487522490
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 185