The Urban Institute performed the three-year research study at the behest of the U. Department of Justice. Researchers interviewed law enforcement officials police, criminal investigators including the FBI and state and U.
Lead author Meredith Dank says the size of the market may be a function of population, as Denver is the smallest city studied. We have seen a drastic increase pretty much every year since we keyed into it. Denver has done pimping cases forever. Denk also cautions that the financial value of the underground sex economy does not equate to the demand for services.
The value of the Denver industry fell from to , as it did in four other cities studied. Denk says that may have been a function of the impending recession.
Pimps and traffickers told her that they had to lower their prices. They would help you fill up your tank if you purchased a sex act. They are loosely organized or independent. Pimps manipulate their workers through violence and through incentives, such as offering affection, gifts and shopping sprees.
To keep their businesses going, pimps and traffickers need to constantly find new customers -- sometimes moving girls and women from city to city, following events and laying low when police are cracking down. They also constantly recruit new workers, which they do through social media and through more subtle tactics. Denk recounted the tale of one convicted pimp, who said he visited malls, where he would look for the least confident teenage girl in a group.
