Respect for Escorts and information on Trafficking and Pimping

[samlad]

Please refer to our 'Eejit's Guide to Escorts' found in this section.

[samlad]

There have been people debating trafficking and pimping on the message boards, and in some cases, people are actually naming the escorts that they suspect may be victims of trafficking and/or pimping. Of all the people that have made a public issue of this, when asked, have based their information on pure specualtion with no real facts.

I would like to reitterate a point I made recently about this public 'ousting' approach to this:

The danger of making a public issue of this on the message boards is that people who do traffic are professionals; people have to understand that if anyone trafficked is advertising on this site, the people responsible will surely be monitoring the message boards to make sure nobody cottons onto them. I would imagine that if they are 'exposed' on an open forum, it will just force them underground rather than doing the escort or clients any favours, so please do report these things rather than debating it on the message boards. We will gladly cooperate with the police if they need any information; we do not want these people to get away with it if they are doing it, although at present, we are not currently aware of any actual escorts advertising with us that are victims.

There is a big difference between trafficking and pimping:

Trafficking is the illegal act of trading of human beings for purposes of slavery, more often than not, for sexual purposes. These human beings are usually forced to do this against their will.

Pimping is when somebody acts as an agent for sex workers, collecting a percentage of their earnings for their services. Pimps are not always people that force a sex worker to work against their will, and sometimes a sex worker may request the services of a pimp, although there are the stereotypical pimps that do take control of sex workers, but it is not always the case.

If anyone has any concerns about a sex worker that is being forced to work against their will, we do urge you to report this to the police. Making a public issue of this is not protecting the sex worker, it is actually helping the person responsible for making them work against their will.

What is even more shocking is that there have been certain clients reviewing escorts they claim to be possible victims of trafficking, and leaving a bad review on their part, rather than reporting anything. These reviews will be removed without question.

Remember.. it is the sex worker that is the victim of human trafficking, not the punter who turns up and recieves a 'bad' service.

[samlad]

I did say that I would create a sticky thread to define the terms of 'coercion', 'trafficking', 'pimping' and 'agency' in relation to the sex industry. As it happens, this is something we have visited before, as we can see above.

There are many new posters and escort advertisers on E-I, so it would be good to revisit this again, especially since there have been debates about 'true' independent escorts and agency escorts.

'True' Independent Escorts:

Generally, we can all agree that an independent escort is an escort that is his/her own boss. Whatever money the escort makes, minus expenses and taxes, he/she gets to keep 100% of it. Independent escorts do not operate in conjunction with any organisation or establishment. Independent escorts ultimately are responsible for sorting out their own affairs from travelling to accommodation to advertising.

I put the term 'true' in inverted commas because it is more a turn of phrase, as an escort is either independent or not. People refer to escorts as being 'true' independent as there are many escorts advertising as independent when they are not. I also use inverted commas for 'true' because independent escorts may decide to hire a secretary or another person to organise their affairs for them. Independent escorts may also have partners that may help with certain areas of their business, be it putting together content for their advert or being security for them. Some independent escorts may share accommodation with another escort for safety reasons, or to reduce the costs of an accommodation. Many independent escorts will have previously worked as an agency escort in the early stages of their escort life.

Agency Escorts:

It is generally agreed that agency escorts are escorts that work under the employment of an agent. In most cases, agency escorts have their affairs arranged for them, from travelling to accommodation to client bookings. Agency escorts usually work allocated hours and are expected to complete booking with these clients arranged on their behalf. The agency (or agent) that deals with arranging the affairs of the escort will take a percentage of the escort's earnings for the services provided. There is no set rate of payment; ultimately it depends on which agency an escort works for.

There is a lot of stigma and confusion regarding agency escorts, but not without reason. The term 'agency' is synonymous with the terms 'trafficked', 'pimped' and 'coercion', all things with very negative connotations. Clients (or punters) may feel that it is morally wrong for an agency (or agent) to take a percentage of an escort's income, or may feel that they could potentially be funding an illegal ring of pimps, traffickers or coercers, thus adding to the issues of these things in Ireland and even globally. Unfortunately, this can be the case but the statistics available to the public can be rather ambiguous or are exaggerated by non-government organisations or the media, and often target escorts that they believe to be non-independent to reinforce their agenda.

Defining terms:

Here are the definitions of the below phrases in relation to the sex industry:

• Coercion: "...the practice of forcing another party to act in an involuntary manner (whether through action or inaction) by use of threats or intimidation or some other form of pressure or force. In law, coercion is codified as the duress crime. Such actions are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in the desired way. Coercion may involve the actual infliction of physical pain/injury or psychological harm in order to enhance the credibility of a threat. The threat of further harm may lead to the cooperation or obedience of the person being coerced. Torture is one of the most extreme examples of coercion i.e. severe pain is inflicted until the victim provides the desired response."
  
  (Source: Wikipedia)
  
  
• Pimp: "A man who controls prostitutes and arranges clients for them, taking part of their earnings in return."
  
  (Source: Google Dictionary)
  
  
• Madam: "A woman who runs a brothel."
  
  (Source: Google Dictionary)
  
  
• Trafficking (human trafficking): "...the illegal trade of human beings mainly for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor. Other purposes can be extraction of organs, or tissues or even surrogacy or ova removal."
  
  (Source: Wikipedia)

Although actually separate terms, 'pimps' and 'madams' tend to be referred as the same thing and these terms are used to differentiate the male and female variants. There are males that run brothels and females that control prostitutes. As an agency does take money from a person earning from sexual services, people can be forgiven for branding agencies as 'pimps' or 'madams'.

Many people that are trafficked can be coerced, but it is not always the case. Here are some things that we have learned from escorts over the past few years:

• It is very common for people (especially girls) to actively search for a pimp or an agency to work in a different country as a sex worker.
  
• Many independent escorts have either worked as an agency escort or run their own agencies elsewhere and have been very happy. Unfortunately there are also agencies that will exploit a sex worker.
  
• Many agency escorts are afraid to advertise as such because of negative media exposure and because the stigmas often attached towards agencies.
  
• Pimps are often stereotyped to be nasty, brutal people, forcing a person into sex work and trafficking them into different countries, acting as 'muscle', threatening clients and taking most of a sex worker's earnings. In the eyes of the law, a partner or husband of a sex worker would be a pimp if that person is participating in any aspect of the business and financially benefiting from their partner.
  
• Even two sex workers sharing an accommodation is illegal in the eyes of the law and even this is regarded as a brothel, although the authorities do tend to be lenient towards independent sex workers sharing as a pair for safety reasons. However, if three or more escorts (independent or otherwise) are found to be sharing an accommodation, there is a likely chance that they may be arrested if raided, potentially incriminating any client that may be found on the premises.
  
• People that are trafficked are not necessarily coerced into the sex industry, and technically even buying a ticket on behalf of a potential sex worker may be regarded as a form of trafficking. There have been cases of multiple escorts found to be sharing accommodation and have stated that they have been 'trafficked', although they have not been forced into the sex industry. Unfortunately there are gangs that do sell sex workers as a commodity and these are mainly running an underground operation.

Escorts Under the Influence:

Occasionally we do receive reviews from clients stating that an escort was either drunk or under the influence of drugs. Unfortunately in many of these reviews, the clients state something like, "...this escort was hammered! I know I shouldn't have stayed, but I travelled an hour...." or even, "...she was definitely high on something and I just wanted the appointment to be over...."

First of all, if a client believes that a sex worker is under the influence of something, they should leave the premises and not continue with the appointment. If a person is not sound of mind the client can put himself in a very vulnerable position legally, and more importantly, the sex worker will already be in a vulnerable position. Leaving a negative review because the service was poor is not really appropriate, and the other issue is that we often receive these reviews falsely, because they are intended to discredit the reputation of an escort that (for example) would not provide a service that the client requested.

Reporting Your Suspicions:

As much as people think that this is a cop-out on behalf of E-I, it is far more helpful for clients or escorts with any suspicions that a sex worker is pimped, trafficked, coerced or working under-aged (under 18 years of age) to report these incidences to the authorities directly. E-I do actually pass on information to the authorities when necessary and we do cooperate with them. These incidences can be reported anonymously and the details can be found here.