Pimping Legal or Illegal

We discussed about the basic premises of arguments over legal and illegal acts in the first part and discussion about legality of prostitution was discussed in the second part. In this post we will discuss about necessity of decriminalization of pimping as pimps are the part of sex workers.

The hot debate of legalizing sex workers is going on in Indian Supreme Court and Supreme Court has already commissioned a survey panel to look for the current status of Sex Workers in India, it is possible that the Supreme Court will legalize prostitution and there may be a platform of government and NGOs that may provide health and fitness licenses for women willingly wanting to indulge in prostitution as sex workers.

It is sure that just like in any other country, a big mass of opponents will raise their voices against prostitution, let’s say that you do agree that it would be beneficial to decriminalize prostitution. However, will you agree to legalize pimping? Here again, the logic of analyzing the issue of legality or illegality should be the reason and it should not be affected by emotions.

You may oppose decriminalization of pimps and this is because of the common belief that the Pimps are the responsible for forced prostitution and other crimes that are done on the name of prostitution. You may suggest that pimps are motivated towards bringing new girls in prostitution and just to make their benefits, they beat torture and force the prostitutes to work against their will.

Anyways, in a libertarian free society, while pimping will be legal, forcing anyone in prostitution or any other work or cause will certainly be strictly illegal. It is also true that some pimps do use coercion and threat to make prostitutes work for them and they often try to take away the greater share of income through prostitution, however, this doesn’t mean that pimping itself is evil or unwanted or condemnable.

In reality, prostitutes often prefer to work in collaboration with stable pimps. Yet, the overall perception of pimping is seriously bad. They are considered as the kidnapper doing the job of babysitter. Kidnapping is certainly crime, despite of the fact that the kidnapper also work as the babysitter for the kid, yet forcefully.

Pimping in itself is not an undesirable job in the market, as if it is; there would be only coercive, violent and unwanted pimps in the market. But situations are not like that. Most of the pimps are desired by the prostitutes and a major part of sex workers are the pimps.

Basically, the job of a pimp is similar to that of a broker for the prostitute and her client. Just like a stock market broker, or a real estate agent broker, the pimp works as the bridge of information and reliability about the client and service provider. How often do we listen that a real agent coerced and forced a person to sell his house? In fact, most of the people who desire to sell their apartments of land at genuine profit, wish to take services of a smart and active real estate agent. If a real estate agent forces someone to sell their land or house, he or she would have been reported and punished by the authorities.

This is so because selling one’s property, house, land etc. is not a criminal act. Since, people can freely sell their property; no one can force them to do so. However, in case of prostitution, the act of prostitution itself is a crime and hence, the job of pimps is also a crime. Now, since the pimp already know that if he is working as a pimp, than he is criminal, and since the prostitutes are also criminal because prostitution is illegal, they won’t dare to report or complaint against him even if he coerce or force or rob them of their earnings. A prostitute on the other hand, cannot demand police protection against such a bad pimp because she will also be punished for the act of prostitution. As a result, she is forced to accept all wrong doings of the bad pimp. But, this is not the fault of pimp or the prostitute alone, the system is responsible for providing workable environment for coerced prostitution and evil pimping.

Yet, most of the prostitutes are happy with their pimps and this is because of the fact that the pimp actually provides a great deal of benefits and protection for the prostitute.

Why do prostitutes prefer to work in collaboration with a pimp?

It is not difficult to understand how a pimp benefits the prostitute. If the prostitute is working with a pimp, she will save her time of waiting and searching for client. She will also be protected by the pimp from undesirable and violent customers. Furthermore, since prostitution is illegal in most of the places, the pimp also provide protection against police that restricts prostitutes from getting involved in the voluntary trade of sex services for payment. The pimp acts as the guard of the physical and material security of the prostitute while she is on work. The prostitute in return offers a piece of her earning to the pimp.

A prostitute is no more exploited by a pimp than an actress by her agent, or a medical company by a medical representative.

Basically, pimp is not the exploiter, rather he or she is the person who brings the two voluntary parties together to make a transaction willingly at a lesser cost than they would have in absence of him. The pimp makes it easy for both client and prostitute.

How a pimp benefits the customer? The customer doesn’t need to put efforts in searching and waiting for a prostitute. He can get the required sex services with the help of the pimp without putting any extra effort other than using the phone and making the demand. All verification, payment and bargaining is done by the pimp on behalf of the customer. This is exactly like a real estate agent works for the buyer of a piece of land. Once the customer agrees for the transaction, the pimp delivers the prostitute at the decided location, or he arranges the delivery of the client to the prostitute. The pimp confirms that the environment for the client will remain safe and enjoyable. As prostitution is illegal at present, he also confirms that the client will remain safe against police exploitation.

The common and obviously irrational yet emotional argument that is put forth by people against decriminalization of pimping is that it will bring Chaos! They claim that legalizing pimping will create chaos everywhere. Fathers will pimp out their daughters and brothers will sell their sisters. This is totally insane argument with no basic other than the ‘Fear of Unknown.’ The very first thing is, it is not the law that forbids fathers to pimp out their daughters and it is not the fear of police or law that restricts brothers to sell their sisters. However, people make such innately irrational arguments against legalizing prostitution and pimping or legalizing sex workers and sex trade because they are simply unable to envision the freedom to allow voluntary trade between responsible people.