Covert Pimp Control in the Sex Trade
By: Brittany Pearson, Survivor & Human Trafficking Consultant, Cristian Eduardo, Survivor & Human Trafficking Consultant, & Dr. Shobana Powell, LCSW, DSW, Human Trafficking Consultant
What is Covert Pimp Control?
Like many other forms of abuse, pimp control is often recognized when there is visible, physical force resulting in a commercial sexual act. However, just as it is not always clear that an abusive partner is abusing you, it is not always that clear that an exploiter is exploiting you.
There is a strong body of research on coercive control and how pimp control, like many other forms of abuse, often involves more than physical force. However, there is no specific term for when the exploitation or trafficking is disguised as consent and the third-party exploiter is not easily identifiable. Hence, the authors of this article coined the term, “covert pimp control”.
Covert pimp control is the act or pattern of a pimp or trafficker who subtly coerces an individual to engage in the sex trade, ensuring the individual is not able to identify or perceive the exploitation. To the outside world- and oftentimes to the survivor themself- it might look like the individual is engaged in the sex trade by their own volition, without obvious force, fraud or coercion, but it is imperative to look deeper at the power and control dynamics.
Covert pimp control can happen in all types of trafficking, including sex trafficking and labor trafficking, and whether the trafficker is a romantic partner, friend, family member, community member, employer, or stranger. For the purposes of this article, covert pimp control will be described in the context of sex trafficking and the sex trade.
Why does it matter?
By understanding covert pimp control, we can better support impacted individuals by:
- Increasing identification: Covert pimp control is a key aspect of sex trafficking that often goes overlooked. If we fail to recognize coercive control, we will likely fail to identify sex trafficking.
- Supporting healing: Survivors deserve language to name and make sense of their experiences of exploitation. By creating the term “covert pimp control”, we establish terminology that contextualizes, normalizes, and validates a key aspect of trafficking.
- Preventing labeling: When we understand covert pimp control as a barrier to self-identification as a survivor, we can develop trauma-informed approaches to support individuals in the sex trade, regardless of whether they identify as a survivor or not
- Addressing victim blaming: By understanding covert pimp control, society, law enforcement, employers, etc., can have their understanding of sex trafficking broadened, this will lead to less victim blaming to those in the sex trade for their own exploitation.
Phases of Covert Pimp Control
Covert pimp control can present in many ways. It is not always a linear process, but it often has three components: the introduction, the “set up”, and the exploitation.
PHASE 1: THE INTRODUCTION
What is it: Covert pimp control often begins with the pimp grooming or preparing you for exploitation by exploring your needs, vulnerabilities, boundaries with sex with strangers, consent, and autonomy of your own body.
What it looks from the outside: For example, it can look like the pimp introducing you to a “friend” of theirs, with the hidden motive to sell you to the “friend” for sex. At first, you think this is a new acquaintance for you. Maybe you, the friend, and the pimp all hang out together, sometimes including recreational use of substances to lower your inhibitions. To both the survivor and society, it can look like a group of friends spending time together willingly and the red flags would be difficult to identify.
What it might feel like for the survivor: For a survivor, they may feel validated, that someone cares about them, or that someone likes, accepts or loves them enough to introduce them to others.
PHASE 2: THE “SET-UP”
What is it: Next, the grooming process continues. The pimp might point out the unmet needs the survivor has. The pimp might subtly hint at the ways they have already helped the survivor, insinuating a sense of indebtedness. At the same time, the pimp is often also hinting at the benefits of engaging in sex in exchange for something of value, subtly normalizing and minimizing the physical and psychological harms. They might talk about other marginalized individuals who exchanged sex or introduce you to them. Pimps might say that “this is only one time”, “you are doing it for free already, why don’t you get something for it”, “the first time is always the hardest”, or “you are going to get used to it”. Pimps intentionally introduce the idea of prostitution to a survivor as a one-time or short-term harmless solution to help the survivor meet their needs and ultimately pursue their goals and dreams. Pimps omit the realities and the long-term harms caused by not only them, but also sex buyers. Whether for sexual pleasure, power, or control, sex buyers and pimps use extremely high levels of violence against people in prostitution who report experiencing rape (62%), physical assault (73%), and PTSD (67%).
This type of grooming and coercive control is not only commonly used by pimps and traffickers, but also by cult leaders. In a study on the characteristics that cults and trafficking schemes share, Lundstrom and Henderson identified that in both forms of psychological abuse, “the group teaches that its ends justify the means — members may participate in behaviors or activities that would have been considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group.”
What it looks like from the outside: To society, this intentional introduction to the sex trade might look like a community member letting their friend, partner, or child know about their options.
What it might feel like for the survivor: Monopolization of perception is a coercive tactic where the trafficker becomes the primary source of information for the survivors, thus shaping how they see the world. This often results in the survivor seeing exchanging sex as the only way to meet their basic needs.
PHASE 3: EXPLOITATION DISGUISED AS CHOICE
What is it: It might be that same day you meet with that “friend” or it could be after several encounters, the pimp sets up a situation where you are alone with the “friend”. The “friend” expects or pressures you to engage in sexual activity with them, and you feel like you don’t have a choice. It can feel like sexual assault, but it was actually coordinated behind the scenes by the pimp. There might be an exchange of something of value between you and the “friend”, such as “gifts” like travel, phones, clothes, drugs, etc.- or the exchange might have already happened between the pimp and the “friend” without your knowledge.
What it looks like to society: It looks like the survivor is making a well-informed choice, understanding consequences, and rather than a coerced form of exploitation. Yet, victims are more likely to comply when they are unaware that they are being exploited, and when the pimp makes them feel like it was their choice the whole time
What it might feel like for the survivor:
The survivor can experience self-blame, feeling that it was their own choices that put them in the sex trade. They may unintentionally or unknowingly minimize the role of the trafficker, sex buyers, and systems of oppression that take away their options. Violence, abuse, and other forms of harms can be present but feelings of guilt, shame, and denial prevent the person engaged to reach out for support.
Survivors also often experience dissociation, which is a temporary separation from sense of self or reality. It is a natural way the body and the brain copes with trauma. As a result, survivors may not remember aspects of the sex act itself or details of the traumatic experience. Survivors may also struggle to reach out for support because it feels like their story has missing pieces, and oftentimes service providers and first responders who are not trauma-informed do not believe them.
Barriers to Identification
There are many reasons that covert pimp control can be difficult to identify for not only the survivor, but advocates and the community at large, including but not limited to: self-blame, trauma bonding, and the exploiter disguised as the savior.
Self-Blame
People who experience covert pimp control will rarely self-identify as survivors of human trafficking. Oftentimes survivors struggle to self-identify because they blame themselves for “allowing” their own exploitation. They may feel “weak” or “naïve” for not realizing they were being manipulated, and thus, they place the blame on themselves rather than the exploiter. Not only do pimps rely on survivors blaming themselves for their own exploitation, sometimes that self-blame is also a form of coping and survival.
Acknowledging that someone who loves you hurt you can be very painful. It may feel emotionally safer to blame yourself for the exploitation, rather than to believe that the one person who was meant to love and protect you, caused you harm, manipulated you, and profited off your pain. Acknowledging such harm can be especially challenging if the survivor has a child with the pimp, as there may be hope that things will work out in the future.
Trauma Bonding
Another reason survivors may not self-identify is that they are bonded to their exploiter. Survivors can form powerful emotional attachments to abusers, also referred to as the trauma bond or trauma-coerced attachment.
The trauma bond has three primary components: abusive control dynamics, exploitation of power imbalances, and intermittent positive and negative behavior. Covert pimp control often involves all three, which results in a survivor who feels deeply connected to the pimp who not only causes them covert harm, but also provides overt positive experiences, such as love, belonging, intimacy, and/or basic needs.
The trauma bond results in a shift in internal reality where the victim begins to lose their sense of self, adopts the worldview of the abuser, and takes responsibility for the abuse. Oftentimes, the survivors’ self-worth can become tied to the opinion of the abuser. In the context of covert pimp control, the survivor begins to believe the exploitation was their choice and is their fault and the pimp was only supporting them in that choice.
Exploiter Disguised as a Savior
Although intermittent positive behavior with a pimp can look like love or basic needs being met, it can also look like protection. Oftentimes exploiters provide emotional and physical safety in comparison to the emotional and physical violence one may face in the sex trade or in an abusive home environment. In this way, the exploiter is disguised as the savior. By framing their role as “protector”, traffickers exploit traumatic experiences with sex buyers or other abusers in order to create a stronger trauma bond and ultimately, stronger coercive control.
This protection can be very real- in that a pimp or trafficker is meeting basic needs and safety for the survivor. This can make it difficult for a survivor to see the relationship as exploitive. Realizing that someone who protected or helped you also contributed to deep harm and trauma is a long and complex part of the healing journey. When working with survivors, it is imperative to be patient and meet them where they are.
How to Support Those Experiencing Covert Pimp Control
Just as it is imperative to understand the covert forms of all types of gender-based violence, it is imperative to understand covert pimp control. But awareness is not enough. The next step is application to reality.
By acknowledging the power dynamics behind covert pimp control, we shift the blame from the person in the sex trade to the pimp and the sex buyers who are exploiting the needs of that individual. By understanding the barriers to self-identification of covert pimp control, we can begin to support individuals regardless of how they identify. Whether someone identifies as an individual in the sex trade or a survivor of human trafficking or both, they deserve access to holistic and comprehensive resources and opportunities, whether it be harm reduction, safety planning, housing, mental health, healthcare, a sense of community, economic empowerment, education, or exit strategies should they be interested in exiting the sex trade.
For further training and education on covert pimp control, visit our website at www.shobanapowellconsulting.com
