Although prostitution has been legalized and regulated in a few states, prostitutes operate in virtually every city in the United States, even those in small rural areas. In the larger cities, asome prostitutes make contacts on the street for paid sexual services. Other prostitutes work out of bars and massage parlors, from telephone networks and entertainment services, or are represented by agents, sometimes known as "pimps," who in many cases are the prostitute's boyfriend.
Organized crime's role in the prostitution industry is dependent upon the type of prostitution activity being discussed, the location of the activity, and the historical period under consideration.
The passage of the Mann Act in 1910 forbade the transportation of women for immoral purposes across state lines. In the ensuing years, police clamped down on organized vice areas in the larger cities. Such raids failed to eliminate prostitution, and the business continued to thrive at a variety of locations. Prior to Prohibition organized crime, along with the political machines in most major cities, played a key role in organizing local prostitution and gambling activities. Lucky Luciano unsuccessfully attempted to consolidate and centralize the prostitution business in New York City in the 1930s (Block 1983). But with the decline of the brothel in the early 1900s and the subsequent closing of the red-light districts, the organization of prostitution and organized crime's role in prostitution became harder to define (Rosen, 1982: 28-32).
Prostitution in the United States is as widespread as ever, with official estimates placing the number of full-time prostitutes at about 500,000 engaging in an estimated 750 million sex acts a year (Kappeler, Blumberg and Potter, 1993: 177-179). Prostitution occurs in a variety of formats and venues, including the streets, massage parlors, brothels, bars, and hotels. Rough estimates suggest that about 20 percent of all prostitutes are streetwalkers, about 15 percent are call girls or escort service workers, and the remainder (65%) work in an establishment of some kind (25% in massage parlors, 15 % in brothels, 15% in bars, and 10% in hotels (Simon and Witte, 1982: 253).
Streetwalkers: Organized crime plays a minimal and somewhat tangential role in streetwalking. Eleanor Miller's (1986) study of female prostitutes working the street suggests that streetwalkers often operate within informal criminal networks and within the context of a street subculture. These "deviant street networks" (Miller, 1986: 35-43) consist of individuals who engage in prostitution, auto theft, drug trafficking, burglary, robbery, and other petty crimes. A similar structure for streetwalkers was described by Cohen in his study of prostitution in New York (Cohen, 1980). These informal and relatively small networks more closely approximate "support groups" than organized crime syndicates.
Massage Parlor Prostitutes: We are more likely to find organized crime involvement at the higher levels of prostitution, those occurring in business establishments and those operating as organized networks of call girls. For example, consider the massage parlor as a site for prostitution.
In many ways the massage parlor is an ideal setting for the provision of illicit sexual services. The massage parlor prostitute works off the streets, doesn't have to solicit customers (they come to her), has some degree of protection provided by the operators of the parlor, and, if careful, is relatively immune from arrest (Simon and Witte, 1982: 244-246). A massage parlor prostitute works for the owner or owners of the parlor, who are responsible for paying the masseuses, keeping the books, collecting the fees, and providing other services. Many massage parlors are independent businesses. However, some are tied to the activities of larger criminal organizations. Investigations of organized crime have found significant involvement both in operating massage parlors and in supplying prostitutes for these establishments by motorcycle gangs, particularly the Pagans (Potter and Jenkins, 1985). In addition, recent evidence has demonstrated increasing involvement in the massage parlor trade by Korean and Chinese organized Crime groups (Pennsylvania Crime Commission, 1990: 299-304). In many cases these Asian prostitution operations border on sexual slavery, in that prostitutes are brought into the United States and then forced into a period of indentured servitude in return for the costs of their immigration (either legal or illegal).
Bar Girls: Similarly B-girls (bar girls) may find that they are also working for enterprises connected to organized crime groups. The bar girl plays a dual role. First, she attempts to get the customer to buy her drinks (at extortionate prices often ranging from $12 to $15 per drink), getting a commission on each drink she can sell. The cost of the drink pays for personal conversation at the customer's table. When the customer is no longer willing to simply pay for conversation and company, she attempts to engage him in the purchase of sexual services, either on premises or at another location. Many B-girl operations also include table and lap dances which may cost the customer up to $20 per dance. In some cities, like Newport, Kentucky, these bar/prostitution outlets have been controlled by organized crime groups for the past fifty years. In other areas, it is not unusual for organized crime groups to have significant investments in bars and nightclubs, and it is common for them to own the establishment where bar prostitution occurs.
Escort Service Prostitutes: At the highest levels of the prostitution trade, the role of criminal organizations is easy to discern. In the call girl or escort service market, a much higher degree of organization is required. Escort services usually hire attractive, well-educated, and very high-priced prostitutes although some make use of women already working for massage parlor operations. The service charges a fee for supplying an escort, and the customer negotiates the price of additional prostitution services separate from this fee. Call girl-escort service operations vary widely in price and size, some having very few escorts employed and some having as many as 500 women working part-time for them (Potter and Jenkins, 1985). In any event, the procedures utilized are the same whether one is running a group of six full-time, professional call girls or three dozen part-time semi-pros. The initial contact is made by telephone, a means of verification of the client's identity is established (a credit card number, hotel room, etc.), the fee is established for supplying an "escort," the escort checks back with the agency by phone as soon as she arrives in the customer's room, negotiations for sexual services occur following specified rules of conduct (the customer names the act or the price or preferably both), and the service is provided as expeditiously as possible (James, 1977; Potter, 1986; Simon and Witte, 1982: 244-246).
The manager of the enterprise is the individual with sufficient investment capital to establish an office, buy advertising, put in phones, and pay for protection. The call girls themselves are similar to commission salespersons who, based upon their expertise (and probably their physical attributes) sell the organization's services for a profit. Most call girl operations work very simply.The agency collects a fee (usually $75 to $150 in smaller cities, and $250 or more in major cities) for supplying an "escort" to a customer. The call girl gets a portion of that fee (33% was the usual commission paid in Philadelphia in the 1980s). She is then free to negotiate a "tip" for her services to enhance that commission. At its most complex, there are four positions in such an organization: a financial backer, a business or sales manager, drivers or security personnel, and a sales staff of service providers (James, 1977; Potter and Jenkins, 1985; Potter, 1986; Simon and Witte, 1982: 244-246).
An escort may negotiate the price of a particular service with each customer on an individual basis. She may negotiate the time she will spend with the customer, the clothes she will wear, the demeanor she will adopt, and the acts she will perform. But usually she will not negotiate the portion of the initial referral fee paid to the agency. Discounts come from her end of the business. It is also expected that she will follow the steps necessary to protect the organization from detection by law enforcement. She will secure identification, she will not name either the specific act or the price in negotiations, and if suspicious she will challenge the customer to reveal his law enforcement connections, if any. Failure to follow these procedures will abrogate the responsibility of the agency to supply her with protection, legal services, and money for bail and fines (Potter and Jenkins, 1985; James, 1977; Simon and Witte, 1982: 244-246).
In Philadelphia during the 1970s and 1980s, it was revealed that massage parlor owners, escort service operators, after-hours club proprietors, and gamblers regularly paid off the vice squad in the central police district both to avoid arrest and to guarantee prior warnings of impending crackdowns (Pennsylvania Crime Commission, 1974; 1980; 1983; Potter and Jenkins, 1985). Bribery is a necessary component of illicit enterprises. The most blatant cases are, of course, escort services and massage parlors, many of whom advertise quite openly in adult publications, newspapers, and even the yellow pages of the telephone book. Such a public display of illicit business requires the existence of an ongoing understanding with the law enforcement community (Mastrofski and Potter, 1986; Potter, 1986; Jenkins and Potter, 1986).
Unlike female prostitutes, customers of prostitutes are seldom examined by social scientists. As a rule, the motivation of a prostitute's customers fall into the category of sexual needs - the most common of which is quantity, expressed by those men who desire access to numerous women. Other motivations include a desire to experience a variety of different women, a variety of sexual services, sexual therapy for a dysfunction, companionship, sexual release, and relief from temporary deprivation while traveling (James, 1980).